WORLD recently published an article on faith and politics. In the article they quoted a political scientist at a university as saying: “. . .the label ‘Christianity’ doesn’t mean much anymore, at least when it comes to politics: while a majority [of candidates] claim to be Christian, defining what that means is complicated.” [1]
Why is it so difficult to define what it means to be a Christian? What is complicated about being a Christian? If God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9), he would not make it complicated. Instead, we have a multitude of different Christian denominations, and each denomination has pages of doctrinal statements each of which they claim is God’s truth.
True, Jesus does say the way to destruction is easy and wide and the way to life is difficult and narrow. He did not say the narrow way was complicated (Matthew 7:13-14).
God is not the one who makes being a Christian complicated; we do. One reason is that everyone wants to use Christianity to their material advantage. Our Christianity is defined by what provides us with the most advantage in our material existence. Instead, we should be striving to remake our soul so it becomes more like God.
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[1] Elizabeth Russell and Christina Grube. “Faith and politics”. WORLD, September 2024, p.19.
