Identity and Definition

Job interviews often begin with a request. The interviewer will ask the candidate to “tell me about yourself.” The candidate is basically being asked to offer a definition of who they are, to identify and define themselves. Obviously, the hopeful candidate is going to use terms and phrases that present them in the best light possible to put themselves into a position to get the job. We use words, terms and phrases all the time to identify and define ourselves. We also use material things, such as clothing, vehicles, houses, jobs and diplomas, to identify and define ourselves. Whether we use words or things, they are attached to us so that we can reveal who we are, or at least who we want to be identified as.

If everything were to be stripped away and it was only you, standing naked before all creation, how would you be defined? Take away everything! School degrees. Job titles. Wealth.  Wardrobe. Family identity. House. Vehicle. All forms of ID. How would others define you? How would you define yourself? Would anyone be able to describe who you are? This is not meant to be a self-absorbed exercise of peering into your soul, to confront your innermost fears, to take control and pursue your destiny. This is not an effort toward self-determination or to discover your true self. This is something much more basic. Simply, with all words and things stripped away, how would you define yourself? If an interviewer asks “tell me about yourself” without words or things, you have one other method of identifying and defining yourself – actions. You have probably heard the phrase “actions speak louder than words.”

Return to the job interview for a moment. After telling the interviewer about yourself, you will more than likely get a follow-on question that begins, “Tell me about a time when…” It is called behavior-based interviewing. The job candidate is being asked to go beyond words and phrases, and to provide specific examples of how situations were handled based on experience. If you identified yourself as a “go-getter” in your answer to the “tell me about yourself” question, this is the opportune moment to provide an example of how you put that “go-getter” identification into action. Actions speak louder than words and, if you are going to get that job, you will need to have actions that back up your words.

If you could only use one word, term or phrase to identify and define yourself, what would that be? That is not an easy question to answer because human beings are sophisticated, complex, complicated and multifaceted. We have a personal life and a professional life. We are public and private. We are internal and external. We are thought-based and behavior-based. It goes on and on. That is also why it is not as easy or as simple as it may seem to answer a request to “tell me about yourself.” So, we tend to distill our totality into a word or phrase that communicates the most important aspects of our being. For example, I can identify myself as a husband and father. Why? Because I am married to my wife, and we have two children. My family clearly and simply verify my self-definition of husband and father. However, other words or phrases may not be so easy to verify. One Father’s Day my family gave me a coffee cup with the words “World’s Best Dad” inscribed on it. Perhaps my children think of me as the world’s greatest dad, but other dads may have a different opinion on that matter. There is debate within the world of sports about who is the GOAT, Greatest of All Time, in basketball, football, soccer or whatever. Michael Jordan can clearly define himself as a Hall of Fame basketball player because he has been inducted into both the Naismith and FIBA halls of fame. But can he as clearly define himself at the GOAT of basketball? There are many who would disagree with that definition. And when an advocate of Michael Jordan’s GOAT status defends him on that subject, they will inevitably point to his accomplishments, his actions, as a player. Why? Because actions speak louder than words. 

In the New Testament of the Bible, there is an epistle written by the half-brother of Jesus Christ. It is the book of James, and if you are familiar with this epistle, you know he made a statement in his epistle that has produced some controversy. James wrote, “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?” (James 2:20; NASB) The King James version translates it even more directly, “faith without works is dead.”  The translation and application of this verse may cause controversy but, basically, what James is getting at is what we have been discussing above. Actions speak louder than words. I believe that is the core message of James and it is applicable today just as it was when he wrote it around 44 AD. James lived and wrote from Jerusalem to Hebrews who had converted to the new faith in Jesus Christ as Messiah. The Hebrew Christians had left the city and been scattered among other nations due to persecution. James did not address problems related to a specific church but addressed concerns applicable to all Christians. He wrote his epistle as a challenge to all the new followers of Jesus Christ living among a variety of pagan nations. He just as easily could have been writing to Christians living in 21-century America because the concerns he addressed to those new Christians living in the first century are just as applicable today.

James wrote to a specific audience and with purpose, to challenge Christians who were floundering while living among pagan nations during the first century.  His epistle can still offer a challenge to Christians who are floundering while living in America during the 21st century. It is as if James made the request to “tell me about yourself” and did not like what he was told. He did not see actions that backed up the words and phrases, so he wrote his letter as a challenge, but to also offer wisdom, insight and encouragement. He addressed issues such as endurance through testing, humility, prayer, facing temptation, becoming a literal doer of the Word versus being a forgetful hearer, and being identified as a bondservant of Christ. He also has a lot to say about words, how we use them and what effect they can have. These are all issues that Christians are challenged with today. A summary statement for the epistle could be this: “As a bondservant of Jesus Christ, endure with wisdom and humility the temptations that will come while acting on what you hear in the Word and producing real-world results.”

When it comes to identifying and defining ourselves, I doubt if many would use the term bondservant to do so. A bondservant is someone who does the bidding of another. Merriam-Webster defines it as “slave.” You belong to another. Other terms related to this are indentured servant, handmaid, or serf. These are not concepts we set out to achieve for ourselves in life. In our American culture, we would rather identify ourselves as someone in control, as someone who has authority, who gets to decide what we want to make of our lives. It is part of the “American Dream” to aspire, to set and achieve our goals, and live the good life. If we are going to be successful at this, we cannot be bondservants. We need freedom and the ability to make decisions. This success mindset has seeped its way into the Christian perspective. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with success and the achievement of goals. We make plans and have an end in mind, and we need to discover and pursue the means to get there. But the Christian perspective gets off track when we start to view Christianity in the same way, as a means to an end of our choosing. It is a slight turn of perspective that doesn’t look bad on the surface but is causing us to drift further and further away from who we truly are as Christians.

