People are (and get) stuck in false religions, because to them, it is the ultimate identity. People seem to have an innate need to have identity in something. It consumes us. Think about it. We often ask someone we first meet what they do for a living because we think that we will have a quick grasp of who they are. This is because we tend to think that a person is what he or she does. Those of us who are not afraid to ask questions might ask what a person believes about the world. Perhaps what religion he or she might be.
Religions answer life’s fundamental questions, one of them being, “Who are we?” People often gravitate toward these answers that religions provide (even erroneous ones), to their questions. Take Buddhism for instance, some argue that it is not a religion, yet in interviewing Buddhists, they claim to have peace. Why? Often it boils down to the fact that their questions are answered. The problem with Buddhism, atheism, nones (which, if they were true nones, why do we know anything about them?), Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shinto, Mormons, Scientology, Baha’i, Daoism/Taoism, Islam, etc., is that they are all trying to answer these fundamental questions... and they ultimately (including Christianity), all have different answers, thus, violating the Law of Non-contradiction.
Now whether they are the right answers to life’s fundamental questions is necessarily debatable (because our eternity depends on truth!), but the point I am trying to make is that the reason people believe lies is ultimately because this is how the deceiver works… he wants people to identify with something that moves their feelings and emotions.
Therefore, it is often the case that it is so hard to witness to someone who believes that they have all their questions about life answered through his false religion. In other words, his identity is fixed, at least in his own mind. When discussing the truth of Christianity with another person, one must help them see that his identity is only in Christ. In other words, his identity must change... which is not an easy task. In fact, ripping someone away from what he falsely identifies in is often as painful for a person as ripping flesh, and some would even say that it is more painful than such.
I think the key to understanding this whole issue is found in 1 Corinthians. I believe that identity in Christ alone is what this letter is all about.
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 to start.
Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Corinth was defeated as a city in the 2nd century BC (146) by an invasion that reduced the city to basically ruins. The city was like this until Julius Caesar 98 years later (44 BC) founded the New city as a Roman colony. So, for 100 years, the city was like a ghost town. Then all the sudden Caesar liked where it was and placed freed slaves, tradesmen, and soldiers in the city. He saw the potential of the city and started sending people there. Caesar knew what he was doing. The city was being built back up to something not only useable, but flourishing. There were stragglers left over, people who literally had nothing who must have camped out in the rubble and ashes for several generations. But Caesar came and brought life back into the city. The people that were there knew nothing of what was good, because for several generations, nothing noteworthy was really going on in Corinth. People living there probably grew comfortable with what their life was like. Then all the sudden, they were invaded. Not necessarily in a bad way at first, but they were just never alone anymore. Caesar built this project into a huge city. In fact, it got so big that it became a major trading route, which only made it bigger.
There was an ancient geographer (among other things), named Strabo, who lived into the 1st century A.D., and wrote a geography book which some of the information therein is helpful for our look into ancient Corinth. He writes, “Corinth is said to be opulent from its mart. It is situated upon the isthmus. It commands two harbors, one near Asia, the other near Italy, and facilitates, by reason of so short a distance between them, an exchange of commodities on each side. As the Sicilian strait, so formerly these seas were of difficult navigation, and particularly the sea above Maleas, on account of the prevalence of contrary winds; whence the common proverb, “When you double Maleas, forget your home.”[1]
What Strabo is talking about is that in order for someone to go from Rome, Italy to Athens, Greece, they would have to sail around this horn of land in the sea, and because of the winds there, according to Strabo, it would often kill the sailors. Hence the proverb, “when you double Maleas, forget your home.” In other words, forget getting back to your home because you will likely die.
So, in order to combat this severely dangerous route, there was a service installed in the city, where one could take his ship to the Isthmus, which means neck, in Greek, and they would not only unload one’s cargo for a fee, but they would also take the boat out of the water and trailer it across the stretch of land into the Aegean Sea. So going from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea was not only not life threatening, but it was also much shorter. This trade route would save so much time and money for sailors, and the services that Corinth offered in this manner made the city enormous amounts of money. Everyone wanted to take this route instead of going around the deadly Cape Maleas.
