Christianity as a Way of Life, Pt. 1

Pt. 1 of "Living A Classical Christian Life."

Perhaps you have heard something like, “Christianity isn’t just for Sundays; it’s for the other six days, too!” This is, of course, a well and good statement. Christianity is for all seven days of the week, after all.

I think a problem that manifests itself in modern evangelicalism is that, while many evangelicals agree with this statement, there is significant confusion about what it means to put this into practice. Here’s an anecdotal example:

Many years ago, I worked as a supervisor at an ice cream shop. I also attended a very large church. One day, a deacon from this church came in to order something. Now, I recognized the deacon, but he had no idea who I was. I was, after all, just some teenager of no particular importance.

This deacon ordered his food and I gave him his total. At the last minute, he handed me some additional change so I could give him a larger bill back. At that time, I was a rather anxious person, and I had a bit of difficulty doing change calculations in my head. This deacon, insensed that it took me more than a moment to make the change, proceeded to make fun of my “public school education” and used my inability to quickly make change proof that America’s youth was getting dumber. (Yes, those were his words) What this deacon didn’t realize was that I had attended the private school attached to our church!

Now, setting aside my own inabilities, was it appropriate for a deacon at a prominent church to be making fun of people? Probably not. This deacon was active in serving the church on Sunday mornings but had chosen to set aside his Christian values to insult someone because he had been slightly inconvenienced. Instead of displaying the love of Christ to a foolish youth, he belittled someone to demonstrate his superiority.

We experience these moments all the time. Have you ever gone out to lunch after a Sunday service and seen someone from church berating the waiter? Even worse, have you ever seen someone being rude to someone else in the church parking lot?

I confess that I have, at times, been the rude person.

What Does it Mean to Live Christianly?

The answer to such a question is both simple and rather complicated. I hope to address it fully over several posts. That said, I think a simple thought experiment might help.

How would you live if you acted as though you were always wearing a banner for the Triune God? How would you live if you knew that every person you encountered this week would be sitting next to you in church on Sunday morning? What would it mean to try and carry the awe and reverence and zeal for God cultivated on a Sunday morning with you throughout the week? What would it mean if you acted as though you were the ambassador of Our Lord Christ the King to a pagan nation?

In the contemporary evangelical culture, the answer for how to live Christianly can often be boiled down to simply “be nice.” In an effort to have an effective Christian witness, we must be nice to others and not rock the cultural boat too much.

Living Christianly cannot be reduced to the simple platitude of “be nice to others.” Sure, niceties are well and good, but what about when we see abject evil occurring? Should we be “nice” to the one doing evil? Furthermore, is being nice the same thing as being loving? Can being loving ever mean that we disagree?

Of course, the other side of the coin can also be problematic. Inspired by the image of Jesus flipping tables in the temple, sometimes we are told the way to live Christianly is to be a bull in the pagan China shop, destroying every false idol at every chance we get. In one sense, I agree with this. We should destroy false idols!

At the same time, I often see this strategy practically result in arrogance and condescension. In an attempt to cast down false beliefs, we can be tempted to belittle and shame. Because I am doing the “right” thing, I destroy others rather than try to build them up in the wisdom and instruction of the Lord. In other words, the zeal for God’s holiness becomes a zeal for displaying my holiness and my theological bonafides.

Is there a way to live for Christ that is neither too timid nor so zealous that it leads to arrogance?

Concluding Thoughts

As a classical educator, I believe it is sometimes better to ask questions before I give my thoughts. In the case of this post, I am going to leave it by letting the questions linger. Many of the folks who follow my writing are either students or parents of students, so I think this initial, Socratic post may be helpful.

Let us ponder together what it means to live Christianly. (And later, classically.) I’ll give you my thoughts as these posts continue, but I hope this one may serve as a launch point for fruitful discussion.

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