What Does It Mean To Live as a Christian?

“It’s all of me, trying to be like all of Christ… Christ didn’t say, ‘Look at me and pick one thing and be like that,’ he said, ‘No, look at me, and put your arms around me, and try and be like me.’ ”

As we begin this track, we’re going to hear from Louie Giglio as he teaches what it means to live as a Christian, firstly, what it means to “be Christlike,” or what it means to be a “little Christ.” Does this mean that we will one day be Jesus? Of course not. What Christian, or “little Christ,” means is that each day we wake up in the morning with the desire to be like Christ. It’s a process and a lifestyle wherein we place our hope and trust in Jesus and are then transformed to be more and more like Him as we live out our days.

Copy these words from Paul’s letter to the Galatians into your journal or a note on your phone, and then dive into the teaching from Louie Giglio:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Let’s start here. To live as a Christian is to always remember that Jesus Christ died for you. He endured the Cross, in love, for you. If we don’t start with that “why,” then the “what” of how we live won’t be based on the proper foundation. Look again at how the Apostle Paul wrote it in his letter to the Church in Corinth:

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Pair that together with the verse from Galatians that we wrote down earlier, and our first lens begins to come into focus. To live as a Christian is to be Christ-like. To turn over our natural inclinations and tendencies in favor of those which align with the character of Christ. To no longer live for ourselves but for Christ to live in us BECAUSE His love led Him to do the same for us. Never forget that quiet moment in the garden just hours before the beatings would begin turned to heaven:

Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.

Luke 22:42

Do you see? If we are to represent that kind of love, compassion, and obedience to a world desperate to see it, we are going to have to be willing to lay down our lives and submit ourselves to the process of becoming more and more like Jesus.

More Patient.

More Kind.

More Gentle.

More Loving.

To sacrifice vindictiveness.

To sacrifice pettiness.

To sacrifice lustfulness.

To sacrifice selfishness.

Always willing to get out of the way so that Christ can be on display.

This is how we live Christlike lives.