As time went on, the Corinthian natives and those who the natives welcomed as their own, were absolutely infiltrated with culture from all over the world. The culture had an infinite shift, and the Corinthians were left swimming in a sea of wonder about who they were. The culture that was constantly growing turned from people living in tents, to people living in mansions. Like from tipis to houses… Not only mansions, but even a new language. When the city became a Roman colony, it was forced to use Latin instead of Greek.
Think about this for a moment. People invaded the land that was comfortably inhabited for 100 years… through several generations, the environment changed, the technology changed, and the language changed completely. From bronze to iron. Imagine sword fighting and your sword is literally cut in half by the swords of the Romans! Today that would be like from arrows to bullets!
The Corinthians to whom Paul is writing had an identity crisis. The contemporary thing to do was to climb to the top of the ladder of success. They would step on people to get to the top, and they would buddy up with those in power. The culture became an enormous push to be successful, and they would all kick and scream their way to the top. And Paul says, they were good at it.
Paul commends and encourages the Corinthians in the above passage. He says that in verse 5, “in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any gift.” Paul told the Corinthians that they were not lacking in any gift! But as we continue to read the letter, we find that the Corinthians are crazy beyond crazy. The major problem here is that they are putting their identity in their gifts. They were so good at earthly life, that to them, this is who they were. They had a hard time with identity because all these cultures from all over the world came and infiltrated their space. The culture did loop de loops until their own was all but forgotten.
Their identity was misplaced. They were torn between this new swirling conglomeration of culture with their own. They, like everyone, wanted the best of all worlds. Paul showed them that their identity is neither who they were nor who they would become. He explains that their identity is in Christ alone. Paul says, they are “Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” This is why they will be sustained until the end. Because their identity is not in anything but the one who lives forever.
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| When Rome influenced Corinth |
I think that everyone values the idea of being accepted in some form or another. We want to be inherently valued. It seems that the same issue of an identity crisis is with those who are transgender. Often, the argument from transgender is that no gender is better than another, yet those who are transitioning from male to female or vice versa, are living as if one gender is better than the other. Trying to show someone that their identity is not in his or her gender is just as hard of a task to diffuse. On top of this, people try to say that some people are “born gay,” but in honor of Zeno, to reduce this to absurdity, this is like asking a 6 month old baby boy if he likes men or women sexually speaking. Also, twin studies prove that there are no gay genes (for instance, why does one twin turn out to be heterosexual and the other homosexual?). Another argument I frequently hear is that homosexuality is normal. But the problem is that if normalcy were the highest moral order, then Nazi Germany would still exist.
As the reader can see, there is an extreme identity crisis in the world today, and the pattern of such has not gone by the wayside, for at least two millennia. This is just another reason to see how Satan has his methods, and that we can see his tracks in the snow. 1 Corinthians results in what an identity crisis looks like, but there is an answer, as I have already alluded to, which is that we identify in Jesus alone. Jesus values us because we are His. This is where we get our true, inherent value as human beings.
Again, in 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, one reads deeper into the Corinthians’ identity crisis.
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
The Corinthians cannot seem to figure out what they want to identify in. We just discovered that they were having an identity crisis, now they want to be a part of some imaginary camps that fall under the leadership of the men listed in the passage.
The big question of identity is, “With whom shall we identify?” A modern answer includes the options we discussed in the beginning of this article… Joseph Smith, Muhammad, Charles T. Russell, Buddha, Baha’u’llah, etc., but the question should be, are any of them the right answer? The thing is, Jesus never wanted to be a mere mascot. He wants to be the Savior of the Corinthians, and our Savior. In Him we are united. In Him we have inherent value. People get stuck in false religions and led astray because of identity issues, and these things are still happening today.
