Are You A Saint?

     Are you a saint? Your automatic response is probably, "NO WAY!". You hear it often as people speak about themselves, they say, I'm no "saint". 
     But shouldn't you see yourself as a saint? In scripture Paul often refers to God's people as "the saints", such as
"To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi Philippians 1:1" NASB. 

     Is it humility to refuse to see yourself as a saint? Or embarrassment in front of the world? We don't want to appear any differently from the world right? They might hold us up for ridicule. Yet we are called to be a holy people.

     We have a holy God and He calls us to be holy. Maybe we better start trying to be what He calls us and not be concerned with what the world holds up for ridicule? If God calls us to be saints, which is actually a person set apart for Him, then hadn't we better start calling ourselves saints?

     When I searched for the definition of "saint" in the dictionary I found several we could accept, but if we put it in perspective with scripture, I don't believe they will all work.

     One definition says it's for "those noted for their holiness and venerated during their lifetimes or after death" but if we go with that definition, it definitely limits those that had been addressed in Paul's writing. He wrote "To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi" and now we read it as part of the scriptures for us, the people he wrote it to weren't dead and neither are we! 

     I have written a lot here just to convince you that you are a saint and should recognize yourself as one and live as one! However, here's one more bit of evidence that you are called as a saint, if we look at other translations of the same verse the word "saint" translates to "All God’s people united with the Messiah Yeshua"(Philippians 1:1 Complete Jewish Bible Translation).

     Don't you want to be one of those people? If you are one of those people then accept it, you are a saint! See yourself as God sees you, a person set apart for His purpose, to live a holy life, to be joined with Jesus. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are a saint.