Which "Christians" are Real Christians?

How can people who call themselves Christians behave in such radically different ways?

May 12, 2025

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How can people who call themselves Christians behave in such radically different ways?

This is a question I get asked constantly. All too often people who share a Christian identity find themselves on opposite sides of conflicts and opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.

A few examples:

You may know that the abolitionist movement to rid the United States of slavery was led by Christians. But did you know that the pro-slavery movement was, too?

In 1850, James Henley Thornwell, a Presbyterian pastor, preached a sermon titled The Rights and the Duties of Masters in Charleston, South Carolina, as White Christians had gathered to dedicate a new church building “erected for the religious instruction of the Negroes.”1 It was not uncommon for Christians in the South to speak of their slaveholding as a conversion tactic, even going so far as to claim that God preferred slavery to freedom for African Americans in order to secure their eternal salvation.

In his sermon, Thornwell decried the image painted of Southern slavery defenders, playing the victim as he defended the White man’s right to own people as property while simultaneously portraying the abolitionists as vile, Godless men.

James Henley Thornwell, Presbyterian pastor and slavery apologist

“These are the mighty questions which are shaking thrones to their centres—upheaving the masses like an earthquake, and rocking the solid pillars of this Union. The parties in this conflict are not merely abolitionists and slaveholders—they are atheists, socialists, communists, red republicans, jacobins, on the one side, and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battle ground—Christianity and Atheism the combatants; and the progress of humanity the stake.”
James Henley Thornwell

Does this language sound familiar? “Socialists,” “atheists,” and “communists” on one side vs. the “friends of order and regulated freedom” on the other. The oppressor as victim, the oppressed as incompetent and less than human, and anyone defending the oppressed as the most vile offender. As the book of Ecclesiastes says:

“What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.”2

Less than a century later, in Nazi Germany, the attempted genocide of Jewish people was led by Christians while the underground movement to overthrow the Nazis was, too.

“Several scholars have demonstrated the ambivalent and often positive stand that even members of the Confessing Church took toward [Hitler’s] regime. We have come to realize with growing empirical certainty that many Christians of the day believed Nazism to be in some sense a Christian movement. Even in the later years of the Third Reich, as anticlerical hostility grew, churchmen of both confessions persisted in their belief that Nazism was essentially in conformity with Christian precepts.”3
Richard Steigmann-Gall

In 1934, the German Christian movement of the early twentieth century printed a pamphlet titled The Cross of Christ and the Swastika, in which Gerhard Hahn advocated for German Christians’ support of Adolf Hitler.

“The cross of Christ and the swastika do not need to oppose each other, and must not do so, but rather they can and should stand together. One should not dominate the other, but rather each should maintain its own meaning and significance.
The church must affirm without reservation the Führer of the National Socialists, Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of the German Reich. He expects the church to help build the Third Reich, and has proclaimed that National Socialist German Workers’ Party, which now forms the state, wants to stand on the foundation of positive Christianity. It is the task of the church to create and provide this foundation. It is the content of the absolute affirmation that the church has to make if it really wants to be a people’s church.”4
Gerhard Hahn

We know all too well that these aren’t problems of the past; I wish they were. Christians in America are still living out their faith in opposing ways. Whether it’s LGBTQ+ rights, gun control, immigration policy, free speech, criminal justice, religious freedom, environmental stewardship, book bans, vaccines, or a dozen other theological and social issues, Christians often find themselves advocating against one another.

I would bet that specific people in your life came to mind as you read those sentences, people you know and love, people who share your faith but don’t share many of your values.

How did we get here? How can we have people who claim the same faith, same Savior, and same holy book but who are living their lives in such drastically different ways?

To answer this question, we have to understand a little bit more about the history of Christianity.

In 2025, about 2.4 billion people worldwide call themselves Christians. It’s important to note that “Christian” was a label first applied to a very small group of people in the Middle East. Here’s the verse in Acts chapter 11 that has often been overlooked but holds massive significance for how we understand our faith today.

The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.
Acts 11:26

I want us to take note of the phrasing here. The author says “the disciples” were “called Christians.” They didn’t call themselves Christians. They called themselves disciples; a different group of people called them Christians.

Scholars mostly agree that the followers of Jesus were first called Christians by people making fun of them. The word used here for “called” means “given by outsiders.” This is not a self-chosen identity. We can also assume that since it first happened in the Roman regional capital of Antioch, this other group attempting to make fun of the Jesus-followers were probably Roman citizens, most likely even Roman officials.

