And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear the words you say, but they will not do them; for with their mouths they show much love, but their hearts go after and are set on their [idolatrous greed for] gain. – Ezekiel 33:31, Amplified Bible (AMP)

What makes a Christian a Christian? If you were to take a microphone and conduct your own “man on the street” impromptu interviews, you’d likely get a lot of different answers. The most common answer, however, would probably go something like, “Someone who believes that Jesus Christ is God.”

For the average person, “believing” that Jesus Christ is God entails a whole lot of mental acknowledgement and very little actual following. In other words, the average “Christian” does exactly what the Israelites of Ezekiel’s day did: they go to church, they listen to the preacher’s message, they claim with their mouths that they love God, and then they live their daily lives in pursuit of their own goals, not God’s. As I read my Bible, such “belief” is a recipe for the destruction of those whole flippantly call themselves “God’s people.”

Mentally believing that Jesus Christ is God is nothing special, and it definitely does not award someone a trip to Heaven at death. As James 2:19 (AMP) tells us:

You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!

What awards someone eternal life is letting go of one’s sin, turning to Christ, and grabbing hold of Him and His free gift of salvation. When we love our sin, it is as if we are giving a big bear hug to our sin. While hugging our sin, our back is to God. We may acknowledge He is there, but we are relying on the sin that we are hugging to bring fulfillment to our lives. When we repent, we stop bear hugging our sin, and we turn around and bear hug Christ instead. Now, our back is to sin, and we look to Christ for life’s fulfillment, and for the promise of eternal life.

True faith brings true transformation because our affections have changed. When our affections remain with our sin, we are either like the Israelites of Ezekiel’s day: claiming we know God while actively worshipping our idols. Or, we are like the carnal Christians of the Corinthian church: saved, but so wordly no one can tell us apart from unbelievers.  When our affections are truly set upon Christ, our Christianity is no longer a mental acknowledgement of God’s existence followed by an empty, outward show of holiness (like the Pharisees). It becomes a mental acknowledgement that sin will be with us until we die, but our hearts long for and follow Christ, producing a Christ-like character that even those unfamiliar with Christianity will recognize as “different.”

When your affections belong to your sin, it will influence how you behave, and people will notice it. When your affections belong to Christ, it will influence how you behave, and people will notice it.  In both cases, God will also notice how you are behaving. And, He will notice what your are loving – your sin or Him.

Is your heart set on idolatrous greed for gain? Or, is your heart set on the worshipful pursuit of everything that is God? Look to your behaviors, and you’ll be able to tell who you are bear hugging.

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