How do you "win" at Christianity? 🤔

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR A LIFE IN CHRIST

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The best way to learn any new game is to ask one simple question. “How do I win in this game?”Understanding first how you win the game gives you the foundation for how you will play the game. You can think of winning as the purpose or goal of the game. It’s the end result you want to see.

After that, you learn the rules—what you can and cannot do. You can think of the rules as the boundaries for the how the game is played. With the context of how the game is won, the rules make sense. If you were to learn the rules first, they would seem arbitrary—meaningless.

Finally you play the game. You learn the rest through experience. If you’re a smart player, you will look for strategies to succeed. If you’re a wise player, you will learn from the success and failures of others. You will then incorporate that learning into your own experience. And with games that are more complex you will, overtime, develop your own unique game-style.

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Now, let’s pretend for a minute that Christianity is like a game. How, then, do you “win” at Christianity? In other words, what is the goal of the Christian life? Take a second to answer that for yourself.

A quick search and you’ll get a combination of the following responses.

The goal of Christianity is to…

1. Preach the Gospel and change the world

2. Enter into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

3. Become a good and moral person

But none of those answers are the goal and purpose of the Christian life. And no, this isn’t some trick question. It’s important for us to understand and clearly define what the goal is. Because, like I said earlier, understanding first the goal gives us the foundation for how we will achieve the goal.

Let’s look at the first goal (that is to preach the Gospel and change the world) and see how that would play itself out. With that as your goal, you might be focused on preaching (like all the time) and getting others to convert to the faith. As more people convert, it will further confirm your goal and success. Numbers will become part of your narrative. You will also want to change the world, for the better. This could look like social activism—protesting for life, ending world hunger, being involved in your community, and the like. Your energy is focused externally.

This type of a Christianity does have a large appeal for people. I can see why. But why is this version of Christianity wrong? Well, this type of Christianity turns the Gospel into a social activist philosophy. The Gospel becomes a message of social change, for making this world better, more inclusive. And Jesus Christ becomes another teacher—the best teacher, even—among other teachers whose aim is similar.

But here’s the thing; it’s possible to live out your entire Christian life in the service of Jesus Christ, but with the wrong goal you will still completely miss the mark.

Don’t believe me? Listen to the words of Jesus Christ,

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me.”¹

This goal for Christianity focuses on establishing a Kingdom of Man, not a Kingdom of God. We will explore this specific version of Christianity and its nuances in a later publication.

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You might be asking, “So, what’s the goal of the Christian life?”

Here it is. Are you ready?

The goal of the Christian life is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Perhaps this doesn’t seem revolutionary to you. You’ve no doubt heard this phrase before. And you’re probably thinking, “Um, okay… so, what now?”

What happens now is that if you are to take on this goal, you will become a Kingdom-oriented person. All your thoughts, all your actions, all your decisions, now serve one purpose: to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. This requires that you have a moment of clarity. You look around and notice, as if for the first time, how far you truly are. You ready your ship. You take stock of your goods and consider what’s necessary to make the journey. You design a plan of action. You map out the boundaries. And then you begin your journey towards the Kingdom. A Kingdom, of which you hope you are a citizen. A King, whom you hope to have served well.

And when you dock on the port of the Kingdom, as we all will at the end of our lives, and you look into the eyes of your King you will want to be able to say the words, “I have fought the fight. I have finished the race.”² And the hope is that your King will greet you with the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master."³ And not be met instead with the words, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.”⁴

Therefore, getting clear on what the Kingdom of Heaven is, why this is the goal of our Christian life, how we go about reaching that goal, highlighting practical steps to getting there, and exposing potential pitfalls along the way will be the focus of future publications.

Today I leave you with the following quote from the Philokalia.

“The farmer willingly works the earth, enduring now the sun's heat and now the winter's cold, his immediate purpose being to clear it of thorns and weeds, while his ultimate goal is the enjoyment of its fruits. The merchant, ignoring dangers on land and sea, willingly gives himself to his business with the purpose of making a profit, while his goal is enjoyment of this profit.

Now our [life] also has its own ultimate goal, for the sake of which we willingly endure all manner of toil and suffering. Because of this, fasts do not cast us down, the hardship of vigils delights us; the reading and study of Scripture are readily undertaken; and physical work, obedience, stripping oneself of everything earthly, and the life here in this desert are carried out with pleasure.

We do it [all] for the Kingdom of Heaven.

We should therefore always have this [goal] in mind; and, should it ever happen that for a short time our heart turns aside from the direct path, we must bring it back again at once, guiding our lives with reference to our [goal]. If we forget this [goal] we cannot avoid frequently stumbling and losing our way, for we will be walking in the dark and straying from the proper path.”⁵

If you liked this publication and want to read more, please comment below.

1. Matthew 7:21-23 (ESV)

2. 2 Timothy 4:7 (ESV)

3. Matthew 25:23 (ESV)

4. Matthew 7:23 (ESV)

5. “On the Holy Fathers of Sketis and on Discrimination” by St. John Cassian, Philokalia Vol. 1