Some time ago, I realized that I was guilty of using Christianity as a means to an end. Instead of approaching it with the mindset of a bondservant, I was focused on a goal and wanted success in achieving my goal. There is a subtle difference, but it is important. It is basically the difference between being self-serving and Christ-serving. This was during a time when I needed a job change and was going through the process of searching for and applying for career opportunities. Basically, we needed to increase our family income to cover our monthly expenses. I prayed constantly about jobs and opportunities that I would find, asking God to send an offer my way. Early one Saturday morning I was having my prayer time and, once again, praying for a job. It was a specific job that I had applied for and really wanted to get. As I was praying the thought occurred to me, “What if you fail?” What if I don’t get that job, and I didn’t, or any other job offer? What if I had to stay right where I was? What if I never make more money than I was making at that time? My first thought was that I just needed to work harder at it, be persistent, and be positive. Most people would have encouraged me along those same lines. “Good things will happen,” I told myself. “But what if they don’t” came the internal reply. This caused me to really examine the true motives in my request for another job.

Is it wrong to pray for a job? No. But here is what I realized. I was using prayer and Bible study as a means to an end, and that end was success in the achievement of my goal. My mindset was not that of a bondservant of Christ but of being in control of my life and getting what I wanted. I look around me and see this all the time. I see it in Christian books, hear it in Christian music, watch it in Christian worship services and on television broadcasts. There is such a pervasive attitude of success in achieving our goals that we are losing sight of one of the most basic concepts of being a Christian, and that is being a bondservant to Jesus Christ. As His bondservant, perhaps Christ didn’t want to grant my request for another job. And if that was the case, because He is good and trustworthy, then there was a good reason for it. Therefore, my focus should not be on being persistent in getting what I want but being persistent amid the trials that come. Jesus never promised an easy, comfortable life. And if you examine the lives of the twelve apostles, none of them had easy, comfortable lives. All except John were executed for their faith. As a bondservant of Christ, perhaps it is more important that I be persistent through the trials of life. But that is a tough pill to swallow here in 21st century America where success and the good life are paramount. Let's turn to the first chapter of James.

James identified himself in the first sentence of his epistle as “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He could have identified himself in other ways that would have boosted his image, such as the half-brother of Jesus Christ or as the leader of the Jerusalem church. Galatians 2:9 identifies him as a pillar of the church. But he chose to identify himself as a “bondservant.” The word he uses is δουλοϛ which literally means “slave.” Instead of identifying himself with the more eye-catching title of half-brother of Jesus, he stated that he is the slave of Jesus. At some point, James came to saving faith in Jesus. John 7:5 states that Jesus’ brothers, James and Jude, did not believe in Him as the Messiah when they were young. 1 Corinthians 15:7 indicates that Jesus appeared to James after His resurrection, which may have been the moment when he realized Jesus was the living Lord and surrendered his life to Him. After that James took on a leadership role in the Jerusalem church. He led the church for about 20 years through some very challenging times, famine, poverty, persecution, up until his execution by stoning in AD 62. However, James' basic way of identifying himself in his letter is as “a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Others in the New Testament identify themselves as a δουλοϛ. Paul identifies himself this way several times in Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1 and Titus 1:1. Jude identifies himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James” in Jude 1:1.  It is interesting to note that both half-brothers of Jesus, who did not believe in Him when they were young, identified themselves as Jesus' bondservants in the opening line of their epistles.

This basic concept of the bondservant is very important for anyone who claims to be a Christian. Simply put, if you claim to be a Christian and do not understand and accept that you are a bondservant of Jesus Christ, you will have a difficult time being a follower of Christ. You will struggle with humbling yourself before Christ and being obedient. Being a humble bondservant is not something that is promoted or encouraged in our American culture. We are encouraged to be our own person, to take control of our futures, to be in charge of our lives. But as a Christian, you have been bought, redeemed out of a life of servitude to sin and death. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, then you belong to Christ. You are His bondservant. A bondservant is someone whose master makes choices for them. Even though most of us do not have direct experience with bond service and slavery, we do possess an intellectual understanding of the terms. Consider the relationship between a slave and a master. When the slave is told to perform some type of work, they go do the work. The slave does not get to decide if they will or will not do the work. Jesus explained, “If you love me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) As we discussed in the introduction, actions speak louder than words.  Do you have faith? Great! Demonstrate it. And while we do have a master – servant relationship with Jesus, we also have a Master who is good and loving. Jesus told us, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) Even though there are commands to be obeyed, Jesus will not overburden us. 

Returning to my job search, I wanted a higher paying job. After all, it is part of living in America. I wanted a taste of the good life. But I realized that Saturday morning during my prayer time that the good life may be antithetical to who I am as a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Should my goals be more pay, a bigger house, a newer car, vacations, and a life of comfort and leisure? Or had I gotten off track in my walk with Christ? Had I become more self-serving as opposed to Christ-serving? Was I following Christ or was I following my own wants and desires under the guise of wanting to better provide for my family? That morning, I began to see that my approach to Christianity was not even close to who I should be as a bondservant and follower of Jesus Christ.

In his epistle, there are two sections where James addresses further this important aspect of the Christian life. These sections are James 1:4-10 and 4:13-17. James did not structure his epistle in the way that other New Testament epistles are structured. He seems to have been influenced by early Jewish wisdom literature and so his writing reflects that. He deals with a number of themes but in an unstructured manner. In these two sections there are strong warnings against arrogance and hubris. James encourages us to be humble and submissive bondservants of Christ.