A Basic, Unrecognized Christian Paradigm

This will be hard to articulate. I'll only vaguely get at it. 

To be a true Christian is to have a different level of being than the general run of humanity; and that has nothing to do with social hierarchy. A true Christian could be a ragged street sweeper and have this different level of being. I don't think he could be illiterate though. In fact, I don't think he could be without a deep education in higher influences, though not necessarily through establishment sources. Actually most definitely not through establishment sources. It's possible also to focus on just a handful of old path sources. I could envision that as being a small wooden shelf of a well-worn Bible, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, the Homeric epics, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I would add Ouspensky's Fourth Way for ancient - or New Testament - psychology, which is real psychology, and explains the ancient, simple formula for developing level of being (in a context of what systematic theology would call synergistic progressive sanctification as opposed to monergistic definitive sanctification). 

That formula being conscious labor, intentional suffering.

I said this will be hard to get at, and I don't really know where to go to from here. I have some visuals of a person who has experienced real suffering. Truly had his vanity and pride beaten down. His self-will exposed as empty. Not become humble so much as been humbled. Images of sitting in the dust as the world lords it over him. True separation. True separation from the world. 

I suppose the Book of Job could supply a lot of imagery and wisdom here.

You can be ragged and a nobody and be a true Christian, but you can't be a common dope and be a true Christian. The bar is set high, but the Holy Spirit enables one to meet and exceed that bar. The very effort - time-demanding, dedicated effort - to read and understand the Bible gets one ninety percent of the way there, methinks. It trains and equips one in what is needed. 

Of course you're picking up some armor and an awesome offensive weapon along the way. A miraculous shield as well. You're becoming a prophet, a priest, and a king.....on the King's Highway........with a real destination.