When you apply your faith to your life in a serious way, you say you are a 'practising' member of that faith.
My first question is, which religion do you claim to believe in?
My other question is, do you practice that same religion, or a different one?
A common idea in our current culture is that being a Christian mostly means being a nice person. This view is even held by some people who call themselves Christians.
This is understandable. As anyone could point out, the God of the Christian Bible told humans to not kill each other, to give fair wages, to respect your parents and be kind to your neighbours. All of these are found in scripture. But a person who founds their religion on these things is not actually practising Christianity- they are practising Judaism.
The infamous laws, including the ten commandments, are found in the Old Testament. This part of the Bible is the totality of what Jewish people call their holy scriptures. Their understanding of God, and of how to get on in life, is built on rules and regulations. Do's and dont's. So a person who bases their religion on rules such as "be nice to thou neighbour" is closer to Judaism than Christianity.
The New Testament, however, is where God decided to finally say to humanity "Do you see now that rules aren't enough?" In the New Testament, Jesus said that by trusting in Him- God's chosen man with a plan- a person can trust in something more powerful than rules. They are trusting in God's gift. In amazing grace.
It's true that you start to change once in relationship with the creator of the universe. But the growth (not without stumbles) of love in a Christian's heart is neither a means or an end. It is a by-product of the most important and powerful relationship ever known to man, the one between himself and God.
A Christian practises trust in God.
A Jew practises trust in rules.
See another post about Morals...
Image Source: http://blog.vroomvroomvroom.com/2011/03/company-rules.html
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