In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, Polonius says, "To thine own self be true." This is one of the most famous quotes from Shakespeare and even misquoted and misinterpreted. We don't want to try to be someone else, of course, unless we aspire to be like Jesus, like all Christians do, but we still retain our personal identity and should never forget who we are--our roots and calling. God hates hypocrites and duplicity! It wasn't long ago that kids idolized Michael Jordan and chanted, "I want to be like Mike!" It is never advisable to live as someone else, live a lie, nor to live in sin, but being true to thine own self implies being true and having integrity too.
The prerequisite to being yourself is knowing yourself, one of the twin goals of the Greek philosophers of antiquity: Know thyself; know God--they are correlated. This is why Socrates' dictum from his trial articulated this well: "The unexamined life is not worth living." We all need to take inventory and get a spiritual checkup to find out where we stand in Christ and be honest with God with no skeletons in the closet. We must find out what we're made of and what we are in Christ to be of use to God's service.
Bruce Jenner took this advice and became Caitlyn; however, he didn't go far enough--once he found out what or who he was, he should've been convicted and repented of his sin and asked God to transform his nature. If you have tendencies to be an arsonist or a thief, you don't live them out under the pretense of being true to yourself. What is wrong for others is wrong for everyone and God is the moral center of the universe, not us. Taking God out of the picture leads to being a sinner, no matter how true to yourself you are. Shakespeare was a Christian and quoted the Bible hundreds of times in his plays and sonnets, and there is some truth to what he wrote in Hamlet.
Bruce Jenner took this advice and became Caitlyn; however, he didn't go far enough--once he found out what or who he was, he should've been convicted and repented of his sin and asked God to transform his nature. If you have tendencies to be an arsonist or a thief, you don't live them out under the pretense of being true to yourself. What is wrong for others is wrong for everyone and God is the moral center of the universe, not us. Taking God out of the picture leads to being a sinner, no matter how true to yourself you are. Shakespeare was a Christian and quoted the Bible hundreds of times in his plays and sonnets, and there is some truth to what he wrote in Hamlet.
Does character count? Paul said that nothing good dwells in him and the good that he would do, he doesn't do. Ovid said that he knows the good and approves it, but doesn't do it. The point is that we don't have the power to conquer sin without Christ in our metric. I'm glad that the Holy Spirit is a restraining influence on the sinners of the world, to keep them from being as depraved as they possibly could be or would be if they could.
Being true to yourself necessitates honesty with yourself and being open about who you are, good or evil. Jenner wasn't necessarily given bad advice, but his problem is not that he chose to be a transgender, but that he doesn't know Jesus. Hypocrites are those who act a role they really aren't and put on a show for others to see as a deception--wearing a mask in a play. "Why is it that I know what is right, but do what is wrong?" (Leo Tolstoy's character Pierre says in War and Peace).
Being true to yourself necessitates honesty with yourself and being open about who you are, good or evil. Jenner wasn't necessarily given bad advice, but his problem is not that he chose to be a transgender, but that he doesn't know Jesus. Hypocrites are those who act a role they really aren't and put on a show for others to see as a deception--wearing a mask in a play. "Why is it that I know what is right, but do what is wrong?" (Leo Tolstoy's character Pierre says in War and Peace).
God is looking for honest people (even if they don't measure up to their own standards), and sometimes that honesty is costly and we cannot put a price on our integrity. When they say, "What you see is what you get," they are being human, for God is not looking for ideal people but real people. Jesus came to save sinners and to call them to repentance. Jenner needs to humble himself before God and realize his helplessness to be the man God intended him to be.
As Christians, we should think outside the box and put others first, and live for something bigger than ourselves--the community of believers, the body of Christ. There is a point at which so-called tribalism becomes evil, like when we deify a political party and follow it right or wrong; we should never forget that we belong to Christ first as citizens of heaven, and He has primary authority over our lives. Individualism is evil, though we are individuals. When we exalt ourselves and think we don't need anyone, we mock God who designed us to need community as social beings. As Christians, we have the mindset to give back to society and the church and want to contribute, not just be focused on what we can get out of the system.
No one is autonomous and self-sufficient but God! He needs no one and nothing, but we are ones in need of Him and others. The Victorian Englishman was known as a self-made man who worshiped his creator! This is the epitome of individualism, and also believing that God helps those who help themselves, like Ben Franklin and John F. Kennedy said, is bad theology--for God helps the helpless and those who are in need, even destitute--this is quoted by politicians as an argument against a nanny-state, public assistance, entitlements, and even social safety nets. Some people are not in a position to help themselves or to turn their lives around for the good.
If our nation believes everyone has the right to life, it would follow that they have a right not to starve to death and to be fed adequately--for even prisoners are granted three square meals a day. Christian, transcendent law entails equal opportunity, and no bias towards the rich or big business either. They talk about social engineering for the poor or redistribution of wealth to their advantage, but what about social engineering favoring the rich or corporations, and redistribution of wealth their way?
