Poll: Is it better to believe "like a Christian" or act "like a Christian"?

[Pug]

To me, believing is slightly more interior and acting is more exterior. We will be judged upon our hearts, which is interior. So, overall, I tend to go with believe over act. Of course, true belief will manifest itself in action or choice, so that is a slightly meaningless thing to say, but still. Take someone who is sick in bed. They can’t go feed the poor or any external super-duper action. All they can do is believe that prayer is meaningful and offer prayer. Take someone who is well. So they go visit a sick relative. Realize that they could be doing this just to convince the old bird to give them the inheritance when they kick off. The “Christian” action is meaningless. It is what is in their heart that matters.

 

[paarsurrey]

To me, believing is slightly more interior and acting is more exterior.

Hi
To me, truthful knowledge/belief and truthful action are both important. Just like GodAllahYHWH has endowed us with two legs to walk on the way, so one needs to believe as Jesus believed and act like Jesus did act; if one is a true Christian. Obviously both are to be done sincerely that is from free will or heart.
Thanks

 

[Pug]

Hi
To me, truthful knowledge/belief and truthful action are both important.

Yes, I agree. As the epistle of James says:

James 2:15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

also

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

 

[Syele]

I picked Believe.

I look at it this way :

Is it *possible *to believe like a Christian (with no acts at all) and still go to heaven? Yes, it is. Pug had an example of a sick person. There was also the thief on the cross and others with a change of heart and belief at death.
So yes, this makes it possible.

Is it possible to act like a Christian (no belief) and still go to heaven? No. A refusal to believe is a refusal to accept God. If you act really nice your whole life you still go to hell if you refuse to believe.

Summary? Of course both are important but that wasn’t the question. It asked which is better of two. We are choosing between a hell bound person being nice and a heaven bound person just sitting around believing. the earth really could use more nice people. Heaven is for eternity!

 

[Illini]

I voted “believe like a Christian” because the “acting like a Christian” flows from that. Moreover, believing like a Christian helps one understand that he will make mistakes and the Lord will help him through them.

-Illini

 

[Grateful4mercy]

This is going to sound like I’m being antagonistic, I promise you I am trying to say this with love in my heart. I just can’t find a passive way to state what I am trying to convey. That said…

This question cannot be answered until you define what ‘like a Christian’ means. I know this sprang out of the ‘who gets to define ‘Christian’’ thread, and since within that thread you would allow that anybody and everybody could decide the definition, then ‘like a Christian’ is meaningless. It could mean ‘like a Buddhist’s definition of a Christian’ or ‘like what an atheist thinks a Christian is’.

There are only two states for a Christian to be in:

a) Believes the teaching of Christ and acts on it, or

b) Believes the teaching of Christ and defies it.

your hypothetical states:

c) Doesn’t believe in Christ’s teachings and acts like he does, or

d) Doesn’t believe in Christ’s teaching and acts like he doesn’t

are irrelevant since neither of these types of people know Jesus and thus are not Christian by definition no matter how nice they may appear outwardly.

Not to keep beating on this, but you also failed to define ‘better’. Better for your eternal soul, or better for our relationship with the physical world?

P.S. I have been praying for you and will continue. God bless.

 

[Kitty_Chan]

There have been several discussions of late along the lines of “who can be considered a Christian” or “who defines Christian”. I thought this question might be interesting. Though there are many different angles from which to approach this poll question, I will leave it general in nature.

Is it better to believe “like a Christian” or act “like a Christian”?

This is a interesting question I notice that there is a telling of our human hearts, we do not trust each other. No one trusts the other to come through on their promise. So we would rather they tell us “what they believe” Then we feel better, and dont have to work it out. But it doesnt work because we all are capable of a lie easier than the truth. The truth is the narrow way.

I chose Act, because you are all to judge me by my fruits. I can say something, but if I dont back it up, Im a empty drum. And to back it up, whatever the cost is the most difficult.

Every man is a self made man,
but only the succesful ones want to talk about it.

