"To Thine Own Self Be True"

"To thine own self be true."  Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play.  This line is quoted so much some people would believe it is in the Bible.  It is part of Polonius' farewell speech to Laertes.  It does raise an important question for our day and age.  Do we know who we truly are?

We live in a world of airbrushed models, a fixation on fitness and a digital age that allows us to hide behind profiles where we only share what we want people to see.  I admit, some people share more online than they should.  However, we are given the ability online, to create a false self.

In John 14:6 Jesus identifies himself as the truth. Outside of Jesus there is no truth.   If we want to know who we truly are we need to go to the source.  Genesis tells us we are created in God's image. We are not gods.  We are image bearers.  We bear God's image.  Just like when you take a picture of someone the picture is not the person.  It is an image of that person.  We are to be a photo album of God.

We are also created to reflect the glory of God.  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (NASB).  If I take a flashlight and shine it into a mirror the light reflects around the room.  The mirror does not turn into a light.  It simply reflects the light.  In the same way Jesus is "the light of the world".  We are to be mirrors that reflect that light.

We are image bearers of Jesus and reflectors of his glory.  Before Adam messed things up in the garden we were a true reflection of God's glory.  Yes that glory was tarnished by sin, but Jesus came to restore and renew that original glory.  Our true identity can only be found in a relationship with Jesus.  That is the only way we can understand the glory that we bear.  Yes, it gets buried by sin.  Yes we are born sinners and we walk in slavery to sin.  However, when we make a decision to put our trust in Jesus we can begin the recovery process of our true identity.  Then and only then can we "to thine own self be true".