Why would Romans pejoratively call followers of Jesus “Christians”? The word “Christian” translates to “little Christ.” It’s important to remember that it was the Romans who executed Christ on the cross; in Roman culture, labeling a group by their leader—especially one who had been executed as a criminal—was meant to ridicule and marginalize the group.

Imagine a sarcastic Roman saying something along these lines: “There go those idiots who follow a dead guy. What a joke.”

Although the Christian label was first applied in ways meant to demean and disparage followers of Jesus, the early church chose not to fight the label. They didn’t correct it or argue with it. They leaned into it. They took what was meant to be an insult and said, “You know what, we really are doing our best to be ‘little Christs’ out here in the world.” This group, who had previously been known as disciples of Jesus or followers of The Way of Jesus, became known simply as “Christians.” Little Christs. And that’s exactly what they were.

For the next 300 years, this group of “little Christs” did their best to embody the way of Jesus in everything they did. We know this from the book of Acts which chronicles the life and actions of the early church, but we also know it because of extra biblical primary sources from the same time period.

For example, in the year 125 AD, a Greek philosopher named Aristides attempted to explain Christianity to Roman Emperor Hadrian.

“They love one another. They never fail to help widows. They save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something, they give freely to the one who has nothing. If they see an immigrant, they take him into their homes and rejoice over him as a brother.”
Aristides

Later, a Roman Emperor named Julian complained about how these Christians were actually showing the Romans up by taking care of people in need.

“For it is disgraceful that…the impious Galileans support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see our people lack aid from us.”
Julian

For 300 years, this group of “little Christs” lived liked Jesus. Even in the midst of tremendous persecution. Even when it was illegal to do be a Christian. In what can best be described as state sponsored terrorism, the Roman Empire systemically imprisoned and even executed Christians for the better part of three centuries.

But then, everything began to change in the year 312. Constantine, the Roman Emperor at the time, was just as anti-Christian as his predecessors until he had a radical conversion experience. He was about to lead his army into battle when he saw a vision of the cross with the words “With this sign, conquer” written across it.

Constantine changed his tune and had crosses painted on all of his soldier’s shields just before the battle, which they ended up winning. He attributed the victory to this divine sign, gave glory to Jesus for his military exploits, and converted to Christianity.

I’m sure lots of Christian leaders at the time were uneasy about the cross being used as a good luck charm for the Roman Empire’s bloody conquests (just as you are probably uneasy reading about it), but the fourth century Christians were grateful for Constantine’s conversion. It was a means justifying the ends kind of situation. And not long after, Constantine passed the Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity and ended state sponsored persecution of Christians.

In a vacuum, this could feel like positive movement—a leader gets converted, Christianity becomes legal, and Christians stop getting persecuted by the government. But it didn’t take long before Christianity and Empire became intertwined in very harmful ways. Constantine began to support the church more directly, building church facilities and cutting checks to Bishops using Roman tax dollars.

It’s at this point we really start to see Christianity shift from being a group of people who were all about being “little Christs” to an institutional religion bound together by imperial power and privilege.

Then, in 325, Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea: the first of four councils meant to formalize exactly what someone must believe in order to be considered a true Christian by the government. Now the Roman Empire wasn’t just supporting Christianity financially, it was making doctrinal decisions about the faith. Many of the pastors and scholars at these councils who held minority theological opinions were labeled heretics, and some were even killed by the state.

By the year 380, Nicene Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire and all Roman citizens and subjects were required to adhere to this specific version of Christianity, either by professing belief in the various doctrines prescribed by the government or facing the resulting punishment.

In less than 70 years, Christianity went from a movement of “little Christs” doing their best to follow the Way of Jesus, even in the face of persecution, to the institutional religion of Empire marked by hierarchy, power, and violence.

So why the history lesson? Because it’s vital for us to see how “Christianity” was completely transformed from a life devoted to loving God and loving others to a set of doctrines defined by powerful men. The latter is what much of Christianity remains today.

Think about it: if someone asks, “Are you a Christian?” they aren’t asking if you’ve decided to devote your life to sacrificial love; they’re asking if you intellectually adhere to a set of doctrinal statements. The number and nuance of those statements may vary depending on who is asking and what the powerful people at the top of their hierarchy have deemed to be essential doctrines, but the underlying message remains the same: Christianity is something you think, something you believe, not something that you do.

And since Christianity has often been reduced to a set of doctrinal statements divorced from how we live our lives, it’s no wonder we have millions of Christians in this country who can check the same belief boxes while living in oppositional ways.

I can check a box that says “humans are created in God’s image” and still be a jerk to my neighbors.

