What is being a Christian supposed to change in your life?

When you become a Christian, it doesn’t only alter what you do on Sundays. It doesn’t mean that you have to stop swearing and gossiping, but still live every other bit of your life just like you used to. Following Christ changes every aspect of life.

Though Christ changes your whole life, everything He changes is way too much to talk about here. For now, I am going to focus on 3 main aspects of life that being a Christ-follower impacts.

1. Christ changes how we spend our time.

How did you spend your time before you were a Christian? Or, if you’ve been a Christian as long as you can remember, how did you spend your time before you were mature in your faith?

How I spent my time before knowing Christ was completely different from how I spend my time now. I didn’t care about dedicating time to godly things before I followed Christ, so I didn’t dedicate my time to godly things. How you spend your time as a Christian should not be the same as how non-Christians spend their time.

Spending time in the Bible and in prayer is an essential part of the Christian life. It’s how we get to know Jesus. To become intimate with someone, you have to talk to them (a reason we pray) and listen to them (why we read the Word).

Sometimes, it takes sacrifice to spend time with Jesus. Maybe while your family is fast asleep, you wake up early to read the Bible. Maybe you decide to put down your phone and spend time in prayer. Maybe you skip the afternoon nap you usually take to spend time with God.

When we get to know Christ, He shows us what is important and what is not. Reading the Bible is important. So is sharing the Gospel and building relationships with people. Watching Youtube or reading a good book is fun, but shouldn’t come first. We should seek to devote our time to things that are important to Christ.

Are you spending your time in a way that glorifies God?

2. Christ changes how we interact with others.

“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.’” (Mark 12:31).

To love Jesus, we must also love others. “He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20). Our love for others should flow out of our love for God.

Loving others may mean giving up our time for them, encouraging them, and serving them rather than serving ourselves. These actions flow from deep-rooted respect and love for our fellow creatures. God created everyone around you and He loves them, and we should remember that while interacting with others.

We should try to see others through God’s eyes and not their labels. We may only see the bad or good things someone has done, but God sees them as a beloved human who has gone astray.

Jesus loves us so much that he died on the cross for us. What if we showed a fraction of that love to others? How would the world change?

We should also remember that when the Bible tells us to love our neighbor, it isn’t only referring to fellow Christians. We should show Christ-like love to everyone, though it may be hard.

One of the ways we should strive to love others is by sharing the Gospel. We have news that can save people’s lives - and we have the responsibility to share it. I can’t think of a better way to love someone than to share the best news ever with them.

The Bible says that the world will know we are Christians by the way we love each other (John 13:35). Are you loving your brothers and sisters in Christ? Does your love look like the world’s love, or does it look like Christ’s love?

3. Christ changes our purpose and cares.

When I was of the world, I cared about the things of the world. Now that I am in Christ, I care about things that matter to Him. Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above; not things of this world.

What did you care about before you came to Christ? It could have been school, work, or sports. And you can still care about those things! But since you are a Christian, Christ is now supposed to come first. Your care for other things should flow out of how much you care for Christ.

Jesus has begun a work in Christians that will be completed when He returns to Earth - He is conforming us to His image. Since we are being conformed to His image, we should care about what Christ cares about. What makes Him happy should make us happy, and what troubles Him should trouble us.

Jesus completely changes our cares. He gives us a passion for things that we didn’t have a passion for before. I never wanted to read the Bible before I was a Christian, but I care immensely about the Word now.

When our cares change, our purpose also changes. My main goal in life now is to serve and glorify Christ. Before I was a Christian, I was purposeless and my life didn’t seem to have much meaning.

My purpose is to advance the kingdom of God. What’s yours? What has Christ changed in your life?

Note: If you want to read something more in-depth, I recommend the book This Changes Everything by Jaquelle Crowe (If you know me in person, I’d be happy to lend it to you).