Are You Guilty?

I want to be guilty.  Wait, who wants to be guilty?  I joined in to a song by the Newsboys during the chorus and couldn’t imagine why in the world I would ever want to be guilty of anything.  What an awful feeling!  As I listened further, I began to understand.  They were talking about being a Christian.  Yes I do!  I want to be guilty of being a Christian!  When the song was over I turned off the radio and I began to run with this idea.

If I were being tried in a court of law for being a Christian, would I be pronounced guilty?  Would there be enough witnesses to testify? Would there be enough evidence to convict?  Could it be said that this is a repeat offense?  Could I convince anyone to be my accomplice? If convicted, would I stand before the judge pretending to be ashamed of my actions in order to lighten my sentence?  Would my guilt be so overwhelming that I would be sentenced to life or so minor that the judge would give me community service, knowing that he’d never see me again?

I want to live my life in such a way that there is no doubt who I follow.  I want to be guilty by association as the song says.  I want my name to be associated with the name of God.  I hope that you do too.  Following this line of thinking here are 5 ways to be found guilty of being a Christian:

1. The word Christian means a follower of Christ.  How can we follow someone that we are never around?  We have to spend time with the One that we claim to follow.  The more time that we spend talking and listening to God, the more we will know Him and mimic His ways.  We see this with people that we spend the most time with.  If they are always angry, we tend to be more angry.  If they are kind and gentle, we begin to see our words and actions soften.  If we spend time with God, learning who He is and how He does things, then He will begin to rub off on us.
2.  In order to have evidence and witnesses, we must live out our faith in public.  People should see us being loving, kind, and forgiving.  We should give of our time, money, and resources.  Others should know that we are truthful, trustworthy, loyal, patient, and understanding.  We must exhibit characteristics and actions that are associated with God if we want our name to be associated with His.  We cannot do these things on our own.  If we do, then we are self-serving and self-righteous.  Even Jesus said that He can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do.  John 5:19.  So we too can do nothing of ourselves, but only what we see in the Son.  He mimics God and we mimic Him.  But since Jesus is not walking this earth with us today, the only way that we can see His actions, is through the reading of His Word.
3. If we want to be repeat offenders, then many different people must see us acting like Jesus, preferably many different times.  Otherwise it could be interpreted as only a one time offense.  We are not much of a threat to Satan or benefit to the Kingdom of God, if we only act like Him now and then.
4. We want as many accomplices as possible.  There are several steps to this.  First we must be bold enough to tell others the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ.  In order to be convincing, we should have knowledge of Him that we find in His Word.  Also our personal testimonies are powerful.  When we tell others what God has done in our own lives, they will be encouraged to also place their trust in Him.  Many times others will believe our words but be unsure of whether it is worth it to really follow Him.  That is when they need to see the evidence in our own lives.  When people see us act out our faith, many times it will give them the encouragement to do the same.
5. This leads us to the last step.  Be bold and unashamed!  This is hard!  It is hard to stand up for something that others don’t understand and to be strong under even the smallest amounts of persecution.  We want to back track, change what we said in order to make it more pleasing to others ears or to make them more pleased with us.  We are concerned with what others will think of us.  Again this is hard!  But Jesus tells us that if we are ashamed of Him and His words then He will be ashamed of us.  Luke 9:26.  He also tells us that we are blessed if we are persecuted for His sake and that we should rejoice for it because our reward in heaven will be great.  Luke 6:22-23.  As difficult as it is, God calls us to look at the eternal and not the temporal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

I must end by saying that we will fail.  We cannot do all of these things all of the time.  If that is not bad enough, others will see us fail.  The goal as far as others are concerned is not to be perfect but for there to be more evidence for our guilt than our innocence in this matter.  The goal as far as our Lord and Savior is concerned is our heart.  He also is aware that we will fail.  We are not saved by our actions but by His grace.  Ephesians 2:8-9. Jesus also tells us that if we abide in Him and He in us then we will bear much fruit.  John 15:5.  If we spend time with Him we will grow and be more and more like Him each day.  Now that is what being convicted is all about!

We are all guilty of many things.  So if we must be guilty, then let it be of something that will please our Lord.  Let us be guilty of following Him, wholeheartedly, publicly, boldly, and unashamed!