A few months ago I stopped being a “follower of Jesus.” I gave it up completely.
No, I haven’t given up on the gospel. Yes, I am still a Christian. Yes, I still strive to live out my faith in my daily. Yes, I am striving towards obeying God and growing more deeply in my faith. But I am no longer a “follower of Jesus.”
Somewhere along the way Christians got the idea that they should divorce themselves from being associated with the term “Christian.” Instead of calling themselves Christians, they have chosen other ways to label what they believe. “A follower of Jesus.” “A Follower of Christ.” Or some other label along those lines.
For whatever reason, ceasing to carry the label of “Christian” has become the cool thing to do.
I myself did this for a number of years. It seemed like a great thing to do.
But then one day I was challenged to really evaluate why I called myself a “follower of Jesus” rather than a Christian. And I also began to question whether or not calling myself a follower of Christ rather than a Christian made any real difference to the non-Christians I interacted with.
I think there are probably a lot of well-intentioned Christians who got the idea to label their faith by some other name. They want to make a distinction between themselves and all of the ugly things that have been done in the name of Christ and/or Christianity. They don’t want people to be immediately turned off to the message of the gospel simply because of the label they use for their faith.
While I think this might seem noble on the surface, the deeper I scratched beneath the surface of this idea the uglier I saw it to be. What Christians who do not label themselves as a Christian are really saying is, “I’m the real deal. I’m not a hypocrite like all of the rest of the people who call themselves Christians. I’m not part of the long, ugly history of Christians who have done horrible things in the name of Jesus. I’m better than the people who call themselves Christians.”
What seems noble on the surface is, in reality, self-righteousness.
Maybe there are some really great Christians out there who aren’t hypocrites. Maybe there are some really great Christians out there who are able to live out their faith consistently. Maybe there are Christians out there who will never do anything that will add to the long, ugly history of Christians who have done things that have misrepresented Jesus.
Maybe you are someone who calls yourself a follower of Jesus and you meet all of these criteria. But if I am honest, I don’t really fit into any of the necessary categories that could distinguish me from the rest of the messed up history of Christianity.
To be frank, I am a hypocrite at times. At least daily I fall into this category. Maybe even hourly I fall into this category. I say that I believe something and then I do the exact opposite of what I say I believe. I lie, to myself and to others, about the sin that is in my heart. I cover up my shortcomings to make myself look better than I actually am.
Don’t even get me started on how I have added to the long, ugly history of Christianity and how I have wrongly used my faith to justify some of the messed up that I have done. There are likely a lot of people I have aided in their desire to turn away from Christ. I have been smug, proud, self-righteous, belittling, arrogant, unconcerned, neglectful, uncompassionate. And I have done it hiding behind a religious veil. If you are a Christian you have very likely fallen into this category as well. We’re not that much different from those “bad Christians” we wish to not associate ourselves with.
It is pretty foolish and naïve to think that calling ourselves a “follower of Jesus” or something else along those lines is really going to make that much of an impact on any non-Christian that we actually have a real relationship with. We might throw off a complete stranger for all of 30 seconds AT THE MOST. But they very quickly will see that we are a Christian.
Non-Christians are not stupid, ignorant or naïve. You can dress up what you believe in any kind of religious jargon that you want, but it isn’t going to take them very long to figure out what is going on. They see right through our silly religious jargon. When they talk with their other friends who are non-Christians I have serious doubts that they say something like, “Wow. I am so glad I met a follower of Jesus. They are so much different than Christians.”
It is more likely that they will say, “I met this really cool guy today. Oddly enough, he is Christian. He uses some type of silly religious jargon to communicate that he is a Christian. He says he is a “follower of Jesus” or something like that. He’s a Christian. But he’s not like the most of the other Christians I know. He is different in a good way. It is so amazing.”
Inevitably, calling yourself a “follower of Jesus” really isn’t going to make that much of a difference to people who are not Christians. They are likely going to be skeptical of us regardless of what we call ourselves. Calling ourselves a “follower of Jesus” will only throw them off for about 30 seconds and then probably make them think we are weird for trying to suck them in by switching up our religious jargon. If the KKK changed their name to the White Supremacists Organization, it might take you a few minutes to catch on to who the organization is or what they are about, but eventually you are going to see it for what it is.
Calling ourselves a “follower of Jesus” might even add to the skepticism of the non-Christians whom we interact with. You delay the inevitable for all of 30 seconds, and then they start to feel like we are doing our best to “recruit them.” Interestingly, I have heard a lot of non-Christians actually say this after someone who called themselves a “follower of Jesus” walked out of hearing range of the people they just finished talking to. So not only do non-Christians see right through our religious jargon, they also often feel like we are trying to deceive them about who we really are and what we really are. Like we are trying to suck them in without them realizing it until they’ve been had: hook, line and sinker.
What people are going to notice is not whether we call ourselves Christians of “followers of Jesus.” What people are going to notice is if we actually love, respect and care for them. Christians who call themselves a “follower of Jesus” might be fooling themselves, but it is likely that no one else is buying into it.
Christians, we are part of a long, ugly history of a faith that has done many wonderful and many horrific things in this world. We are part of this legacy. We will not escape it. Our lives are going to show people who we really are. People are going to figure out that we are a Christian. By changing what we call ourselves we aren’t fooling anyone but ourselves. Instead of inventing new religious jargon to call ourselves by, why don’t we instead spend our time redeeming the term “Christian?” What if we stopped caring whom or what people associated us with and instead we started loving them? What if we stopped worrying about what people might assume about us if they know we are a Christian and instead we started serving them and meeting the practical, everyday needs that they have? What if we stopped worrying about being associated with bigots and instead we actually showed everyone around us the respect they deserve? It would be time well spent.
