Remember Who You Are
This is a message excerpt from a message called Battling Identity Theft. You can watch it here by clicking on this link: https://vimeo.com/220357580
When the great Apostle Paul discovered that one his favorite churches was beginning to drift back into old vices of prostitution, malicious gossip, rage, and so on, he decided to give these followers of Christ a refresher course in what it means to be a follower of Christ. That refresher course is the book of Ephesians, which we have in our Bible.
How does Paul open his refresher course? Basically, all he does in the first three chapters of Ephesians is say, “Remember who you are, remember who you are, remember who you are. Remember how God loves you, remember how he dumped his mercy on you, remember how he stepped into your life when you were spiritually dead and gave your soul CPR. Remember how he brought Jewish people and non-Jewish people together in one body, the church.” He really doesn’t tell them to do anything for three chapters, which to me exhibits incredible patience. If I had started the church here at Ephesus and I heard that there was theft, gossip, and immorality going on, my letter would start with, “Get your act together!” But Paul doesn’t do that. In the first three chapters, he talks about identity—“Remember who you are.”
Look at the opening sentences we read in Ephesians 1:4-5: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will...”
In accordance with his pleasure and will he adopted the Ephesian Christians—this is not some begrudging, reluctant adoption; rather, Paul says it brought God pleasure. He wanted to. The only way into his family is by adoption.
Remember Who Brought You In
Our tendency is to read a passage of Scripture like that and see it through 21st century American eyes rather than through 1st century eyes. But to really understand the Scriptures we can’t just ask the question, “What does this mean to me?” We must start by asking, “What did this mean to them?” How did people in Ephesus experience and view adoption? To do that, let’s imagine what it was like back then.
When Paul writes to the church in and around Ephesus and says that God adopted them, he is writing to a culture where babies were routinely abandoned. Outside the eastern gate of Ephesus, there was a garbage dump where people would frequently bring babies they did not want.
Have you ever been dumped? Dumped by a fiancé? Dumped by a spouse? Dumped by a kid who shut you out? Dumped by a company? Have you ever run a business and invested in an employee only to have them join a competitor, taking your customers with them? Has any of this ever happened to you?
Right at the beginning of this refresher course Paul says, “Remember that you belong. Your most defining moment is not who threw you out but who brought you in. He picked you out, he picked you up, and he brought you into his family.” Let that sink into your heart.
