ARE YOU A CONTAGIOUS CHRISTIAN?

Richard Kirkland

This question grows out of a comment from Ralph Weinholdt, a preacher and friend who lives in Dardanelle, AR. In a recent bulletin article he wrote:

Our Wednesday P.M. outreach class, Becoming a Contagious Christian continues to go well. This will provide some congregational training as we prepare to launch into our Caring and Sharing program after the first of the year. As I visit with preachers and receive reports across our brotherhood, I believe there is a better “spiritual atmosphere” for evangelism. It could be that many are beginning to sense the urgency in light of the world’s problems which are beyond human wisdom to fix.

The word contagious may be defined as: 1) capable of being transmitted by contact with an infected person; 2) tending to spread from one person to another. Christianity should spread from one person to another. This is how the church of Christ grew in its early days. The Bible says, “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47).

Even those who were not joining them respected those first Christians. But many were convinced to join them because what they believed and did was contagious! “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

Our community will “catch” our Christianity from us if we, like the Thessalonians, continue to “spread” our “work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). And if we make it our practice to “Love one another with brotherly affection” and “outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 2:10), our community will soon find themselves “infected” by the same kind of Christianity that has “infected” us. But, we must also realized that if we have the kind of Christianity that “neglects so great a salvation” (Hebrews 2:3) or “bites and devours one another” (Galatians 5:15) then we will “infect” our community with that same kind of Christianity also.

So, are we contagious? Let’s get out and about in our community and spread the “contagion” Christianity around!