What do you think of first when you are asked what defines you?
Maybe it’s your gender. Or it might have been your skin color. Possibly you thought of your career. There are a number of things you might have thought of first but most of those things don’t actually define you.
For a period of my life, I defined myself as a woman. That was it. Is that all that I come to, though? My gender? No. However, the reason that I defined myself that way was because of how some people treated me. Some people outside of my family told me that I couldn’t be a pastor because of my gender. After crying, the first thing I did was look in the mirror and think, “It’s not my fault I’m a woman.” That right there was some of the most dangerous words I could have ever thought. My mindset had shifted from “I’m a child of God” to “I’m a woman.”
See, when you define yourself the way the world wants you to, you end up saying things like, “I’m a man,” “I’m a woman,” “I’m black,” “I’m white,” and on and on. This opens you up to worlds of offenses. Instead of being strongly settled in “I am a child of God,” which is something that no one can take from you, we lean toward descriptors that can be used against us.
If all you see yourself as is the outside of your body, any comment about the outside of your body will probably set you on edge, even if it wasn’t derogatory. That’s just the way it is. If women define themselves by their genders, they start claiming that they are “lesser than man” and need to be “given their due.” If people define themselves by the color of their skin, they start to claim certain colors of skin are this and that instead of realizing we are all human.
You can either let your outside appearance be a beautiful wonder of who God made you to be, or it can be what sets you against others.
And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. Galatians 3:27-29
New Living Translation
Paul is informing Christians that they are no longer defined by their outward appearance. God now defines them. Basically, he is telling Christians they have nothing left to separate them. They are all children of God so they should be able to get along.
Did you realize the significance of the statement that there is no longer Jew or Gentile? That statement was like when segregation in America was ended. Jews and Gentiles were segregated until under Jesus they were brought together. So, to separate ethnicities in the church is against what God did through Jesus. Jesus broke down all the separating walls and we shouldn’t try to put them back up.
Also, when Paul said that Christians weren’t defined by male and female, he is NOT supporting transsexual or homosexual. This statement can only be properly understood if the context is understood. In Jewish culture, women were viewed as lesser than and were forbidden to do many things. Therefore, Paul is stating that, for Christians, there are no longer boundaries forcing women out. All are equal under God. So, no woman should claim that they are less than because Jesus fixed that, and no woman should ever try to make a man less than because God views both as equal.
I urge you to look at yourself differently. Don’t define yourself how the world wants you to because that opens you up to treat others harshly. Instead, realize who you are on the inside, a truly loved and adored child of God. Embrace that and you’ll find it is a lot harder for people to offend you.