In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, it seems that the focus has shifted in the Corinthians minds, but the idea is the same. They are forgetting that they as Christians should be identifying in Christ alone, so they go out into the world to fix their Christian problems. Paul’s mind is about to explode.
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
I like how at the end of his rebuke, he reminds them who they are: “…You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” Ultimately, this passage is saying that a Christian is getting someone outside of that which he is supposed to identify, outside of his identity circle, in order to fix the problems that he is having within his identity circle, which is the community of God.
Paul is saying throughout this passage that there is a specific circle, this circle is the community of God. This is where the identity of a Christian lies. There is another circle, which is absolutely everything else. In this circle lies a false identity. A hopeless identity. This would include identifying in anything that is sin, obviously, like if a Christian were thinking that homosexuality, or abortion, or living together before marriage were an acceptable practice for a Christian, then he would have a foot in both of these circles, which Paul is saying does not work. Similarly, sometimes people identify as a Christian, but also as a—fill in the blank. It does not work that way. A Christians first and foremost identity is in Christ. Not in “Christ and…” It would also include identifying in heritage. One’s first and foremost identity is not in Christianity and… Chinese, or Christianity and… Native American. A Christian is first and foremost a Christian! It would ultimately include anything that identifies in anything other than in God.
James 1:8 talks about a double-minded man… It means having a heavenly mind and having an earthly mind. These two circles are what it means to be double minded. Paul is accusing this guy who went out of the circle in order to bring in the law. I see this emphasis so much in the New Testament. Colossians 3:1 says, “set your minds on things above, not on things that are on earth.” This is a major theme in the New Testament because God wants His children to know who they really are. God wants to remind them of their identity as Gods community. It is only from His perspective that they will see the absurdity of what is happening between the family members. Ultimately, the Corinthians are conducting themselves as though their God given identity is of no importance.
The issue in the passage above is that this one person does not know where he identifies. He calls himself a Christian and lives in the Christian community but calls on an outside source when something goes wrong with someone in his circle. He was having an identity crisis. One doesn’t go outside the circle for resources for inside one’s circle. That is just absurd. The reason it is absurd is because the everything else circle is absolutely clueless on what is inside the Christian circle. Can you yet see how the deceiver uses identity issues identity issues in order to bring people to himself?
Let’s take another and final look, though this is not all that 1 Corinthians has to offer. In 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, we find that our work matters, but it is not what we find our identity in.
Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God. Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called. Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.
As mentioned early on, when one meets someone for the first time, and engage in conversation, the question is often asked, “What do you do for a living?” I think we naturally, for whatever reason, incorrectly identify with what we do for a living.
When people are told that they can become anything they want, it kind of gives the sense that they should expect fulfillment by what they choose to do for a living. We are trained to absorb our vocation as our identity with everyday language. When someone tells us that they work in retail, for instance, we mkight think that we have them pegged. We are now experts in knowing who they are. Same with farmers, post office workers, police officers, or heavy equipment operators.
The problem is, Paul is saying that this is not who they are. Identity is something very different than this. The Corinthians were becoming Christians both from a Jewish background and from a gentile background. Those who were Jews and became Christian questioned if they should undo their circumcision, and those who were gentiles, which means those who are not Jewish, were asking if they should get circumcised. Paul says that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but it is keeping the commandments of God that counts. This clues us in to how the ancient people were thinking. Paul says, “no, friends, you have it all wrong…”
The Corinthians thought that because they were now Christians, whether from a Jewish background or gentile, maybe they should change what they do for a living. This motivation was not to please God, but to please man. They were still thinking with their earthly mindset. Work was never meant to provide the fulfillment of one’s identity.
I think what Paul is doing here is showing the Corinthians another analogy about marriage. He is extending the discussion of what he discussed earlier, and is helping the Corinthians see from another angle where their identity lies.
