Christianity Defined

We are in an unconventional, undeniable time in history, that requires every person who claims to be a Christian—a follower of Jesus—to stop and ponder a question that will have ramifications on their life for all eternity. That question is, “Does Jesus know me?”

So many people talk about knowing Jesus—about loving Jesus. They go to church, they attend Bible studies, they read their Bibles, they do all the right things. But they fail to take time to ask themselves if Jesus knows them.

It’s the same question the Pharisees failed to ask themselves—and yet, they were religious people.

If they lived in modern times, they would be our preachers and Bible teachers. They would have large followings on their youtube podcasts and they would be impressing us with their Biblical knowledge and insight.

Many people would be hanging on their every word.

But they had a major flaw. They knew a lot about the coming Messiah, but they couldn’t recognize Him—and even worse, He did not recognize them as true followers of God. In other words, Jesus did not know them.

You might be wondering, but how can this be?

How can a person go to church week after week and read the Bible and do all the Christian things, and pray the prayer of salvation, and confess Jesus as Lord, but not be known by Him?

If it’s that easy to not be known by Jesus, can any of us really be known by Him?

And to that I would say, now you are asking the right questions.

Thankfully, the Bible, true to itself, leads us to the truth on this topic. The truth is, you can know Jesus and be known by Him. And through the Word of God, I’ll show you how.

False Christians

There are two particular scenarios in the Bible that come to mind when I think about false Christians. About people who are so sure they belong to Christ, but are sadly mistaken.

Now before I continue on I’d like to say, the good news is, it’s not too late to learn truth and make a turn in your life today—if through this teaching you learn that you’ve been living your life banking on the fact that you know Jesus, and not on the truth that He must know you.

With that said, let’s take a look at the first scenario.

I Never Knew You

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus delivers some startling truths:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

It’s startling to know that Jesus wasn’t talking about people who openly deny Him and His deity. He wasn’t talking to atheists and those under false religions—He was talking about people who would claim to know Him, believe in Him, and serve Him—He was talking to self-identified Christians.

Stop and ponder this truth.

It will be people who identify as Christians, who believe they are saved and on their way to heaven, that Jesus will look in the face and say, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (v. 23)!

In verse 21, when identifying those who would enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus did not say it would be any of these individuals:

• Those who prayed a prayer for salvation.
• Those who attended church and bible studies faithfully.
• Those who could quote scripture back and forth.
• Those who confess Him as Lord.
• Those who lived better than most and felt good about their actions.

I could go on and on with this list, but hopefully you get the gist.

Listen carefully to what Jesus did say:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven (v. 21, emphasis added).

Doing the Father’s will is not optional.

His grace does not excuse you from it.

In fact, it is a prerequisite to entering into His Kingdom.

Later in this article we will talk about the Father’s will. But for now, let’s stop and look at our second scenario.

The Ten Virgins

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.” (Matthew 25:1-2).

This parable is about a bridegroom (a.k.a Jesus) and ten virgins (a.k.a Christians). Now right off the bat we see that all ten virgins are going to meet the bridegroom.

“Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.” (v. 3-5).

We now see that there is a preparation component to their waiting and expectancy of the bridegroom. Five of them have lamps with oil. Five of them just have lamps.

All are looking for, waiting for, and expecting the bridegroom. But only some are fully prepared.

“And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’” (v. 6-9).

It has just been announced that the bridegroom is coming—He is within sight. So now all the virgins are up and getting their lamps ready so they can go out into the dark night and meet him.

But the five foolish virgins now realize, they thought they were ready, but in fact they hadn’t properly prepared for this meeting.

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (v. 10-13).

Again, just as we saw in the previous scenario, we see in this one a truth that we cannot afford to miss. If we do, we may be counted as foolish, just like five of these virgins were.

That truth is, we live in a world full of various religions. In many of these religions Jesus is either discounted all together or He is belittled down to much less than who He actually is, the Son of God.

But here is the part we can’t ignore—this parable isn’t about them—it’s about those who claim to be Christ followers—Christians.

And yet again, we see that some of them are rejected because He says He doesn’t know them.

In this scenario, the ones rejected were unprepared. They all knew the bridegroom would be coming back soon! But they didn’t all prepare for His coming. Five of them were found unprepared, and therefore unwelcomed.

From these two scenarios we learn two truths: The person who will enter the Kingdom of God, is the person who does the Father’s will and is prepared to meet Jesus.

The Father’s Will Leads To A Prepared Life

You can’t talk about the Father’s will without first talking about salvation. God’s highest will for each of our lives is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior.

“And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40).

If you’ve accepted God’s free gift of salvation by placing your faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross, your life is headed in the right direction.

If you have not done this, but would like to know more about salvation and what it means to be a Christian, I invite you to read our article, What Is A Christian, and begin growing in the Christian faith today!

Now that we’ve established the importance of salvation, I’d like to talk about the part of salvation that doesn’t get a lot of air time.

It can be summed up in one word—Holiness—with two subcategories: Submission to God’s Authority and Obedience to His Word.

