FMF: Perspective

I delayed participating in the Five Minute Friday writing community today because I couldn’t wrap my mind around what to write about. I suppose you could say my perspective wasn't right.  However, as He often does, God spoke to me when I least expected Him.

In my sociology class we’ve been learning about social standing. Sociologically, your status is the various characteristics that make you who you are. It's the "position a person occupies in a particular setting." For example, at home I am a mother, so I behave as one, but in class I am a student. I do not act like a mother in class because my position is different. Most also have a master status, something that carries across all social settings, such as "male", "felon", or "doctor".

In the New Testament church, the believers were struggling with the conflict between their statuses. The previously-Jewish believers and the previously-gentile believers were arguing about what mattered and what didn’t. Paul wrote to the church in Galatia that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28, NASB).

If we are believers, out master status is found in Christ. All of those other areas of our life shape us, but the single identifying factor is that we are believers of Christ. In that regard Christ has redefined our perspective of ourselves.





This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.