In recent months I’ve had to deal with paperwork for a foreign bank account. The most recent documentation asked for parents’ names and qualifications, as if my own qualifications are dependent on what my parents did. As you might guess, this is not a Western country we’re dealing with, and the documentation probably has a lot to do with the caste system. We in the West are so individualistic that such requests for information seem almost insulting. Can you imagine filling out a bank or job application and having to provide your father’s resume in addition to your own?
But we have some weird traditions and assumptions of our own. After I moved to the Southern U.S. I encountered the question, “Whose is he?” The person wanted to know who this person was related to and where they fit in the family tree. From my experience, it is far more common in the South for six or seven generations to live within 20 miles of the “home place.” None of the places I lived in the North were like that, aside from Amish neighbors in Pennsylvania.
I bring this up because there has historically been a trend in U.S. churches for people to identify as Christian simply because their parents called themselves Christian. People were members of churches because that was the center of social activity in small towns. Now church membership and attendance are declining, and some have speculated that this has come largely from nominal “Christians” deciding there is no longer any reason or necessity for church membership. The faith of their fathers is not something they wish to claim. In one sense, I would say that’s actually a good thing for church statistics. We need to know who actually is not Christian and how large the mission field really is, and we need to know those who truly belong to Christ so we can feed them as disciples.
We also need to know who truly belongs to our family. If God is our Father, then we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we need to be willing to claim one another and care for one another as our own. I think most churches struggle in this area. We are often not inclined to go out of our way to connect with others and support others outside of regularly scheduled church gatherings. Our Western culture has negatively influenced us in this regard. Each one’s home is his castle and we don’t dare invade another’s space or ask them to come into ours.
But those things are tangential to what I started out to say. As Christians, our identity does come from our Father and from Jesus Christ the Son of God. He has made us new creations, adopted us as children, and put us into the Body of Christ with a role to play.
- When we’re tempted to sin, we can point to Jesus and say “I’m with Him.”
- When we feel ashamed or guilty, we can remember that our Father does not condemn us.
- When are lonely, our Father is always present with us.
- When we want to serve in the church, our Father has given us gifts and abilities to do so.
- When we think we’re lacking something, our Father owns everything.
Take some time today to think about every good and perfect gift our Father has given us (James 1:17), since “He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25).
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ… And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal. 1:3, 4:6).
