Ephesians 2:19-22
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
Throughout history, people have struggled with the question of identity. At some point every person has asked: Who am I? What is my purpose in life?
Society tries to answer the question of identity by labeling people via constructed categories. Marxists label by class, psychotherapists by childhood neuroses, politicians by party-affiliation, sociologists by generational profiles such as baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, etc.. More recently are activists who categorize people according to race, nationality, or sexual orientation.
The net result of these labels is confusion, conflict, and division.
At the heart of the search for identity are several fundamental questions: Am I the chance product of the impersonal forces of the physical universe? Do I find my identity externally in affiliation with a particular social group or culture? Is my identity found internally in my passions and personal preferences?
Or is my identity found in the God who created me? And if I am created by God, what is his purpose for my life?
Without a truth-based answer to these fundamental questions, we are easily seduced into pursuing a false identity shaped by our own preferences and passions, or we try to find meaning by aligning ourselves with assumed or assigned social categories. Either way, it is a life that cannot be fulfilled. For American society, it fuels the kind of bitter conflict we are currently experiencing.
Seeking identity apart from the God who created us and redeemed us is a quest that is destined for frustration and failure. It also makes us terribly vulnerable to spiritual and social forces that seek to deceive us, divide us, and destroy us.
The book of Ephesians provides an answer the question of identity. In the first part of Chapter 2, Paul makes it clear that the identity of the followers of Christ is not found in ethnicity or nationality. Identity is not found in being “Jew” or “Gentile.” The followers of Christ come from every nation and tribe, and yet are united in one fellowship … one spiritual community … the community of the King.
No matter their ethnic background, the followers of Jesus “are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
In the last part of Chapter 2, Paul describes the fellowship of Christians by using three familiar models. He pictures the new Christian community as God’s kingdom, God’s family, and God’s temple.
God’s kingdom: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and …”.
God’s family: ” …members of the household of God.”
God’s temple: ” …built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
We were created to live and work in relationship to God and in fellowship with his people. Sin distorted us, and it disconnected us from God and from who he created us to be. The good news is that Jesus has redeemed us, reconciled us to God and each other, and re-connected us to our true identity as children of the Creator.
May we live every day in a way that reflects the reality of our identity in Christ, and may the fellowship we have with other Christians display the love and unity to which the Lord calls us.
