In order to understand how to NOT be a counterfeit Christian, we have to look at what it means to be a Christian. The definition of "Christian" is a follower of Christ, or someone who believes in Christ's teachings. Okay so how do we actually follow Christ? Is it by acknowledging his existence and living our lives the same as we would if we didn't know Him? Is it by simply striving to be the best we can be because we know that we are supposed to? Neither of those are the correct answer. What do you think it means? To really know, we first need to look back at the culture during the time of Christ. At this point in time, Rabbis were the most respected members of the community. Boys would begin schooling to become a rabbi (which means "teacher"), and by age ten, if they weren't able to memorize the Torah, then they were out. They went on to the next level of education of the Torah and the Jewish traditions while the rest of the students who couldn't keep up simply began to learn the trade of their family.
Rob Bell explains it best in his book Velvet Elvis. "Those remaining would now apply to a well known rabbi to become one of that rabbi's talmidim (disciples). We often think of a disciple as a student, but being a disciple was far more than just being a student. The goal of a disciple wasn't just to know what the rabbi knew, but to be just like the rabbi.. When a student applied to a rabbi to be one of his talmidim, he was desiring to take that rabbi's yoke upon him. He wanted to learn to do with the rabbi did. So when this student came to the rabbi and said, "I want to follow you," the rabbi wanted to know a few things: Can this student do what I do? Can this kid spread my yoke? Can this kid be like me? Does this kid have what it takes?" The rabbi would grill the student with question upon question about what he has been taught, simply because he wanted to know if the student could handle the training, and knew his stuff. If the rabbi believes that the student has what it takes, then he would say to him "Come, follow me."
The reason why they would say "Come, follow me," is because the student would actually follow the rabbi everywhere. He would leave his home and everything he has ever known in order to learn everything the rabbi knows and do everything the rabbi does. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ. He is our teacher; we are his talmidim.
I think a lot of people would be disqualified by the rabbi's standards. In order to truly follow Christ in this day and age, we have to constantly search for ways to do so by reading the Word and studying it daily. We need to pull our advice from the Bible and discuss every decision with Him before we make it. We have to really pay attention to what we learn about Him in the Bible, and when we are in difficult situations, we must seek Him to show us a way out.
So back to counterfeit Christianity. We know what it means to be a Christian, so how do we do that without making it counterfeit? Well, first we must start at the antonym of counterfeit: GENUINE. The word genuine means: truly what something is said to be. If we say we are a Christian, which now we know what that truly means, then we should act honestly in the way that a follower of Christ would. We must follow Christ with all that we are and seek to imitate Him in every way. But is that really possible? Can we actually be who we say we are 100% all the time?
In one sense, we are always going to be covering up something. It is practically impossible to be completely transparent with people all the time. But as far as the authenticity goes-- we don't need to act like the most knowledgeable Theologian or the best Greek scholar. We don't need to act is if we are equipped for the most hard-core debate of all time or even that we are invincible and don't have struggles. It matters that Christians do still struggle spiritually and that we sometimes doubt God. It matters that Christians still make mistakes and that we don't have the answer to every Theological question that comes our way. It matters that we aren't perfect--because only Jesus was.
The world needs to see that we have struggles but that we are forgiven. Others need to see that we don't know it all, but that we are willing to find out. Some need to see that we are accepting and loving even when someone doesn't know as much as we do or struggles with something more than us. The fact of the matter is that the key to being genuine is to understand Christ and to understand ourselves. We beat being counterfeit by realizing who we are, where we came from, and finally, acknowledging God's hand in our life every single day. He called us to be who we are for a reason, so why would we choose to be something else?
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