Many today follow the so-called Iron Rule, or that "might makes right" and the law of the jungle should prevail (from the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest). People want to take care of themselves first and be as independent as possible--look out for Number One! The Christian ought to be about something bigger than himself. The first lesson one learns upon knowing Christ is that it's not all about them! Christians learn to love others as members of the same body of believers. God doesn't approve of Lone Ranger Christians or lone wolves who think they can go it alone and be a one-man-band for Christ--the key to authority is that everyone is under authority and accountable from the top all the way to the bottom, and those who refuse to be under authority have no authority for Christ.
In other words, good leaders are first good followers and good teachers are first good students. But we never reach a point of graduating from the School of Christ that we have enrolled in for the remainder of our lives, but must learn that we are always works-in-progress and others should be patient with us because God isn't finished with us yet--as He promised to bring our sanctification to completion (cf. Phil. 1:6). The mature believer has taken himself out of the equation of life; for humility is not thinking less of himself, but thinking of himself less.
We need to be true to ourselves, but this is in light of being true to God and what His Word tells us, not listening to what the world says and its conventions, traditions, and customs--don't live a lie! They say to be yourself, but most people haven't discovered who they are and are searching for some identity, known as an identity crisis to find themselves. We must be found by God and changed by His grace, for our sin nature has no power over sin, since it's the slave to it.
In this day and age, many people are coming out of the closet and declaring their sins without shame, and our culture thinks it's the right thing to do to accept them the way they are, when they need to repent of their sin: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" The message of sin, repentance, and faith has been lost and today it seems that anything goes and people are living to please themselves and doing what is right in their own eyes: (Isaiah 53:6, NKJV) "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way."
The "what's-in-it-for-me" gospel has come into vogue and we need to realize that the Christian life is a surrendered, relinquished, obedient, exchanged, and a substituted life through Christ's power (cf Gal. 2:20). God gave us ego and a will, and as soon as this is realized there is the peril of putting them first and before God-exalting or deifying them instead of God, i.e., not giving God His due. Soli Deo Gloria!
As Christians, we should think outside the box and put others first, and live for something bigger than ourselves--the community of believers, the body of Christ. There is a point at which so-called tribalism becomes evil, like when we deify a political party and follow it right or wrong; we should never forget that we belong to Christ first as citizens of heaven, and He has primary authority over our lives. Individualism is evil, though we are individuals. When we exalt ourselves and think we don't need anyone, we mock God who designed us to need community as social beings. As Christians, we have the mindset to give back to society and the church and want to contribute, not just be focused on what we can get out of the system.
No one is autonomous and self-sufficient but God! He needs no one and nothing, but we are ones in need of Him and others. The Victorian Englishman was known as a self-made man who worshiped his creator! This is the epitome of individualism, and also believing that God helps those who help themselves, like Ben Franklin and John F. Kennedy said, is bad theology--for God helps the helpless and those who are in need, even destitute--this is quoted by politicians as an argument against a nanny-state, public assistance, entitlements, and even social safety nets. Some people are not in a position to help themselves or to turn their lives around for the good.
If our nation believes everyone has the right to life, it would follow that they have a right not to starve to death and to be fed adequately--for even prisoners are granted three square meals a day. Christian, transcendent law entails equal opportunity, and no bias towards the rich or big business either. They talk about social engineering for the poor or redistribution of wealth to their advantage, but what about social engineering favoring the rich or corporations, and redistribution of wealth their way?
Many today follow the so-called Iron Rule, or that "might makes right" and the law of the jungle should prevail (from the Darwinian theory of the survival of the fittest). People want to take care of themselves first and be as independent as possible--look out for Number One! The Christian ought to be about something bigger than himself. The first lesson one learns upon knowing Christ is that it's not all about them! Christians learn to love others as members of the same body of believers. God doesn't approve of Lone Ranger Christians or lone wolves who think they can go it alone and be a one-man-band for Christ--the key to authority is that everyone is under authority and accountable from the top all the way to the bottom, and those who refuse to be under authority have no authority for Christ.
In other words, good leaders are first good followers and good teachers are first good students. But we never reach a point of graduating from the School of Christ that we have enrolled in for the remainder of our lives, but must learn that we are always works-in-progress and others should be patient with us because God isn't finished with us yet--as He promised to bring our sanctification to completion (cf. Phil. 1:6). The mature believer has taken himself out of the equation of life; for humility is not thinking less of himself, but thinking of himself less.
We need to be true to ourselves, but this is in light of being true to God and what His Word tells us, not listening to what the world says and its conventions, traditions, and customs--don't live a lie! They say to be yourself, but most people haven't discovered who they are and are searching for some identity, known as an identity crisis to find themselves. We must be found by God and changed by His grace, for our sin nature has no power over sin, since it's the slave to it.
In this day and age, many people are coming out of the closet and declaring their sins without shame, and our culture thinks it's the right thing to do to accept them the way they are, when they need to repent of their sin: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!" The message of sin, repentance, and faith has been lost and today it seems that anything goes and people are living to please themselves and doing what is right in their own eyes: (Isaiah 53:6, NKJV) "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way."
The "what's-in-it-for-me" gospel has come into vogue and we need to realize that the Christian life is a surrendered, relinquished, obedient, exchanged, and a substituted life through Christ's power (cf Gal. 2:20). God gave us ego and a will, and as soon as this is realized there is the peril of putting them first and before God-exalting or deifying them instead of God, i.e., not giving God His due. Soli Deo Gloria!
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