Who are you?
How would you define yourself?
This is an important question in our lives. We get to make the choice about who we want to be and how we want to be known. Some make this choice based on hobbies or jobs or music or how they dress. This is something I often times find myself thinking about, just who I am and how I want to be known and I must admit, I am not always very good at coming to an answer on these things.
In Luke 16:14-18 Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about who they are and what they were presenting themselves as. Jesus tells them this: "You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what's behind the appearance. What society calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous. God's Law and the Prophets climaxed in John (the Baptist); now its the Kingdom of God--the good news and compelling invitation to every man and woman. (MSG)"
Jesus reminds us of a few things here in our search to define who we are. First, we are part of the kingdom of God and therefore our outward appearance is of no consequence to who we are (after all, Jesus was poor and probably pretty ragged looking most of the time). And second, that God, who is the ultimate judge, is looking only for one definition of who we are. Are we defined by Christ? Now that doesn't mean we can't dress differently or listen to different music or have different hobbies, that's all apart of our God-given uniqueness. But ultimately, when it comes down to it, we need to be defined by Christ in us. That is why we have this, so we can work together to find out what that looks like. Who we are....in Christ.
This is an important question in our lives. We get to make the choice about who we want to be and how we want to be known. Some make this choice based on hobbies or jobs or music or how they dress. This is something I often times find myself thinking about, just who I am and how I want to be known and I must admit, I am not always very good at coming to an answer on these things.
In Luke 16:14-18 Jesus is talking to the Pharisees about who they are and what they were presenting themselves as. Jesus tells them this: "You are masters at making yourselves look good in front of others, but God knows what's behind the appearance. What society calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous. God's Law and the Prophets climaxed in John (the Baptist); now its the Kingdom of God--the good news and compelling invitation to every man and woman. (MSG)"
Jesus reminds us of a few things here in our search to define who we are. First, we are part of the kingdom of God and therefore our outward appearance is of no consequence to who we are (after all, Jesus was poor and probably pretty ragged looking most of the time). And second, that God, who is the ultimate judge, is looking only for one definition of who we are. Are we defined by Christ? Now that doesn't mean we can't dress differently or listen to different music or have different hobbies, that's all apart of our God-given uniqueness. But ultimately, when it comes down to it, we need to be defined by Christ in us. That is why we have this, so we can work together to find out what that looks like. Who we are....in Christ.
posted by Ryan at 8:20 AM
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