As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

Salvation is not simply a prayer we pray or a belief we have, it is a willingness to completely surrender to God’s authority and Lordship over every area of our lives, through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.

It is doing the Father’s will which leads to a life prepared to meet Jesus.

In first and second Peter, the apostle Peter touches on a few key themes that serve to disciple followers of Jesus, on how to live according to the Father’s will. Let’s look at a few of them:

Tested Faith

This is undoubtedly a part of following Jesus that many of us would like to skip over. But having our faith tested through trials is God’s will.

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7).

When we walk through trials under God’s authority and Lordship, we come out on the side of victory. I write about this a bit more extensively in, The Way To Spiritual Maturity.

Dying to self—that is our self-will—and growing in God’s will, often comes by walking through trials and tribulation, rather than running from and avoiding them.

We see example after example of individuals in the Bible who went through hard, unfair, traumatic experiences and chose the way of trust in God, dependence on God, forgiveness, and humility—instead of how the world teaches us to handle these experiences—which is often through anger, frustration, revenge, self-pity, unforgiveness, bitterness, offense, pride and dependence on ourselves.

Trials purge out of us what is not of God and serves to grow us in godly character.

Submit To God’s Authority

Submitting to authority isn’t optional in the Kingdom of God. God is the highest and final authority and we are to submit to Him and His Word.

One of the ways we submit to God’s authority is by submitting to earthly authority.

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. (1 Peter 2:13-15).

In my free online course, Discipleship: The 5 R’s, I share an article titled, The Father’s Will. I’d like to share a snippet from the article, and I encourage you to take the course and continue growing as a well-rounded disciple of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter if you’re a new believer or a seasoned Christian, this course is for everyone:

Living for God is not continuing to live the way you’ve always lived and slapping a Jesus sticker on top of that.

Living for The King always involves a heart change, a lifestyle change, a change in the way you think about things. When you become a new person in Christ, you truly become a new person. You become a person who lives for God, rather than against God.

This is what the apostle Peter was teaching his listeners. He was teaching them about the importance of submitting to those in authority.

Rebellion and disobedience to authority is not of God.

You may not be content with the current leader of your nation, you may not be content with the current leader of your state, you may not be content with the practices of law enforcement, you may not be content with your boss, you may not be content with your parent or guardian, but respecting authority is less about how you feel, and more about honoring God.

God put authority in place, and if you have difficulty submitting to earthly authority, you will have difficulty submitting to Heavenly authority.

Submitting to authority stems from humility—rebellion stems from pride.

If you have difficulty submitting to the authority in your life—be it personal or government—you will have difficulty submitting to King Jesus.

Not only is rebellion to authority a problematic heart issue, but it puts you in direct opposition to God:

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6, emphasis added).

In the aforementioned article, The Father’s Will, I go on to talk about authority figures that do not submit to God, and how to walk through those experiences while maintaining fellowship and submission to God. Again, I encourage you to take the course.

You’re willingness and commitment to submit to God and earthly authority with humility is the Father’s will for your life and will set you up for an outpour of His grace and favor on your life.

Holy Desires

Growing up in our salvation is the will of God.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1 Peter 2:1-3).

Before salvation, our desire is for whatever benefits and feeds our emotions, our feelings and our passions. We say what we want, think how we want, and do what we want. But Jesus died to set us free from that way of living because that way of living leads to eternal death—not eternal life.

As we read the Word of God—which should be the daily commitment for every believer—we learn and are empowered to live contrary to our old sinful ways. We learn and grow in understanding of Kingdom principles such as:

• Love your enemies: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44).
• Submit to authority: Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. (Romans 13:1-2).
• Be slow to anger and overlook offenses: The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, and his glory is to overlook a transgression. (Proverbs 19:11).
• Trust God above all else: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6).
• Forgive those who hurt you: Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:12-13).
• Speak truth and life: For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it.” (1 Peter 3:10-11).
• Give generously: A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. (Proverbs 11:25).

These are just a few of God’s Kingdom principles that we learn as we submit to His authority and Lordship and place our trust and faith in His Word.

When the Word of God takes priority in our lives above our emotions and feelings, people’s opinions, life long traditions, and false teachings, we will be transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

When we submit to God’s authority and Lordship, through obedience to His Word and living according to Biblical principles, we open our lives up to Jesus and we become known by Him.

Because the fact is, Jesus knows and recognizes those who resemble Himself.

A life known by Jesus is a life fully surrendered to Him. It is a life that is willing to die to self—living in a way that is good and right before God, even when:

• It’s uncomfortable.
• Feels unfair.
• Doesn’t benefit you.
• Costs you something.
• Doesn’t make sense to your natural mind.
• Isn’t supported by family and friends.

It is a life that chooses to live God’s way no matter what!

When you meet Jesus face-to-face, if it is your desire to hear well done My good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:23), choose this way of living—choose Jesus.

Many will claim to know Jesus, believe in Jesus, and confess Him as Lord, but few will surrender to Him the entirety of their lives.

Few will say yes to God’s will.

Few will say yes to the high call on their lives.

And few will be willing to die to self.

This is your call to be amongst the few!

Becoming Well-Rounded Disciples of Jesus

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