Grace, Discipleship, and Change

[Below are reflections on my quiet time with God from this morning. For more details on how I format my time with God, see here.]

Look: “Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.” (Philemon 1:11)

“If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.” (Philemon 1:18)

Two thoughts:

(1) Onesimus, whose name means useful, has undergone a transformation. Paul says that he has been moved from uselessness to his master, Philemon, to being useful. Today a myth prevails in the West, under the influence of pop psychology, that people don’t change. Paul tells Philemon that Onesimus has changed. The gospel changes people.

(2) Compelled by the gospel of Christ that has changed him from an enemy of God to a friend (Colossians 1:21-22; Romans 5:10), Paul pledges that he will repay Philemon for anything that Onesimus has cost him.

It’s believed that Onesimus was a runaway slave and that he ran after stealing from his master, Philemon. But, in running, Onesimus ran right under the influence of Paul, who had earlier been instrumental in Philemon’s conversion to faith in Christ.

After hearing and experiencing the gospel through Paul, Onesimus too became a Christian. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon reluctantly, with a plea that this once-useless slave could now become Philemon’s useful friend “as a brother in the Lord” (v.16). (Paul also refuses to pull rank on Philemon. Although “in Christ…[he] could be bold and order” [Philemon 1:8] Philemon to free Onesimus, Paul instead chooses to appeal to Philemon “on the basis of love” [Philemon 1:9]). Paul goes completely to bat for Onesimus.

Listen: Several important truths emerge for me from this encounter with God in His Word.

(1) The Gospel has the power to transform us from people leading useless, vain lives to people whose lives have purpose and meaning. That’s exactly what Jesus has come into our world to make possible through His death and resurrection. Paul writes in Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)

This morning, I was upset with myself for the intractability and recurrence of the sins I seem to specialize in, as well as for my stubborn bad habits. This is one of the things I discussed with God during the “STOP” portion of my quiet time.

I get discouraged with myself, ignoring the fact that while I may battle with the same bad old stuff, I can take consolation from two facts: (1) When I look back over the decades of my walk with Christ, I can see the ways in which He has impacted me positively, to use a non-existent word, Christwardly; (2) I am in the battle. I haven’t surrendered to my sins and bad habits; I seek each day to surrender to Christ.

If I weren’t in the battle, I wouldn’t feel the need to repent while reading Scripture or while praying or during conversations with maturing Christian. The surest indicator that I am seeking to follow Christ is guilt...not shame...but guilt. It’s guilt that prompts repentance and nudges me to confession, the experience of grace, and a closer walk with Christ. (This isn’t a license for sin, of course. Paul dealt with this issue when he wrote in Romans 6:1-4: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”) Our call is to cover ourselves in Christ through daily surrender to Christ as He renews us more deeply into His own image.

The most prominent dynamic of Christian discipleship is change. The disciple is always changing. If they’re not changing, they’re no longer following Jesus. They’re deluding themselves with the idea that they’ve arrived, that they no longer need to be covered in Christ’s righteousness. This leads either to self-righteousness or spiritual indifference.

But none of us, not even spiritual giants, “arrive” before we leave this life. Until that time, God has work to do on us.

So, my despair over my intractable sins and bad habits, the things that make me “useless” to God and the world is unwarranted. I belong to Jesus Christ. I turn to Him in daily repentance and renewal of the covenant He made with me at my baptism. I am in the battle. The damnation of my imperfection that Satan, my sin-distorted conscience, and the world seek to hand out to me be damned.
Jesus Christ is alive and I belong to Him despite the sins and flaws I daily ask Him to forgive and take away. As long as I’m in the battle against the old Mark, all is well. That’s incredibly comforting!

(2) It’s my responsibility as a Christian and a Christian servant-leader to go to bat for those others may dismiss, ignore, marginalize. I need to be an advocate for those Christians others may be inclined to dismiss, leave out, insult. I need to stand with those Christians whose faith others may doubt.

Paul went to bat for Onesimus. He was willing to repay Philemon for whatever damages to or loss of property Philemon experienced as a result of Onesimus’ actions.

