Granted, humanity might judge people in that manner to see whether or not a person is a Christian. However, God tells us that the world will know we're his disciples by the love we have one for another. The love that we have for each other cannot be mustered up by us imitating our role model. Jesus taught to basically behave. He was teaching under the Old Covenant. We shouldn't steal, we shouldn't kill, we shouldn't commit adultry, we shouldn't lust, we shouldn't get mad and explode... we should do good works in secret... the list goes on. However, if we were to look at an authentic Buddhist, we would quite possibly see someone 'doing' those same deeds. On the outward side, all that makes us are morally decent people. Any religion could possibly have its share of philanthropists. What sets the "authentic Christian" apart from any other morally decent person?
Life.
Not just temporal life, but eternal life. That life can only be found in the person of Christ Jesus. We don't earn it, we don't muster it up from within... the only place we can receive that Life is through Jesus Christ.
So how do we measure ourselves? Don't. Don't judge yourself (or others) by how good or bad we (they) are. An authentic Christian will fall flat on their faces on more than one occasion. The authentic Christian will not always be the person who never yells, never says no, never misses a church service. No, the authentic Christian is just like you and me--with the life of Christ living within them. If we start getting worked up on who's authentic and who's simply playing church, have we not moved ourselves into the role of Holy Ghost jr? That's one of the many nice things about the Holy Spirit. He's the Holy Spirit, so we don't have to be. :-)
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