Key verse:
Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but[a] he who does evil has not seen God. – 3 John 1:11 NKJV
Who Are You?
On Tuesday, people both you and old will dress in costume for Halloween. They will imitate (pretend) to be a fictional or non-fictional character for “free” candy. People say they feel they are able to let loose and have a little fun when they dress in costume. The idea is that they can have a day or night where they don’t have to be themselves. All of that said, I still feel like asking the question, who are you?
Who are you? It’s a three word question that can cause anybody to freeze in place. Who are you? Are you that faithful Christian, standing on the Lord’s side, working the good work of faith? Once we reach a certain age it is expected that all of know who we are. God made mankind and He allows us to choose what we will be. We can become: artist, doctors, lawyers, teachers, or even preachers (though some of us would tell you that we had no choice in the matter!)
We certainly know who we have chosen to be, as we live, yet we still must decide who we will be spiritually! This is a decision that many people have chosen to ignore, but by their ignoring they do not realize they have make a decision. You cannot choose to ignore this decision! Everyone that lives must decide who they will be, spiritually. Will you be good or evil? Will you be righteous or will you be wicked? Who will you be?
You may say that you’re good, but let’s remember that our actions speak for us. What do you believe others see, spiritually, when they look at you? We may not be able to look at someone’s soul, but our actions give a really good glimpse at our soul. So, what do others see when they look at you? Do they see God or do they see the devil?
I’ve learned that there are many wolves living in the world that can really wear sheep’s clothing very well – they know how to dress themselves up. In other words, there are many people walking around in a costume amongst us today! Are you wearing a costume, today? Let’s remember that Judas Iscariot was a disciple, in name only; he walked with Jesus and even sat at the Feast of Passover with Christ while he was betraying Jesus over a few pieces of silver. So, I ask you again, who are you?
Imitators of evil
We want to make sure we know who we are, and that we are not walking around in costume. We should wear the Lord and those around us should see God when they see us. We are His children, Christ-like, therefore others should see Him when they see us. John says, in our key verse, “do not imitate what is evil.” This was something specifically said to believers; he is telling those that follow Christ not to be doing as evil does.
Evil is sin. You will sometimes see the word wicked put in the place for evil, but both are the same. We know that sin is ultimately blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which leads to rejection of the only begotten Son of God, and therefore is the complete rejection of God. In his first letter, John says (1 John 3:8), “He who sins is of the devil, who sinned from the beginning.” So, to imitate evil is in essence to imitate the devil – we do not want to copy Satan! Satan has been promised his utterly destruction by the Lord and he knows that he cannot defeat his Creator! He simply wants to bring others down with him, and the sad thing is that he is going to do it – we just want to make sure we do not go down with him.
In Proverbs 4:14, Solomon wrote that we should avoid the way of evil, turn away from it, and pass it by. So why are we doing everything in our power to walk along side evil and act just like evil? We certainly know better than this, right? We are not acting like we know better than that! We know that the Lord detests sin, and we know what the Lord will do with sin but here we are imitating evil. Watch yourselves! Be careful! You do not want to become the thing that the Lord detests.
I was watching a video of Jim Carrey, the actor, and in it folks believe he was acting crazy – crazier than he normally is. However, me and my brother began to listen to what he was saying and I guess it takes crazy to understand crazy, but it began to somewhat make sense. He mentioned how he had been acting as other people for so long that he lost himself. Jim is not the only actor I have heard say something along those lines. These are people that get paid and make a career out of pretending they are somebody else.
We have to be weary, because you can lose yourself in this world we live in. You begin to feel you have to act as the world acts to make it in this world, but that is a very dangerous thing to do. I feel this is how so many people in the local church today have lost themselves. They go and get a title, in the church, and let this idea of power run to their head. Did you come into the church to praise the Lord or to gain a position of power? The church is now losing its direction because we try to run the church like a fortune 500 company. Who will you be?
No fooling God
God knows the hearts of man – He knows who you really are! In 2 Timothy 2:19, Paul said the Lord knows those who are His. Understand this: if the Lord knows who are His, then He must also know who are not His. We can dress in costume and fool the ones around us, but there is no wearing a costume in the Lord’s presence. God sees through the costume, what we dress ourselves as, and He looks into the soul of man. Who will you be when you stand before the Lord?
We must do the purity test, we must make sure our soul is pure! Let’s understand what I am saying here. There are two types of souls in the world today, a purse soul and a defile (corrupt) soul. The pure soul: has been washed by the blood of Jesus (genuine believer). Jesus told Peter that He must be washed to have part in Jesus. The defiled soul: has not been washed by the blood of Jesus, and is therefore still unclean of its sin. The defiled (corrupt) soul can have no part in Jesus, because Jesus will not allow sin to enter in. Christ was manifested to do away with sin!
When you have been washed by the blood of Jesus, you change and you better believe that change is recognizable. You walk changes; your talk changes; you change! This change occurs because your mind has been renewed and transformed through Jesus Christ! You taken off old man and have put on Jesus Christ! People should no longer see that devil you once was, but they should see that you become like Christ!
Who are you? I don’t know about you, but I am that faithful servant of the Lord, my God! If you proclaim to believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit then leave the old man costume behind – in fact, just go and bury it! You no longer have need for that costume, you have found something much better to wear!
Who are you? You are now that faithful servant of the Lord, your God – the one true God. This truth is now in you, because you know Him! You’re no longer out in the world playing Halloween everyday because you know who you are – no worst feeling than not knowing who you are. When you don’t know who you are, you can begin to feel lost but we are not lost, because we know who we are.