Once when I had a one-on-one Bible study, one of the most impressive questions was “Are you a Paul-like Christian or Timothy-like Christian?” The meaning of this question was, “do you have a relationship with Jesus like Paul who met Jesus personally on the way to Damascus, or like Timothy who is a descendant of a good Christian mom and grandmother?” This is a good question which can make us reflect on the present state of our faith.

Wikipedia gives us a statistic that 73.6% of Americans believe that they are Christians. However, many of them might be “cultural Christians,” and the percentage of “spiritual Christians” is likely less.

A cultural Christian is a Christian who was born in Christian family, in a Christian country, and raised in a Christian background from the beginning of his or her life. He or she will go church once a year on Christmas Day, but he or she says, “I’m a Christian.” He or she doesn’t live on the foundation of Biblical values nor follows them but thinks himself or herself a Christian. 

On the other hand, spiritual Christians put their life values on the Bible and try to follow the rule of Biblical principles. Are we cultural Christians or spiritual Christians? I hope that this question can be an indicator of our life today.

In John 1, there are two men, Philip and Nathanael. Both of them loved God. Although, Nathanael waited for the Messiah eagerly, but he didn’t expect for Him to be born in a small town, Nazareth, and that He was Jesus. Nathanael was a man who knew the Old Testament, and was a true Israelite, in whom there was nothing false, but he didn’t have any experience meeting Jesus personally. However, Philip reached out him and said “come and see Jesus.”

Nathanael was a learned man with knowledge of God’s Word and was raised up in a Godly background after his birth. Absolutely he is a Godly man. But he didn’t have that personal experience. To this Nathanael, Philip stretched his hand to him and said to meet Jesus because the identity of Christians can be formed by education, but the attitude of Christian life comes from our experience. 

Are you a cultural Christian or spiritual Christian? Are you Philip or Nathanael? Do you know someone around you who attends church but doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus?

Now you can look around to reach out and say, “come and see” for them to meet Jesus personally.