Who Am I?

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons (children) of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not” – 1 John 3:1

Personality is a comprehensive description of what a person is made up of in terms of qualities and characteristics that make them distinguishable from others. It is complex in the sense that it incorporates all the identities – such as professional, cultural, psychological, educational and so many other kinds of identities – that someone might possess by the virtue of who they are or what they do. Psychologists have tried to come up with a taxonomy of human personalities, but the personality of a Christian is deeper than this categorization. Usually, when people talk about themselves either in objective or subjective manner, they are trying to allude to their personalities. Thus, self and personality are inseparable.

Studies have shown that the concept of self can be bifurcated into me and I. ‘Me’, on one hand, emanates from the society. Set of statuses, titles, and labels that people go by are generally ascribed to them either through formal or informal social constructions – teacher, president, lawyer, doctor, mother, ‘beautiful’, dullard, professor, and ‘poor’ are examples of titles that might be ascribed to individuals by human society based on their biological or material situations. When there is a dissonance between an expected behavioural pattern of a person carrying a certain title or label, the description of the ascribed status changes in a way that may not be pleasant to its bearer. That is why titles and statuses can be withdrawn, suspended or invalidated. On the other hand, ‘I’ represents personal notion of self which may or may not be in relation to societal ascriptions. Simply put, ‘me’ is subjective self while ‘I’ is objective self.

The knowledge of ‘self’is significant in helping us to know who we are as Christians. My experience as a child raised in a religious home lends credence to how social ascriptions generally shape the perception of our person both as an individual entity and as a member of society. I knew from my childhood that to maintain a good stance as a well-brought-up child, it was necessary that I refrained from certain deviant behaviours.  There was a seeming conditioning of my cognitive and social consciousness on how to and how not to relate with people in order to attract positive evaluation necessary for general social acceptance and personal development. Going by the ‘social rating system’, I was a ‘good boy’. Sooner than later, I was ascribed the label of ‘pastor’; a title I carried throughout my days in school. Genuinely, I disagree with this social ascription! Why? I wasn’t always what the people thought I was – I had my flaws that were not open to social evaluation. I knew I needed to get God’s acceptance before I could truly be His child. Thankfully, I did the right thing.

A number of accounts in the Bible are also very instructive on this subject. When Jesus called the ‘Rich Young Ruler’in Matthew 19, He was not calling him into poverty but to a personality change. The society already gave him a positive evaluation and positive labelling – righteous, pious, rich, keeper of the law and so on – but his real personality with God was nothing to write home about. Zacchaeus, Rahab, Jabez, and Mary Magdalene are examples of people who went about with unpleasant labels that the society ascribed to them. But when these decided to subject their existence to what God would have them be, their personalities changed.

From time immemorial God’s people have been described, assessed and labelled differently. While the world places emphasis on material importance, God’s people are soulful and possess eternal entities that are not accessible to the lenses the world uses to evaluate its own. In John 15, we have a vivid description of how God wants His children to see themselves. Soon and very soon, the importance of keeping a Christian personality will be made popular – “when He shall appear, we shall be like Him” (1 John 1:2).

So, who are you?

Author: Lifted Jare