What the Bible Says About the Christian Definition

Scripture

¹ Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
² This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
³ Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
¹⁹ And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
²⁰ For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
²¹ But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

John 3:1-21

Romans 10:9-13: ⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
¹² For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
¹³ For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Acts 11:19-26: ¹⁹ Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
²⁰ But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
²¹ And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
²² The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
²³ When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose,
²⁴ for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
²⁵ So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
²⁶ and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

1 Peter 2:1-10: ¹ So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.
² Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
⁴ As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,
⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
⁶ For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
⁷ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
⁸ and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Galatians 2:15-21: ¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners;
¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
¹⁷ But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Ephesians 2:1-10: ¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1 John 3:1-10: ¹ See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
² Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
³ And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
⁴ Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
⁵ You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
⁶ No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
¹⁰ By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Colossians 3:1-17: ¹ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
⁴ When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
⁵ Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
⁶ On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
⁷ In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.
⁸ But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
⁹ Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.
¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
¹¹ Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,
¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Philippians 3:7-14: ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21: ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Matthew 16:24-28: ²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
²⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
²⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
²⁸ Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

John 15:1-17: ¹ “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.”
² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
¹² “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you.
¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
¹⁷ These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Romans 8:1-17: ¹ There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
⁷ For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
¹³ For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
¹⁵ For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27: ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
¹⁶ and if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.
¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be?
²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
²³ and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,
²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

James 2:14-26: ¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.
²⁰ Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
²² You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
²³ and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
²⁴ You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
²⁵ And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
²⁶ For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.