Just like people often mistakenly look to their spouse to fulfill all their needs, we often do the same with our vocation. We often think that there is a job out there that will erase all of our problems, at least in a sense, but this is not how we are supposed to identify. Paul says that whatever situation one finds himself in, should just remain there, because this is where God has called him to be, at least for the time being. Now Paul is not saying that he shouldn’t better himself and seek a better position and more pay, but he is saying for the sake of how he identifies, there is no need to change, because he will just be trading one issue for another, which would be the job he didn’t identify in before to the future job that he still will not identify in. Paul says three times in this passage to “remain as you are.” This shows the importance of our identity. It shows that God is not concerned with what we find significant in our work. Our work matters to God because He is the one who assigned what we do, but as far as it being the thing in which we identify, it matters not.
Think about this for a moment… One’s vocation is not a surprise to God. He knew what any person were doing before he became a Christian. Just because he didn’t know God, or even if he did but he were not walking closely with Him does not mean that He did not know him. God knows His plans for us. He is God. There is no need to change what one do when he becomes a Christian. I personally had this problem at one time in my life. While I was working as a heavy equipment operator, I knew that I was supposed to be doing something else. I was going to school for a long time, but nothing was changing. God had a plan for my life, and I wanted to rush it. I was having a hard time living my life, doing something that I hated at the moment. I hated my job for multiple reasons. I ultimately felt that my work was how I identified, and I was in despair because of such. But that was not my true identity. It was like an imbalance. Paul is saying that if one looks for a job to bring happiness, it simply will not.
At the end of our passage above, Paul goes to the extreme with this and says that on the other hand, there are bondservants. A bondservant, often translated as the word slave in the New Testament, is a position where if someone owed a debt that they could not pay, would pay with their own service. This is far different from modern slavery. For one thing, literally anyone could be a slave, and it was not based on race. But the question is, how are they supposed to be after becoming a Christian? Paul says that being a slave is not an obstacle to living the Christian life. Whatever one does with his or her life, unless it is obviously sinful, of course, is not of consequence with God. Not only this, but He has assigned such things to His children.
I think this idea of misplaced identity goes a long way in our world today. I think that often stay at home parents, or really anyone, can find themselves, in a sense, prideless, and perhaps lost, because the rest of the world identifies themselves by what they do for a living. But Paul is saying this mentality is so worldly in its processes, that it misses the mark completely: We are not the rest of the world. The fact is that as a Christian, one identifies in Jesus alone. One’s value and worth does not come from an outside job that a stay-at-home-mom does not have. Similarly, and on the other hand, I think Paul is saying that one’s value and worth do not rest on the fact that some are stay-at-home-moms. In other words, people have to stop thinking like this completely. Our identity is in Christ alone, and this is ultimately where our value and worth is found. Similarly, as work-a-holics find value and worth in providing for your family is also in error. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not saying that providing for one’s family is a bad thing, obviously; on the contrary… But I am saying that this is not who one is. We are something so much more than what we do for a living. It doesn’t matter how much one makes or how little. We are something so much more than some political mascot that we regretfully might camp out under. We are so much more than some kind of social or cultural invention. We are children of God, if in fact one is a child of God. It is not how many hours we put in, it is not our work ethic that makes us who we are, but it is all about who one belongs to: Jesus. In Jesus alone will we find ultimate worth and value. Because it is in Jesus alone where our true identity lies.
This is what people fail to see. That true identity can only exist in Christ. If one places his hope in a false Christ, or a false savior, then he or she is without true hope. See how lost the Corinthians were? It was because of their identity crisis. They did not know who they really were, so they were scrambling to find meaning and value and purpose for their lives. This is a similar pattern I frequently see in people who do not know Jesus. They scramble for worth. They interrogate people about how they are doing in life. They are desperate for assurance and affirmation, because they identify in something other than He who gives a person true worth; true meaning; and true purpose: Jesus.
Now that you might be able to better identify such patterns and behaviors, how can you help someone see that their worth exists only in Jesus?
Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus
© Nace Howell, 2022
[1] Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Literally Translated, with Notes, in Three Volumes., ed. H. C. Hamilton (Medford, MA: George Bell & Sons, 1903), 60.
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