Central Truth

We are marked by our choices. The scars on our lives show our battles, both from the world and from God. No matter how we live we will be marked, branded, but we must choose by what we are scarred. We make these choices daily. We must.

Reflections

Tats are big today. From the tiny faces that peek out of unlikely places to the full sleeve beauties with the evil cuties. They show you are 'in,' committed, willing to show your choices on your very skin.

June was over seventy years old, well-to-do, living in an affluent suburb of LA. She willingly served time in jail protesting abortions. Her life was committed to Jesus and she lived it out daily. But she wondered, would I ever deny Christ if persecuted? Would I turn from following Him? In a quiet, personal choice she decided that, like Paul, she wanted her body to be marked by Christ. She got a tattoo: a small but beautiful and colorful cross, right on her wrist. “Anyone will know I am a believer,” she said. She was marked for life with the cross that represented the life of Christ to her.

Paul ends his letter to these believers, who were so confused over the gospel, with his own, personally-written postscript. Warning those desiring to escape persecution, he looks to the cross –“through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” It isn’t a religious ritual that makes a difference, but a changed life. When we let God crucify us to the world, it will mark our lives in some way.

We are a new creation, Paul says. But the result for him: he bears the “brand-marks” of his choice to follow Jesus. What marks my body or yours? Having given up one loyalty to the world, Paul declares his loyalty to Jesus by accepting the very persecution some seek to avoid. Maybe I won’t get the tat, but my lifestyle choices mark me. Will I buy that new electronic must-have or give to famine relief? Will I use up another hour web-surfing or spend time listening to the Lord in silence? Is the world marking us or are we being marked by our deliberate decision to repeat our submission to Jesus again today and every day? By our ‘brands’ we are known!

Discussion Questions

1) A tattoo can be very in your face or hidden. Your words are always in the open. How will your words ‘brand’ you?

2) Paul’s literal ‘brand-marks’ bore stark testimony to his choices to follow Jesus. Does anything mark you as a follower of Jesus?

3) Loyalty can be costly and painful. The world offers an easier way. What does that cost? Which price will you choose to pay?

4) Advertisers love “brand loyalty,” our willingness to deliberately keep buying the same thing, often in the face of enticements to change. The world wants you to buy its brand, to be marked by its brand, to live like everyone else. What choices do you face today if you are ‘branded’ by Jesus?