When I was a young and very, very immature Christian (today I’m just a very immature Christian, I think, by the grace of God), Martha Schneider, a sixty year old-plus member of the church where I came to faith, put up with my twenty-something infantile behavior. She discipled me. She mentored me. She even came to see some of my behaviors which she’d once seen as useless and disrespectful as useful.  

When others may have been inclined to give up on me, Martha didn’t. She taught me about Jesus, grace, prayer, and resilient faith. She saw my potential and she was an instrument by which God brought changes to my life: deepened faith, an openness to God’s call, a love of prayer. She was Paul to my Onesimus. 

Respond: Father, You haven’t given up on me. Help me to not give up on You or the changes Your Holy Spirit can bring to me as I humbly bring my life to You each day in Jesus’ name. And help me not to give up on anyone, to pray for and to witness to those not yet converted to Christ and to stand with those who confess Christ who may be misunderstood or regarded with fear or suspicion by other Christians for their sketchy track records. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit again today, so that You guide my thoughts, words, and actions. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Who do I owe my thankfulness?

The New Testament book of Philemon isn't the longest of the Bible. It has just one short chapter. But reading it this morning as part of my 5 by 5 by 5 devotion time gave me plenty of material for consideration and prayer.

Philemon was a wealthy leader of the first-century church, probably in Colossae. His slave, Onesimus, also a Christian, ran away from Philemon and ended up helping the apostle Paul, then being held prisoner in Rome for his faith in Christ. Paul is sending Onesimus back to Philemon accompanied by this short letter.

Paul is very shrewd here (and elsewhere). He never overtly advocates the end of the Roman slavery system, but he asks Philemon to no longer treat Onesimus as he would a slave, but as a brother in Christ, an equal in the eyes of God, differing from Philemon not in status but only in function.

Paul even offers to compensate Philemon for any financial damage caused by Onesimus running away. Then, he takes the extraordinary step--taken in only a few of his letters--of actually taking the pen from his amanuensis (the secretary to whom he was dictating this correspondence) to write the pledge himself:

I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. [Then this amazing statement:] I say nothing about you owing me even your own self. (v. 19)

Christians believe that they have been saved from sin and death and given new and everlasting life by the grace of God given to all who trust in Jesus Christ as God, the only One Who can give forgiveness of sins and life from God. We're right to give thanks and praise to God alone for this great gift.

But no one comes to faith in Christ or to a growing, consoling, empowering faith in Christ, in a vacuum. No one wakes up one morning and says, "I believe in Christ." And no one's faith deepens without the help of mentors and friends in Christ.

There has to be someone--usually many someones--who share Christ with us. Otherwise, the human default mode, being to go it alone and to be our own gods without accountability to anyone else, we would never know about Christ and the forgiveness of sin and new life given to all who trust in this crucified and risen Savior.

As Paul puts it elsewhere:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)

God saves people for eternal life with God through their faith in Christ. But God commissions people--people who gave perfect witness to Him on the pages of Scripture, Christians who share their imperfect lives and the perfect good news about Jesus with friends and family, and others--to "preach," proclaim, teach, and give away their best friend and Lord Jesus to others.

This morning, I'm taking Paul's words to Philemon as words to me.

I'm taking the time to think about all of the people to whom I owe my eternal life because, in the power of God's Holy Spirit, they took and they take the time to share the life of Jesus with me. This includes people from my past and people from my present.

I'm taking the time to name each one before the Lord and to thank Him for their witness.

I'm offering a special prayer for those who are witnesses for Christ in my life right now, asking God to bless and protect them and their families and to help them sense His loving arms around them today.

I'm also offering prayers of thanksgiving for those now with the Lord in eternity, the sainted dead, whose witness for Christ has built up my faith in Christ--people like Martha S, Bruce S, Ron C, Karen H, Great Grandma Henry,  Uncle Carl and Aunt Betty, and Sarah S, to name just a few. I'm asking God, as I pray, to give them special embraces symbolic of my thankfulness to them and to remind them that I so look forward to seeing them again soon. My hope for eternity is one I possess because they and others have faithfully shared Christ with me and prayed to God the Father in Christ's name for me. How can I not be filled with thanksgiving?

It's not a bad idea to thank God for the people to whom we owe our connection to Christ, the life-giver. You may want to do so sometime today too.