Interconnected: RelationshipsSample

Somebodies and Nobodies

“Now why is she famous?” I asked my wife as we watched a story on the news together. “Because such-and-such athlete from the seventies is married to her mother,” she says. “So what does she do?” I ask. “She’s just famous because everyone really wants to know what she wears and where she goes on vacation,” she informs me. “Oh,” I said.

People are set apart from the rest of the population as somebodies just because they’re famous. People are famous for being famous. In the Roman world Paul lived in when he wrote the above verse in a letter to the Corinthian church, famous people were regularly elevated to god-like status. People were so bent on hero worship that they couldn’t wait to turn a nobody into a somebody.

That way of behaving heavily influenced how people were treated inside the Corinthian church and Paul wanted them to know that in Christ Jesus, there is a much better, wiser way to live.

Things aren’t much different today are they? We still live in a world where somebodies are celebrated and nobodies are ignored. Even when you are in Christ, it feels oddly natural to separate the somebodies from the nobodies.

That’s why God has given you a role within a family. As it relates to your own household, what Paul writes to the Corinthians gives us powerful tools to guide children through a mixed-up culture. It’s within the context of a family that you can put into practice treating people with dignity and respect.

When you are in Christ, you are a somebody. In your family, treating each other with dignity and respect flows from parent to child, child to parent, and sibling to sibling. This is what righteousness looks like: it’s a wise way to live and it gives every family member a working knowledge of how all relationships—even the difficult ones— should work. That’s what living in Christ looks like and that’s why living in Christ is supposed to be attractive to those who don’t yet know Him.

DIG: Consider people in your life whom you consider somebodies and nobodies. Why are they in that category?
DISCOVER: How are you modeling righteousness in your daily relationships?
DISPLAY: Today, intentionally honor someone who may need some encouragement.