Humanity has to do with the attribute of being humane. By humane, we mean possessing feelings of sympathy, empathy and natural love for fellow human beings. A human being has a Spirit which animates his body for activities on earth. He also has a mind which helps with reasoning and also making life decisions. Both the Spirit and the mind are housed in a body, this makes it possible for man to have emotions. The emotion being a sensual response to life events and activities based on simulations of the body and information processed in the mind. This is not an attempt to demystify these psychological terms, it is rather a mere description of what we as ‘human Christians’ experience.
Nowadays, there is a trend in Christianity where people try to make a clear-cut distinction between their lives as Christians and their lives as human beings. Christians try to judge situations as ‘human beings’ and not involve the Bible. They make a case of not spiritualizing ‘everything or being ‘too religious’ so they drop their bibles aside and reason as human beings. Sometimes they are so concerned about principles that govern the existence of citizens in a state more than they are about what the Bible says about peaceful coexistence.
I want to state that when a man becomes a Christian, every single thing about and associated with him most reflect the basic principles of Christianity. We are quick to defend Christianity as a way of life and not a religion but when an argument comes up and someone interprets the situation based on Bible principles we shout ‘don’t be religious, let’s leave religion aside’. This does not tally, if you believed it wasn’t s religion in the first place, you will not tell someone to leave religion aside when he/she makes a reference to the Bible. Even if Christianity was a religion, it should still be the bedrock of whatever judgement or conclusion any Christian should make.
We fail to realize that every of our actions, statement or thoughts are based on our mindset/ideologies, every human being has a mindset/ideology and every mindset/ideology stems from a religious worldview. Of course, not having a religion is also a religion. Every human being whether Christian, Muslim, Hinduist, Buddhist or any other lives day to day based on his/her worldview, the worldview being a direct offshoot of his/her religion. So, we are usually religious, consciously or unconsciously. For example, in a restaurant 3 people are meeting for the first time. The three of them are offered a bowl of fish, a bowl of chicken and a bowl of pork. The first goes for the fish, he dislikes chicken and pork. The second goes for chicken he has never eaten pork and the third goes for the pork. The first is likely a Seventh Day Adventist, the Second is probably a Pentecostal Christian and the third may be a Traditional Worshipper. Of course, this is not a religious meeting but their religion has apparently influenced their decision making. This is just an example; every day after day we make economic, financial, emotional, health decisions that are based on our religion. This is the basis of all our problems and solutions.
When an argument ensues and a party resolves to use the Bible to solve the problem, some people will shout “religion is our problem in Nigeria”. True, religion is our problem but Christianity is not. Christianity is a way of life, it is a lifestyle. And it is the solution to the problem of Nigeria, I am unapologetic about this. We as Christians need to get things straight and stop being just humans.
In an attempt not to sound too spiritual and unreasonable we deny our spiritual insights. ‘Christians’ is what we are, and we must be that all the time. We shouldn’t try to fit into the mould of the world, a shape that is mild and unoffensive. A mould that will get nobody angry and make us feel that we intelligent, liberal, sensitive and accommodating. It is rather unintelligent to deny the very essence of your existence all because you do not want to offend, or you want to be moral and accommodating of other religions. We are either Christians or not Christians, there is no sitting on the fence.
Why should you accept a religion when it does not form the basis of everything you say or do, that is just self-denial, a situation of duo-personality. Let us come to a place where God is first in every of our judgement, we are not mere mortals living accidentally for ourselves. No! We live for the pleasure of God, we must make others realize this and set our standards for them from the Bible. We do not have two lives – ‘a spiritual life’ and a ‘normal live, No! We have a life that radiates the aura of the presence and the glory of our God. A life synchronized with the ‘source’ of our lives in thoughts, actions and words.
If we are Christians, then we must be CHRISTIAN.