To be called a Christian - listen and follow!

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week after Easter

May 2, 2023: Acts 11:19-26; John 10: 22-30

The theme we began to reflect on, this Sunday, continues these days. The Shepherd says, the sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me! Listening to the Lord would mean to drink in his principles, to put on his mindset as St. Paul would describe. To follow the Lord would mean, to live like him. Our actions have to be our witness, not merely our words and our titles.

The believers in Antioch were given the name 'Christians', because they belonged to the Lord, they listened, they followed! They were imbued with the thoughts and the teachings of Christ, and they followed Christ to the letter. The people saw in them, Christ alive and moving around in flesh and blood. The believers became live witnesses, or proofs, for the resurrection of Jesus the Christ. 

That is why, they were spontaneously called Christ-ians! Would anyone, unknown to me, looking at me  and my actions, guess that I should probably be a Christian? Not because of the cross I might be sporting, nor with the name tag that I have, but with the attitudes I manfest, the actions that spontaneously emanate from me and for the very person that I am.

I am tempted to ask myself: is it right to say that a person will do good if he or she is a Christian, or to say that anyone who does good to the other without expecting anything in return, is truly a 'Christ-ian'?