Your True Worth

                                                                                     

Aloha Dearest Family,

                One day as I was driving to work, I was listening to a Pastor on the radio. He was telling of his childhood; how he and his siblings endured horrendous physical abuse at the hands of their father. But he said that the greatest blow he ever received was when his father looked at him and said, “You are worthless”. The Pastor said that this affected him more than all the other beatings he had received.

                Maybe some of you can relate to this story. It’s sad that the experience of feeling worthless is far too common in our day and time. This is why so many young people (and old people too) are constantly looking for something or someone to give them a feeling of worth in their lives. This becomes even harder when you are looked down upon because of what social-class you were born into. Not that you are inferior, but because the “privileged” make you feel this way.

 Enter Israel

                Thousands of years ago, God chose to bless a man named Abraham, saying to him, “In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 22:18). His descendants became the nation of Israel and God gave to them His promises, laws and blessings. God wanted Israel to be His “shining city on a hill” for other nations to follow.

                But by the time of Jesus Christ, the Jewish people treated ANY group of people that was not Jewish, with enormous contempt. If you were not born of the bloodline of Abraham, you were considered a filthy, uncircumcised Gentile. And if you were a Gentile, you were considered by Jews as worthless. The cultural differences between Jew and Gentile were enormous and considered unchangeable.

 Enter Jesus Christ  

                Because of the work of Jesus Christ, EVERY cultural “wall of division” was broken down. ALL men, whether Jew or Gentile, could now be born into God’s family and claim legal status into God’s household – making us all EQUAL. In God’s kingdom, no one is above anyone else; Christ being the ONLY head over us all.

                This was the “mystery” (the sacred secret) that God revealed to the apostle Paul.

                 “..that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6)

When this secret was revealed to the church, many of the Jewish- believers rebelled against this “new revelation.” This idea was abhorrent to them. They could never have conceived that God would choose those filthy, uncircumcised Gentiles as part of His church. They were so used to being “God’s chosen people” that it was very hard to accept Gentile-believers in. However, as some did accept the Gentiles into the Christian church, many did not and treated them as “second-class” believers.

 Enter Paul

                As Peter’s ministry was mainly to those of Jewish descent, Paul’s ministry was mainly to the believers who had once been Gentiles. (It must be noted that once a Jew or Gentile gets born-again, they are from then on neither Jew nor Gentile, but members of the Church of the one body of Christ). Most of Paul’s epistles to the churches, are addressed to “Gentile” cities: cities such as Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, Thessalonica, are predominately Gentile cities. Meaning that most of the believers in these cities were Gentile-believers. As many Jewish-believers still looked upon the Gentiles as “common and unclean”, Paul in his letters, encourages these believers by telling them their worth in God’s eyes.

                 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus..” (Romans 8:1)

                 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption (a sonship spirit) by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (verses 14 and 15)

                 “if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” (verse 17)

                 “whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” (Verse 30)

 Keep in mind that Paul is writing mainly to believers who were at one time hated Gentiles by the Jews. Now they no longer had to feel inferior to anything or anyone. For God had told them of their worth in HIS eyes. God had given His own son up for THEM. Showing them that if He could give up His own son, there is nothing that He would not give them.  

                 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Verse 32)  

 

                Our worth is not determined by what anyone may tell us – they are NOT GOD! God tells us that we are called, that we are justified and that we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with His son Jesus Christ. He also tells us that we are His child and He is our Abba – our Daddy. If God has said this about us, we should never feel unloved or worthless again. Furthermore, let us teach our children these truths and show them their true worth in God’s eyes.

                Not convinced yet? I will leave you with the following verses that will.

                 “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Verses 38 and 39)

                    

                        Love Always, Ray