Defining "Me"

It's hard to conceive from our Western perspective, but plenty of cultures in the world have difficulty with the concept of the individual. Westerners tend to define themselves as they wish, selectively choosing the labels with which they most closely identify. In group-oriented societies, personhood is defined by relationship to the group.

For example, the Polynesian conception of personhood emphasizes relationships between individuals. It has been described as "I am, because we are." And where those primary relationships are non-existent, the personhood is often seen as non-existent as well.

This isn't really uncommon in group-oriented societies. When we understand that much of the Bible was written to an audience that largely functioned from a group-oriented perspective, we can understand even more fully the commands not to neglect widows and orphans, to love the foreigner. All these are segments of population that in a group-oriented society can easily become non-persons.

Before we criticize too strongly, though, we must realize that a western, individualistic perspective is not free from treating individuals as non-persons. We've seen it happen in the not-too-distant past: in the United States, slaves were treated legally as property, not persons. The "3/5 compromise" wrote into our constitution that slaves counted for 3/5 of a person when computing population data -- and that stood for almost 100 years, until the 14th Amendment in 1865.

As usual, Scripture provides an alternative perspective to either extreme. The Biblical view can be summed up as "I am who God says I am." Each person has equal value, having been created in the image of God regardless how skewed that image looks as a result of the Fall. And each person has equal opportunity to be restored to relationship with God through faith in Christ, and reflect His image as we are conformed to the image of Christ through process of sanctification.

It was the close, external perspective of non-slave owners, frequently Christians involved in Abolition, that eventually turned the tide in the US away from seeing slaves as non-persons. They were close enough to see the problems, but had the external perspective of not having a vested financial interest in slavery.

Similarly, Scripture will always bring a close, external perspective to our lives. As we study Scripture we will see areas that need to be "tweaked"; we will see things that don't line up with who God says we are as Christians and with the image of Christ that He is forming in us. When we yield to God's refining hand, we will find that we grow closer to Him and to others. We will begin to know who we truly are - in Him. We'll find that our identity is thoroughly tied up in relationship.

I am who He says I am. Hallelujah!