In 2019, 14.4 million adults in the U.S. became victims of identity fraud — that is about 1 in 15 people. Overall, 33 percent of U.S. adults have experienced identity theft, which is more than twice the global average. One in five victims of identity theft has experienced it more than once. We live in times where our identity is something to be protected.
Your identity is something that is formed. Identity is defined as who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that make them different from others. We often self-identify by our gender, geography, education, hobbies, politics, clubs, schools, organizations, likes and even dislikes. Our identity is who we say we are and who others see we are. It is how we describe ourselves and others experience us.
In Galatians Paul writes …
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26–28
In the first century church, your identity was preset by your family, your trade or livelihood, social status, financial resources or religious faith. You might be a poor Jewish woman, a rich Gentile family, a fisherman, a carpenter, a slave, a master, a man or a woman, a Rabi or disciple.
Jesus comes along and looks at the heart ... not the identity that shaped people’s perceptions. As the Lord said to the prophet Samuel when he saw Eliab and thought this big tall handsome guy has to be the next king …
“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7
It is the heart that is the heart of the matter. This is where our true identity is. When we put on Christ, we relegate all other identities to the back of the line. There is an enemy that wants to steal your identity. He would rather you focus on the outward identities that we spend so much time on and value so highly. Satan would love for you to look down on and judge others because of their self-selected identities. All the while the only identity for those in Christ Jesus is that of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, children in the family of God. We are servants of the King; we are co-heirs with Christ and we are His church, His sheep, His disciples … His beloved. This is our identity and do not let any other identity try to rise above it to steal it or hide it from you and the world.
THIS WEEK: Spend some time reflecting on your identity in Christ and then write down those identities, those things about you that too often you hold in higher esteem or hold on too tightly to. Confess, repent and commit to your true identity in Christ.
-Dr. Jerry