Are You (Really) A Christian?

ALL – Psalm 11:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 19:10-12
OT – 1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30
NT – Romans 2:24-3:8

Interesting passage for the day: For you are not real Jews just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish initiation ceremony of circumcision. No, a real Jew is anyone whose heart is right with God. – Romans 2:28-29a, The Living Bible

Thought: By the time the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the letter to the Romans, there were no second-generation Christians—or at least, there were very few of them. Christianity was still counter-cultural, uncommon, different. The idea that Christians were the people of God was still a new idea.

The Jews, on the other hand, were not only a religious group, but a nation. And even though they were taught that each of them individually needed to obey God, the fact of the matter was that many of them felt as though being part of the Jewish people and being moderately aware of God and His expectations was enough to make them the people of God.

Almost two thousand years later, these verses no longer apply only to the Jews. Christians and their religious culture have spread globally for generation after generation. Even among those of us who teach our children that they must have their own relationship with God, there is almost a Christian-nationalistic expectation that our children will, in fact, put their lives in God’s hands. And our children have learned that other Christians are satisfied to accept them into the church if they claim to have prayed to Jesus for salvation—even if they continue to pursue their own desires and show little other devotion to Jesus.

So for us this verse could be re-phrased: You are not real Christians just because you grew up in a Christian home or because you prayed a prayer of salvation or were accepted into a Christian church, or even baptized! No, a real Christian is anyone whose heart is right with God.

Question: Why do you believe your heart is right with God? Is your reason only about your past interactions with God? Or is your heart right with God today?

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