main | about | living radically | connect | links
main | about |
living radically |
connect | links
radical adj (from the Latin radix) 1: arising from, relating to or going to the root or origin 2 a: marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional b: tending or disposed to make extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions
Christian n (from the Greek 
[Christianos])
1: a follower or disciple of Jesus the Christ
The term radical Christian is used here to describe a true Christian. It is used because the word Christian alone has been used by many people to mean many things other than “a true follower or disciple of Jesus the Christ.” The word radical was chosen due to its dual meaning of returning to the origin and extreme change from the norm. Both of these aspects of the word radical are important ways in which true Christianity differs from the many forms of false Christianity that exist. The following is an admittedly highly imperfect and incomplete attempt at a concise summary of what the radical movement originally called Christianity is.
Radical Christianity is not anything new. It is simply going to the root, which is Jesus, and living as he taught us to live, on his terms. That means we follow him without ignoring or trivializing the parts of his teachings that we find difficult or unpleasant. We cannot ignore Jesus commands to love and do good to our enemies (Luke 6:27), to not resist violence and mistreatment (Luke 6:29-30), to sell our possessions and give the money to charity (Luke 12:33), to refuse to store up wealth (Matthew 6:19), to invite the marginalized into our homes (Luke 14:12-14) and other hard commands simply because they oppose our selfish, comfort seeking, middle-class Western way of life. If we want to call ourselves followers of Jesus we must take everything he said seriously. Radical Christianity necessarily involves rejecting the many ways that Jesus' teaching has been warped to suit various purposes and preferences.
Trying to completely define radical Christianity would just be repeating large amounts of scripture. However, since many very different beliefs are all justified as being faithful to scripture, a summary of what specifically is meant and not meant here by radical Christianity is reasonable.
The first premise of this definition of radical Christianity is that God alone has the right to define what being his follower means. The second premise is that Jesus is God who became a man and came to earth and in the process clarified by example and teaching what it meant to be his follower. The third premise is that the Christian Bible, being fully inspired by God, is currently the ultimate authority we have on what God's desires and requirements of us are.
Any attempt on our parts to summarize all that scripture has to say about what it means to follow God is obviously going to be imperfect. However, scripture does contain some teaching that is highlighted as being especially important. Jesus summed up all of the writings of the law and the prophets when he said the following: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NET) Clearly love is central to what God desires of us since it is the core of the two greatest commands. However, the word love is used in so many non-radical ways that we have to be careful that these uses of the word love are not softening our understanding of the radicalness of these two commands. The love of God that he desires of us is an all consuming sacrificial commitment and obedience. Many people try to avoid the impact of this by trivializing or sentimentalizing the command. However, God is not interested in people just having a fond feeling for him. If we are not willing to uncompromisingly obey God then we do not love him. Jesus made this clear in John 14:15-24 where he says several times that those who love him will obey him. Jesus makes an even stronger statement of this in the sermon on the mountain: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven – only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do many powerful deeds?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23, NET) Just as the first of the greatest commands is radically demanding when we correctly understand it, so the second of the commands demands more of us than most people are willing to give. Many people are comfortable with the idea of loving their neighbor as an abstract and sentimental concept. However, the command from God is to love our neighbors “as we love ourselves”. This command prohibits us from loving ourselves more than our neighbor, which is a truly radical, counter-cultural concept.
Jesus defined what being his follower means when he said the following: “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24, NET) The self-denying, self-sacrificing nature of following Jesus puts the two greatest commands in context. Following Jesus is fundamentally about death to self so that we can have complete submission to God on his terms and radical service to others.
Jesus' summary of the law and the prophets and his statements about what it is to become his follower all focus on action: loving, denying, taking up, following. Although it is necessary to believe the truth to some extent in order to follow Jesus, this is not the focus of Jesus' commands. Jesus did not call people to just believe a set of beliefs about him. He did not call people to “accept” him. Nor did he call people to “ask him into their hearts”. He called people to turn from their sins and actively and radically follow him.
If we are truly committed to following Jesus on his terms then everything we believe and do should be critically examined in light of what he wants. Much of what people typically identify with “Christianity” is man-made tradition from the last 2000 years. Although there may be nothing wrong with some of these traditions in and of themselves, some of them undermine and oppose the work of the kingdom of God and many of them distract from what is truly important. Traditions (both personal and corporate), no matter how deeply rooted they are, need to be immediately thrown aside if they are not rooted within the principles of the kingdom of God. Although traditions often bring us comfort because of the familiarity they provide, Jesus did not call us to a life of comfort. Sadly, many of those who call themselves followers of Jesus are resistant to critically examining their own traditions and ideas because of the discomfort it causes. This is especially ironic when one of the most harsh things Jesus is recorded to have said is the following condemnation of the religious establishment of his day:
Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.’ Having no regard for the command of God, you hold fast to human tradition.” (Mark 7:6-8, NET)Let this never be said of us but let us be truly radical Christians!