A Look At Broken Culture: Identity (part 1)

I Corinthians 14:33; Ephesians 4:11-16

There was a time when we could tell kids, "You can be anything you want to be". Adults understood and taught kids that this meant careers. There was also the understanding that there were still limitations. A child might aspire to be president of the U.S., but they were made aware they could never be king/queen of England.

It was also common for a 3-5 year old to say they wanted to be a "kitty" or a "puppy". Parents would let them imagine, but also tell them they were a human and could not be an animal. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line we quit using common sense. Now, there is a fraction of our nation that says "You can be whatever you identify as", and they have the loudest voices and the most demanding presence.

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For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.

I Corinthians 14:33

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Furries: There is a very small percentage of people in the world who "Identify" as animals. They wear animal costumes and spend their whole day pretending to be a cat, dog, or some other animal. What's worse, they demand to be respected as such. Because this is their opinion, everyone else must accept and validate their delusion.

Transgender: The prefix "trans" means "across". These are people who claim to cross from one gender to the other. They claim that mentally and emotionally they are the opposite gender of that which they were born. These are men who live as women and women who live as men. Reality is, no matter how extreme they play dress-up (including surgeries that sterilize and maim their bodies), they will never know what it is to be the other gender.

Race Fluidity: We speak of race primarily based on skin tone. As discussed in my previous devotion, race is man-made divisions of people not taught in scripture. In our modern era, people claim that they can cross races. Someone born white can identify as black or someone born black can identify was white.

Age Fluidity: The Spanish Conquistadores dreamed of finding the fountain of youth. Today we have given up on this dream, but have picked up a new dream that is just as fanciful. People now "identify" as a different age. Dylan Mulvaney has been in the news lately. He pretends to be both a female and a preteen, though he is an adult male.

In my next devotion, I will address each of these with scripture. For the time being, I will leave you with this thought. There is a lot of confusion in our world today. You can be sure that God is not in it. With the demand that we accept and affirm these delusions and confusions, there is strife and contention.

The church cannot accept or affirm what the Bible calls sin. This leads to strife and division in the church. God is not in that. I Corinthians 14:33 says, "For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints". Consider what Paul told the church at Ephesus:

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Ephesians 4:11-16

Father, there is so much that has been left unsaid today. I pray that You would make clear to the readers that this is not the opinion of one person. This is Your holy standard for Your creation. If we do not like who we are, then we need only look to You. It is You who changes us and makes us more like Your Son. It is then that we will find peace and joy in who we are, as we walk in Your will.