The Heart of the Christian Life (part 1)

Over the next several weeks, I will be working on a series entitled "The Basics of Christian Life"

To understand the basics of Christianity, one must understand the heart of Christianity.  It is regrettable that the heart of Christianity has been drowned out amid the chaos of doctrines and denominations.  There have been so many characterizations given to Christianity and most of those characterizations miss the mark or simply do not do justice to explaining the heart of Christianity without expounding on the characterizations given.  I am by no means a premier authority on Christianity and its doctrines.  I am simply a pastor/minister with a deep love of Christ and His words and it is my intentions to help others come to know the Christ of the Bible.  The blessings that I have had in experiencing Christ in my life is the very thing that I want others to experience as well.  I have made many choices and decisions in my life and some I have not been proud of.  There are a few that I would have to say were my shining moments such as marrying my wife, having children, and becoming a pastor, just to name a few.  The greatest moment of my life though was when I began my newfound journey with Christ and committed my life to Him in 1991.  The journey has seen its share of bumps in the road and has been far from flawless and the basics and the heart of Christianity had been lost along the way until it became renewed in my life which is certainly a danger if we are not careful in our own personal journey.  My three fold purpose in writing this booklet is simple:

1)      To help everyone understand the basics of Christianity.

2)      To help the new believer develop a basic understanding of their newfound faith.

3)      To renew the joy of each believer in refreshing our understanding of basic Christianity.

I have heard it all.  While many of the characterizations given to Christianity are not necessarily wrong, they simply do not tell the real story or meaning and therefore dampen the blessing of what Christianity is, especially at its heart.  Before getting to what the heart of Christianity is, we must first tackle the issue of what Christianity has been classified as but is not:

It is not a set religion

When I hear the expression of Christianity as a religion, it is often clumped in with Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc.  In that form, that is not what Christianity is.  This fits in line with what dictionary.com has defined religion as: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.  In this form religion is manmade.  Unfortunately, Christianity is a religion simply because we have made it that way.  When we start attacking each other of doctrines and opinions, we begin to make Christianity a religion and robbing the joy of what the heart of Christianity really is.

I have often heard the argument in classifying Christianity as a religion is the fact that James defines Christianity as religion. 

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

The Greek word “thrēskeia” that is translated to “religion” in the New Testament is found 4 times.  In James, it is the only time that the word is used to define the Christian faith, but it is interesting to know that the meaning of this word is defined as the outward expression of worship and service and not a fundamental “set of beliefs”.  What James describes here as true religion is an emphasis taught by Jesus during His earthly ministry, a fact that we will highlight later. 

It is not a set of rituals.

            “How would you explain communion?”, you may ask.  The answer is simple, communion is a remembrance.  We do these things, not because we have to, but we want to remember what Jesus did for us.  We read in Luke 22:19: And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”  We often get so burdened by rituals that we just start going through the motions, at that point, the joy is lost.  When participating in communion, the joy of remembering Jesus’ death on the cross begins to consume our heart and soul and the partaking of the communion takes on a special meaning and significance.  When communion is demanded, the reason becomes lost. 

            There is no place in the Bible that demands that our journey with Christ be a ritual.  The word ritual itself seems to demand a certain ideology of just going through the motions.  That is far from what God intended the journey of a Christian to be.  Our journey is a wonderful expectation of hope, a beautiful experience of God’s presence, protection, and provision, and the marvelous excellence of grace and mercy.  It does not demand us but simply creates in us a desire and therein lies the difference…our attitude.  When anything we do, whether going to church, singing, teaching, preaching, giving, or whatever other service we perform in the name of Christianity starts to feel as though we are going through the motions, then it simply has become a ritual and the way God has intended it has been lost.