Are You A CINO – Sunday Thought For The Day

I know Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ was crucified is still months away on the calendar, but what about in the hearts of mankind?  Specifically those who call themselves Christians.  The truth be told, for many, if not tragically most of those who attend church regularly and those who attend church when they haven’t other plans; the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means little if anything even on the day it is observed.  That is an eternally damning indictment of the Christendom today.

Many of the aforementioned do not know that the followers of Christ were first called Christians in the Syrian city of Antioch.  It was characteristic of the Antiochians to identify the followers of recognized men with nicknames, e.g., Herodians for the political followers of Herod and Aristotelians in the philosophical constructs.  Sometimes the nicknames were a form of satire and mockery.  Such was the “nickname” given to the followers of Christ, which was Christian, i.e., Christ’s men.

“Still, in their groping way, they had put their finger on the fact that the one power that held this heterogeneous mass together, the one bond that bound up ‘Jew and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free’ into one vital unity, was a personal relation to a living Person. And so they said – not understanding the whole significance of it, but having got hold of the right end of the clue – they said, ‘They are Christians!’ ‘Christ’s people,’ ‘the followers of this Christ.”

And their very blunder was a felicity. If they had called them ‘Jesuits’ that would have meant the followers of the mere man. They did not know how much deeper they had gone when they said, not followers of Jesus, but ‘followers of Christ’; for it is not Jesus the Man, but Jesus Christ, the Man with His office, that makes the centre and the bond of the Christian Church.” (McLaren’s Expositions)

Christ was crucified for our sins!  His crucifixion is not to be used as a badge of weakness, a testimony of compromise, as a means of satisfying earthly lusts and desires, and He most certainly wasn’t crucified to have His Name used as curse words.  I pity those who think using the Name of Christ as such is okay, because short of them repenting the recompense for their actions is unspeakable.

In Antioch the follower’s of Christ were recognized, because they were truly recognizably different on every quantifiable level including and specifically as Paul wrote: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Galatians 5:24 KJV)

Today many, if not most of the churches and those who claim the Name of Christ, are nothing more than CINOs, i.e., Christians in name only.  Today’s scripture reading, if we dare to be truthful with ourselves, will tell each one of us if we are living sanctified lives, experiencing victory over sin, growing in Christian character all of which are produced by and through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Not self-effort.  If we have not crucified the flesh we are at best carnal Christians, and at worst the only affiliation we desire with Christ is the name to wear like a club badge when beneficial.

READ:
Galatians 5:16-26 KJV
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.