I can check a box that says “God created the world” and still treat the earth like a trashcan.

I can check a box that says “the Bible is inspired by God” and still use it to justify oppression.

When Christianity is reduced to something we agree with in principle rather than something we live out in practice, we are no longer “little Christs.”

Remember, Jesus didn’t say “Here is the truth, come believe it.” He said, “I am the truth, come follow me.”

So what can we do about it? Well, my proposition is this: We need a radical shift back to Christianity being primarily about following Jesus.

And the good news is, we have to the tools to do so—namely, the witness of Jesus and his earliest followers found the in New Testament. One of those followers is a man named James, Jesus’ brother and the author of the book of James. This book was originally a letter and is one of the earliest writings in the New Testament. It’s all about how to be “little Christs” in this world. As my friend and fellow pastor Lindsay Contreras said in a recent sermon, “James is not just concerned with what we believe as Christians, but with how we live our lives as Christians.” Here’s what he has to say:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:14-26

You may have notified that James is incredibly repetitive in this passage—asking seven rhetorical questions and repeating his central claim six times in just thirteen verses. His main point is best summarized in those final five words: faith without deeds is dead.

Now we need to be careful here because some have used this passage to demean faith in Jesus, which is not at all what James is doing.

In order to best interpret this phrase and the larger passage, we have to understand what James means when he uses the terms “faith” and “deeds.” For James, “faith” is not an embodied practice (as Paul sometimes uses the word) but an intellectual assent to a set of doctrines. In this passage, faith is simply a mental construct.

On the other hands, “deeds” are not simply good things done for legalistic or moralistic reasons. Instead, they are a demonstration of one’s commitment to the way of Jesus. James contends that deeds are not an optional part of faith, they are the tangible demonstration of it.

James compares a deed-less faith to a spirit-less body. In order for the body to come alive, it needs a spirit.

“For James a saving faith is one in which the confession is manifest in works of mercy toward those in need. Faith alone, by which he means a minimal creedal faith, cannot save. It is useless, ineffective, and dead.”
Scot McKnight

In the same way, faith needs tangible expressions of love in order to come alive.

“Until we practice what we proclaim, our supposed “faith” is no better than a corpse.”
Martha Moore-Keish

Without Christlike action, Christian faith is dead. Claiming the name of Jesus without following the Way of Jesus is not just hollow, it is harmful to both the hypocritical individual and to the watching world.

A quote often attributed to Brennan Manning sums this up well. You might remember it as the opening line to the 1995 song What If I Stumble? by DC Talk.

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
Brennan Manning

Calling yourself a Christian is not the same thing as being a “little Christ.” James’ words here are prescient. Not only were they applicable to those early Christians who needed to be reminded of the importance of good deeds, they are still applicable to Christians today who have mistakenly assumed all that is required of them is checking doctrinal boxes rather than faithfully following Jesus.

There might be 2.4 billion people in the world today calling themselves Christians, but far fewer who are actually attempting to orient their lives around being like Christ. We need a radical shift back to centering our faith on the person, work, and teachings of Jesus rather than intellectual assent to doctrinal statements. Thankfully we already have the tools to do it.

Whether it’s the above passage from James, the witness of early Christians, or the life of Jesus from the Gospel accounts, we know what “little Christs” are supposed to be about:

Bearing witness to the Kingdom of God: life and love, healing and hope for absolutely everyone. It is a kinship community predicated upon forgiveness, freedom, and flourishing for everyone.

Telling the story of Jesus which the angel at Christmas announced as “Good New of Great Joy for All People!”

Challenging systems, structures, and powers that harm people, especially when religion is used to enable that harm.

Fighting for justice alongside the poor, marginalized, and oppressed.

Selflessly serving other people

Breaking down barriers of division

Living a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

And loving absolutely everyone: God and neighbor, friend and enemy.

This is what Jesus Christ was about and it’s what little Christs are supposed to be about, too. This is the simple truth that James will not let us ignore:

Being a Christian is not primarily about checking all the right doctrinal boxes or defending the correct dogmas, but following the Way of Jesus in every part of our lives. This means that our faith isn’t authenticated by what we profess or proclaim, but by how we live.

If someone paid attention to your actions— not what you claim to believe or the doctrinal boxes you check, but the way you actually live— would they see a “little Christ”? Would they experience the love of Jesus through you?

"We are often worried about teaching doctrine, but we risk forgetting that our first duty is to communicate the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus."
Pope Leo XIV

This is what it actually means to be a Christian. Not just in word, but in deed. Not just in belief, but in practice. Not just in what we say, but how we live our lives.

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