Who is a Christian?

Wikipedia says that "The Greek word Χριστιανός (Christianos)—meaning "follower of Christ"—comes from Χριστός (Christos)—meaning "anointed one" —with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership."

1 Corinthians 5 says; "But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

So here Paul is (apparently) saying to 'kill them all and let God sort them out'. Jesus may have disagreed with his choice of dinner companions.

1 Corinthians 4:5 says; "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes."

Paul writes this only moments before. You can find this dichotomy in his rhetoric throughout his writings if you're reading it with an open mind. This has led me to think of Paul as a bit psychotic. Not that being mentally deranged is a bad thing! I rather enjoy it myself! But I don't expect people to follow my dictates slavishly.

Galatians 1 says; "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!"

One must assume at this point that Paul doesn't even realize how often he preaches a gospel other than the one that Jesus Himself did. Psychotic? Schizophrenic? Egomaniacal?

Galatians 2 says; "When Peter came to Antioch, I told him face to face that he was wrong."

Here Paul is telling us that Jesus beloved disciple Peter, the 'rock' on whom He would build His church, is wrong, and Paul 'judged' him harshly, publicly, and in perpetuity.

2 Peter 2 says; "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Hebrews 6 says; "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned."

From these two quotes in Hebrews and 2 Peter one might assume that Jesus' parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20) is null and void. What about Peter and the rest of the disciples? How do they fit into this?

My point is simply this; a Christian is someone who attempts to adhere to the message of Jesus Christ as much as possible. I both 'adhere to' His teachings and 'belong to' Him as His servant. Because of this, my rather direct reading of the Wikipedia definition, I believe myself to be a 'Christian'. If the definition of Christian is expanded beyond that of Wikipedia to mean 'a follower of Paul', then I have no comment... but I haven't found that definition anywhere nor have I found anyone who will admit to practicing 'Paulianity', even while they are in fact doing so.

My own interpretation of this means that Paul was a false prophet in at least some sense of the definition that Jesus gave us. Does that mean I am saying (figuratively) to Paul that 'I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.'? Of course it doesn't. Paul had some beautiful stuff to write.

But he wasn't Jesus, the Son of God. When I hear a 'cafeteria Christian' pick and choose passages to support their own prejudice and their own selfish means the words 'false prophet' start pinging in my head. Paul is the Grand Poobah of false prophets. He wrote so much stuff that can be taken out of context so easily all the while being a frustrated and driven man. I admire him greatly, but I do not idolize him.

I can tell a Christian by how well they follow the beatitudes.

When I was in rehab we had two to three meetings per day that were ended with the Lord's Prayer. Invariably there would be people complaining about and sniping at one another immediately after. Usually these were women who professed to be Christians, but, even moments after having asked God to 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us', they would go right back to cussing and ranting. I brought it up gently to a friend; she flipped me off and quit talking to me.

Christians follow the message of Jesus of Nazareth as best they can. Everything else is weeds. It's hard to tell the weeds from the wheat when you're nestled down among them, and when you wonder some days in which category you yourself fall, but there is a difference. Jesus gave us the parable. Jesus defined the difference.

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson