what sets Christians apart
Can you line up 5 strangers and pick out the Christians among them? How do we know we are Christians? How do we become salt and light?
1. We have a perfect moral standard in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the rule by which everything we say and do are measured. When we get off the path, all we must do is look to Him as our guide. It is not that we are perfect we aren't.
What about Mohammedans? Well, there is no comparison. Mohammed never claimed to be God or be a moral standard. He slaughtered a city in order to establish himself.
Confucious was wise, but no God on earth.
We must go beyond what is legal to what is right.
There is no standard like Jesus. But what about when (and we always do) we fail?
2. We have forgiveness. The reason I became a Christian is because I constantly fail at life and doing the best thing. Sin is real. It is the reason we have problems and society doesn't work well. We have difficulty with memory of our sins (called regret). The uniqueness of Christianity is that if we confess and agree with God, we have forgiveness. He requires us to do the same to each other, and somehow the two are connected. He links our forgiveness with they way we forgive. It is a realization that the breadth of your own forgiveness begats our forgiveness of others.
3. We have hope. Hope for now, hope for life to come, hope for humanity, family, and that God's will WILL be done. Hope in the life to come becomes more meaningful as we approach death, doesn't it?
So how to pick them out? You don't. Just look at yourself, put your trust in Christ, pray for your enemies, forgive those who have wronged you, and have hope for the future which will give you hope for e present.
Created over 1 year ago
