Stop Reading About Christ

Live a life through his teachings

I heard something recently that really stayed with me. I can’t remember the exact words or who originally said it, but the message was essentially this:

Stop reading about Christ. You don’t need another book. You don’t need another icon. You need to live the teachings of Christ.

And honestly, that hit me.

Because I think this is another reason why Orthodox Christianity has begun to make so much sense to me.

I’ve spent years searching through different spiritual traditions, and so much of spirituality can become about acquiring things — another book, another object, another symbol, another ritual, another altar, another thing that supposedly brings you closer to whatever you’re seeking.

And Christianity can become that too, if we’re not careful.

You can have an entire bookshelf about Christ.

You can have beautiful icons on your walls.

You can have the perfect prayer corner.

You can know the prayers.

You can know the theology.

You can know the history.

You can talk endlessly about Christ.

And yet still not actually live like Christ.

That’s the bit that really gets me.

Because what good is knowing everything about Christ if I’m not trying to live what He taught?

What good is having an icon of Christ if I’m not trying to see Christ in the person standing in front of me?

What good is reading His words every day if I don’t allow those words to change the way I behave?

And this brings me back to something I’ve been discovering about myself.

I don’t need another thing.

I don’t need to keep accumulating objects in order to prove my spirituality.

I don’t need my entire home to become a visual representation of my faith.

Yes, I have a prayer corner. I love the icons. I love the beauty, the incense, the prayers and the ancient traditions of Orthodoxy.

But those things aren’t the destination.

They point me towards Christ.

And then, at some point, I have to put the book down.

I have to step away from the icon.

I have to leave the prayer corner.

And live it.

Love people.

Forgive.

Show mercy.

Be humble.

Serve.

Don’t judge.

Care for the stranger.

Love your enemy.

Feed the hungry.

Visit the lonely.

Give without expecting anything back.

Because perhaps the greatest expression of my faith isn’t how many books about Christ I own, how many icons I have, or how beautifully I can arrange my prayer corner.

Perhaps it’s what happens when I walk out of my front door.

That’s where I have to live the Gospel.

And maybe that’s the simplest thing Christianity has taught me so far:

I don’t need to keep collecting things that point me towards Christ. I need to actually turn towards Christ — and then live as He taught me to live.