 

[Mirdath]

I think it is better to live in a Christlike manner, than to believe.

Yes. ‘Love one another, as I have loved you’. One does not need to believe in the divinity of the Christ to follow this commandment; it is something that we all should obey and follow, no matter what creed, if any, we profess. You don’t have to be a Christian to admire Jesus; and you don’t have to be religious to have the interests of humanity at heart.

 

[Singinbeauty]

This may well be true, but since we don’t know what a person might have been like without their faith…that still leaves a lot of room for questionable behavior. I have met people whom I believe sincerely believed in Christ, but I never would have guessed it from their behavior. They either have an interestingly different take on what Christian behavior looks like, or they would have been even worse without Christ in their life. Scary, but possible.

But it isn’t for US to decide is it? To say it is more important to ‘act’ like a christian than to BE one is a scary thought process to me.

True, there are some who profess to be christian but clearly don’t act like it but that is between them and God. Consider the following passages:

Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 7:20-22 (in Context) Matthew 7 (Whole Chapter)

Matthew 7:22
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Matthew 7:21-23 (in Context) Matthew 7 (Whole Chapter)

Matthew 25:11
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
Matthew 25:10-12 (in Context) Matthew 25 (Whole Chapter)

Luke 6:46
And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Luke 6:45-47 (in Context) Luke 6 (Whole Chapter)

Luke 13:25
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
Luke 13:24-26 (in Context) Luke 13 (Whole Chapter)

IF the person who experiances this behavior and turns from God off that example then they are not truly seeking Christ. To put your eternal life in someone else’s hands and then throw your fist to the air and say that you won’t be christian because of what someone else did is a cop out. To not choose the faith that God is pulling you to just because of someone else, be it their actions or the relation they have to you (i.e. family or close friends), is wussing out. Giving your responsibility to someone else because you don’t want to own up to it is cowardly.

Your TRUE Faith shows and tells those around you who you serve. But in the end your Faith and what it produced is judged. If you reject Christ but are a good person won’t help you in the end.

 

[Publisher]

In the parable of the last judgement, Jesus turned to the “sheep” and told them they were welcome as they gave him food and water…they visited him in prison…etc…the “sheep” were surprised…“When did we ever see you…” They had no idea that their good works toward those who needed it most was the same as to Christ…in their ignorance of Who Jesus was they still acted in compassion and love…it was they who were welcomed into the Kingdom…not the ones who did many miracles and cast out demons in his name…but forgot the more important thngs of faith…compassion and kindess toward others.

 

[StacieAdy]

The poll needs few more options. One of them is: believe and act.

As always, Water is the voice of reason.

I agree entirely. If one believes like a Christian, one will act like a Christian.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

There have been several discussions of late along the lines of “who can be considered a Christian” or “who defines Christian”. I thought this question might be interesting. Though there are many different angles from which to approach this poll question, I will leave it general in nature.

Is it better to believe “like a Christian” or act “like a Christian”?

Having read the posts on this thread, I’m more uncertain than I was to begin with ​

Jesus did not impose any doctrinal tests - He did say ( Mar 9:41 ):

• For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
  The Parable of the Good Samaritan is about practical charity undertaken by someone who was outside Judaism, who was the injured man’s neighbour when his fellow-Jews failed to be; & other examples could be given.

There is no indication that the Kingdom of God which Jesus preached was restricted to His fellow-Jews - it is possible for the “children of the kingdom” not to inherit it, & for the Gentiles to do so instead.

So I’ll go for action, rather than belief: maybe action like that taught & praised by Jesus, & the attitudes behind it, is what counts as Christian. In which case, action & belief are impossible to separate, as several posters have noted.

 

[TraditionalCath]

There have been several discussions of late along the lines of “who can be considered a Christian” or “who defines Christian”. I thought this question might be interesting. Though there are many different angles from which to approach this poll question, I will leave it general in nature.

Is it better to believe “like a Christian” or act “like a Christian”?

both because as the Bible says, faith without works is dead. they go hand in hand.