Our Identity is in Christ Alone

When we find our identity in people other than Christ, then we have an idol. When our identity is rooted in Christ we will not be seeking the praise of men nor the acceptance of them.

This is why I have so little interest in genealogy which is popular today. Seeking genetic past and names on a chart or even the activities of people in bygone days seems to be connected to a lack of identity in Christ and more of an identity in people.

I have little if anything in common with those who came before me. They were dead before I was born. Knowing things about them is not an influence over me, its only facts about them that go in one ear and out the other. They were never a part of my life and will never be unless they died knowing Christ and then we are one in Christ, He is the focus not the person themselves.

When we love Christ he is everything to us. People are factored in only as much as they have known Him. If I never knew anything at all about those who came before me I would still follow Christ.

Knowing things about the ancestors does nothing at all for my spiritual or emotional growth. Perhaps it is even distracting from Christ.

Ancestry worship happens all over the world in pagan religions. Just as everything else that is pagan is creeping into the churches so is the desire to be connected to dead ancestors.

I admit it is interesting to know some things about ancestors, but when it becomes predominant, even seeking to name our children after them, there is an overtone of expectation that naming the children after them will bring some magical blessing.

I fear that with the onset of paganism becoming a big part of modern "Christianity" we will experience things promoted in the churches that were in the early days of the church discouraged and even condemned.

The same people who are diligently searching data bases to find their dead ancestors are the people who are rarely reading their Bible. When we love the truths of God we will have little time to research dead relatives.

The Jews have a good legacy and a reason to want to look back but the Gentiles do not. If we are born again we have been grafted into the Jews and Christ is our legacy.

Hallelujah

1 Timothy 1:4 "1
"4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering [b]the administration of God which is by faith."

Titus 3:9
"9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."

1 Corinthians 15:29
"29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?"

God never tells us anywhere in the Word of God to research and know our ancestry except to some extent in the Jewish line.

We are not special because of who we are related to, but because we are born again and in Christ and it is only Him Who is special.