If we’re honest with ourselves, I think anyone who calls themselves a Christian has faced this question at some point during their spiritual walk. It doesn’t matter how many bible studies we join, how many missions trips we attend, or how many times a week we read Scripture — it never seems as though we aren’t ever doing enough. In all honesty, it can feel discouraging when we begin to try to answer this question.
The false assumption is that our faith and the strength of our relationship with Christ is built solely on human effort. We, as humans, will never feel Christian “enough”. There will always be someone else doing something that we view as more impactful. If we truly took into consideration all of our actions, we would quickly realize the bleak answer to this question.
We pride ourselves on being recognized for our acts of “spirituality” when our motives are less than pure. We love hearing people ooh and ahh about the amount that we tithe. We also love to be congratulated on starting a new ministry when in reality we forget who we are doing this for. Identifying the intention is a helpful way to ensure that our motives are correct.
Rather than comparing ourselves to those around us, we should focus on the state of our own heart. So much of our lives is spent comparing ourselves to others. Jealousy dwells in our hearts and we can’t help but wish that we had the talents of those around us. This jealousy doesn’t stop at material possessions or physical attributes, but permeates into our spiritual lives as well. We too often compare our faith to others and it’s no surprise that we often times come up short. The issue is that rather than taking steps to improve our faith, we doubt our own faith.
The problem is that we’re asking the wrong question. The truth is that no one can be Christian enough. There is not one perfectly righteous person on this earth and no one could ever earn God’s love and affection through any action. The scandal of grace is that despite our lack of perfection, He chooses to work in us.
I would like to suggest the idea that no, we’ll never FEEL Christian enough. There will always be someone who is “more spiritual” than us by our own broken standards. However, we are justified in Christ and that is what makes us Christian enough. So before you doubt how Christian you are, remember that your identify is in a perfect Christ who loves his imperfect children.
