I.D., Please!

Having to prove our identity has become a crucial part of living in our society.  We are asked to present our identification often.  Driver’s Licenses and Social Security Numbers are just a couple ways of making sure we are who we say we are.  We are also identified on a regular basis in a less concrete way.  We are given identity in the crowd we run with.  Everyone seems to have some kind of stereotype.  Are you the brawny-but-brainless jock, or the puny nerd?  Everyone identifies with something.  Our hobbies, jobs, musical taste, ideas, and ideals all give us personality.  They help us “identify” ourselves.  However, as Christians we’re called to identify with Christ.  Ephesians 4:24 says, “And to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (NIV)  So our nature, our identity, is to be conforming to Christ if we are in Him, right?  Then it doesn’t matter the stereotype, or the jobs we have, and the clothes we wear.  
See, in Christ we are given a new name, and a new identification.  We are children of the Most High God, and although one may be homeless or a slave in this life, we must cling to our heavenly identification above all others.  However, when we try to identify with the hobbies we have, or the car we drive, there will be problems.  We were never meant to have a name for ourselves, but to further Christ’s name.  John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (ESV)  When we identify with the identities of this world, we say that we must increase.  We say that my career, my lifestyle, my hobbies are more important than Christ living through me.  This is an extremely dangerous statement, because God is a jealous God, and doesn’t do well with idols. (Exodus 34:14)  Something will go amiss with those identities, and then the world will come crashing down.  We won’t know who we are unless we find our identity in Christ, the constant, Everlasting One.  In Him we’re no longer basketball players, novel writers, and grocery store clerks.  We are the body of Christ and we claim that name over our identities in this world.  “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28, NIV) ~ Sophia Wise