In a very helpful sermon on Ruth 3, yesterday, my pastor Mark Dever asked this probing question: "I wonder whose you would say you are. To whom do you belong? Do you have anyone in your life who directs you, who guides you? Anyone in your life who cares that much? Anyone in your life who points you to the good in the way Naomi did Ruth?"
Mark was directly addressing non-Christians, but the idea of belonging is one that Christians need to remember to think deeply about, as well. As a child, whenever I was about to go spend time with friends and my mother wanted me to be on my best behavior, she often said when I was leaving, "Remember whose you are." She knew that just telling me to behave, to do this or not to do that, would never be as effective as reminding me that what I did and said mattered more than I usually realized. What I did reflected on my family, whose name I share. Most importantly, what I did mattered to the Lord.
I'm reminded again of the wonderful first question and response of the Heidelberg Catechism:
Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
I belong, first and foremost, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
I belong to an earthly family, whose name and blood and history I share; to parents, who have invested their lives in raising me in the fear and admonition of the Lord.
Very soon I will belong to a wonderful wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony.
I belong to the 536 saints of God known as Capitol Hill Baptist Church, with whom I have covenanted and pledged to walk together in brotherly love.
Without these belongings, life would be a cold, comfortless, disconnected and frustrating existence. But by the grace of God, I belong. Thanks be to God.
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