Why I Am a Christian: Probably Not for the Reasons You Think
By Abbot-Bishop Brian Ernest Brown, CWC
I am a Christian, but not for the reasons many would assume. I am not a Christian because I was raised in a religious home. I wasn’t. My family claimed the word Baptist, but we never darkened a church door, never prayed together, never practiced any discernible faith. Whatever Christianity was, it was not handed to me as an inheritance. I discovered it, stumbled into it, and was ultimately claimed by it in a way that felt less like conversion and more like recognition.
I am not a Christian because of the promise of heaven or the threat of hell. Truthfully, I don’t know what awaits us beyond this life, and I have never pretended certainty. The afterlife, whatever it may or may not be, has never been the fuel that drives my faith. I do not follow Christ because He offers celestial rewards or because I fear eternal torment. If the Gospel were nothing more than a cosmic bargain, eternal bliss for proper belief, it would not move me. Transactional religion repulses me. Fear-based salvation repulses me. Prosperity-gospel fantasies repulse me even more.
I am also not a Christian because it is socially advantageous to be one. In fact, it often isn’t, especially when one tries to follow Jesus rather than the cultural brand that often bears His name. I am certainly not a Christian to win approval, gain influence, or wield some divine credit card for earthly success. None of that has ever held the faintest attraction for me.
The truth is far simpler and far deeper.
I am a Christian because of Jesus, because of those red letters I first read in a Sunday school classroom as a child of five years old during Vacation Bible School, long before I understood theology, doctrine, or ecclesiastical life. Even as a child, I sensed something in those words that was unlike anything else in the world. They did not demand my fear; they awakened my heart. They did not threaten me; they invited me. They did not promise me treasure; they offered me truth.
It was the commandment to love one another.
It was the insistence that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
It was the call to love God with our whole being, to bless those who curse us, to do good to those who persecute us.
It was the unwavering demand to care for “the least of these.”
It was the Beatitudes, those startling, world-upending blessings on the poor, the grieving, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers.
I became a Christian because these teachings rang true to me in a way nothing else ever had. They still do.
I am a Christian because Jesus revealed a way of living that felt honest, compassionate, courageous, and profoundly human. He showed us a love that was not transactional, not earned, not bartered, not withheld until we behaved correctly, but unconditional, freely given, poured out. A love that confronted injustice without replicating it. A love that lifted the lowly without exalting itself. A love that could be crucified but not defeated.
And I mean this sincerely: I would still follow Jesus even if Calvary had been the end of His story.
Even if there were no resurrection accounts, even if there were no promises of eternal life, even if the Gospel offered nothing beyond this single fragile journey on earth, I would still follow Him. Because the way of Jesus is a beautiful, good, and honest way to live. Because His teachings are the only ones that have ever taught me how to love and how to be loved. Because through Him I have learned what compassion costs and what it heals. Because He showed me a God I can actually believe in.
The Old Testament is sacred and meaningful, but I am a Christian because I follow Christ. For me, all of Scripture is commentary on Jesus. He is the lens, the key, the interpretive center. His words, His life, and His witness are the measure by which everything else must be read and understood. The Ten Commandments matter, but the Beatitudes cut deeper. They do not merely tell us what not to do; they reveal who we are called to become.
This is why I am a Christian.
Not for reward.
Not for fear.
Not for cultural belonging.
Not for certainty.
I am a Christian because Jesus taught me how to live and how to love.
I am a Christian because, in His words, I found a truth that felt like home.
I am a Christian because His way makes the world more merciful, and because following Him makes me more human.
And if this life is all there is, I would still choose His path.
Every time.
Love,
+B