What's So "Christian" about Christianity?

At what point does something become "Christian?"  Is there a certain level of activity that once passed the activity then becomes a "Christian" one?  Or is there a critical-mass, a minimum number of Christians needed to be present in order to make any activity "Christian?"  Or, is Christianity merely a quality of any activity that Christians perform?  Is all music Christian or is there a specific genre to be called "Christian?"

While the above questions may seem tedious if not frivolous, the questions might not seem so ridiculous whence we consider how flippantly activities may be deemed "Christian."  But it is precisely this thing that many Christians find themselves trying to ask on a regularly basis.  It has practical ramifications, for the Christian is called to live out his/her Christianity in every aspect of that life.  So the question becomes real at the moment of turning belief into lifestyle.  How we answer this question, then, is important.

There is a propensity to consider any thing that a Christian does to be, by that regard, a "Christian" thing, as if the fact that a Christian was involved transforms one activity from a non-Christian one to a Christian one.  To belay the Christian-ness of any activity to the adherents of that activity would be to amputate Christianity from the very thing that makes the Christian Christian.  For that, one only needs to examine the prefix that predicates Christianity: Christ.

We should never forget this utterly irrevocable truth: Christ makes Christians.  It is Jesus of Nazarene as conferred by the Gospels that changes a person from non-Christian to Christian.  The determinant of Christianity is, as it were, Christ Jesus Himself.  So, to answer any of the aforementioned questions, it is at the very moment that Christ Jesus takes precedent and primacy that anything becomes Christian.  In the end, what makes anything "Christian" is its interaction with Christ.

If Christ is met with praise and penitence then it is, in fact, "Christian."  The involvement of Christians is rendered a moot consideration, for they do not make Christianity; Christians are entangled with Christianity only as Christians connect with Christ Himself.  This is it.  It should also compel us to think of what makes up Christianity in terms not concerned with Christians, it turns out, but Christianity is defined by its connection to Christ.

The Glory of God Shining through Us

Lately, I've been working my way through 2 Corinthians and every time I get to the second chapter I am struck by this:

"Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?  For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory." (2 Cor 3:7).

Paul is retelling the events of Exodus 33:17-23 and 34:29-35, when Moses requests for God to reveal His face to him.  God allows Moses to see His back, and the glory shines on Moses so brightly that when he comes down the mountain, his countrymen cannot even gaze at his face because it shone so blindingly.

Now compare this to Hebrews 1:3--"He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power."

The thought comes, then, if Christians bear the image of Christ through faith, should not our faces shine with such radiant brillance that the world and those in it can barely look at us because of the light that shines through us?  And if we are not shining with such splendor, is Christ truly living within us?