Miscellaneous: Why a Slave Was Returned (and Another Was Not) - Stephen

In the well-known novel bearing his name, Huckleberry Finn finds himself faced with an enormous dilemma. Having joined up with a runaway slave named Jim on a quest to leave the past behind, he has a decision to make. Does he follow what those around him have always taught—that a slave is someone’s property and therefore a runaway must be returned? Or does he follow his conscience and allow Jim to seek the freedoms that all people were granted by their Maker? This predicament never occurred surrounded by all his friends in his small, country town. It wasn’t until Huck was confronted with Jim that his beliefs were challenged and a choice had to be made.

In a somewhat similar situation found in Scripture, why would the Apostle Paul send a Jewish slave back to his former master despite the injustices of such a trade?[1] In another instance, why would an all-knowing God ask a Jew to visit a Gentile despite their well-known, long-held prejudice against one another?[2] And why does Jesus command us all to approach the one with whom a grudge is held despite our natural tendency to run away, ignore them, or complain to everyone but the one with whom the fault exists?[3] Because it would seem in all of these that confrontation is the way God achieves certain aspects of our sanctification where nothing else will.

Sanctification is the process of being set apart and purified for a specific purpose. After one accepts God’s salvation they are set apart by God for His purposes and to complete His will. This process is many times accomplished in the life of a believer by the hearing and application of truth contained in the Word of God (c.f., Ephesians 5:25-27). Jesus said it this way in a prayer found in John 17:17:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”

When the truth of God’s Word is heard and consciously applied to the recipient’s everyday life they become holier (aka more sanctified) before God than they were previously. By analogy, it is like the washing of vegetables in a strainer—the water and dirt are flushed out while the vegetables within become cleaner. Likewise, Philemon that slave-owner, Peter that Jew, and all of us become closer to holiness when we respond rightly to the confrontations of life God brings our way.

Would Philemon have ever accepted Onesimus the slave and thief as a “brother” had his former slave never returned? Would Peter have ever changed his mind regarding Gentiles had he not been confronted with Cornelius? And would we ever actually deal with that fault with someone else if we refused to face it one-on-one? We all know the answers to these, don’t we? And so does God.

When we think of the story of Philemon our gaze is drawn to Onesimus because his eternal freedom was obtained. What we don’t see as clearly is God was simultaneously concerned with a needed freedom and change within the heart of his master. In the story of Cornelius, we are once again so focused on the one seeking Christ to notice that God was also busy ironing out the bigotry within the wrinkles of Peter’s upbringing. While we tend to focus on the one with the seemingly greater need, God is focused on every individual equally. The need might be different, but spiritual growth is necessary and important for us all.

Like Philemon, this process is many times inconvenient. Instead of punishing his runaway slave as was the norm, he is encouraged to embrace Onesimus as the newest member of a now shared spiritual family. This action was counter-cultural at the very least and certainly not the natural response one takes with a thief of any kind. But when becoming like Jesus is the goal, becoming like the culture becomes irrelevant. Like Peter, the process is often life-altering. And if we add Jonah to the mix who was asked to preach repentance to a city upon which he preferred judgment, these confrontations will many times find us reluctant to accept God’s plan at first pass. But always to our detriment—for the confrontation we run from could very well be the confrontation God knows we need.

“No man is an island,” John Donne once famously wrote. It would seem God echoes this remark as His truth is continually revealed as a confronting one. We might hear that truth sitting comfortably by ourselves upon a padded pew, but, as Huck Finn found out, the application of our true beliefs occurs when we are confronted by others…sometimes when it’s least desired.

If we’re honest, we could all be a little cleaner, a little more holy, and a little bit more like Jesus. If these tales from old are any indication, God’s not done with any of us just yet. And apparently, he’s using us to continue the work.

As iron sharpens iron,

So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 27:17

 

 

 

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[1] Philemon 1:1-21.

[2] Acts 10:1-48.

[3] Matthew 18:15.

Miscellaneous: Wake Up! - Ron

I know this post is going live on Valentine's Day. And no, it isn't about love, marriage, dating, hand-holding, or embracing God's will in your singleness. Some will say that I missed a huge opportunity today. All I can say is that if you are looking for some sort of Valentine's Day love story with religious platitudes, read on all the way to the end! If you aren't looking for that kind of thing at all, you can read on to the end as well. I promise, if you are in the latter group you will not be disappointed. Many in the former group are going to be disappointed at some point today anyway, so it might as well start with me.

Let's go!

"...Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed" (Romans 13:11). Paul wrote that a long time ago, but it still applies today. By this, Paul means the full effect of our salvation, as in, the being-with-Jesus-part. For the Christian, each breath that you take brings you that much closer to being with Christ, whether through death or His return. 

But in the meantime, Paul says this knowledge means it is high time for Christians to wake up. John Gill, in his commentary on the book, says this speaks of the "carnal security and drowsy frame of spirit which sometimes attend the churches and children of God...in a backwardness to duty and a slothfulness in performance of it." In other words, it is possible for us to be asleep on the job, as it were.

Sleeping people aren't good for much. I haven't always been a heavy sleeper. But as I worked my way through about 5,632 nights of baby screaming, I have learned to sleep through things. In fact, sometimes, I wake up oblivious to what has gone on around me. 

There is nothing quite so terrifying as children wandering in the darkness. I remember one time, I woke up to complete darkness and the feeling of breath on my face. It was a son, who wanted me to know, at that very moment, that the tooth fairy had come. As if I didn’t know. 

Then there was the time that I woke up, and saw something crouching under our covers. I literally have never been so scared in my entire life. It just sat there. I started freaking out and pushing it, to find out that it was the head of a different son who had somehow crawled into bed, and decided it would be perfectly normal to sit on his knees in the middle of our bed underneath the covers. 

Both of these things were made possible by the fact that I was sleeping, and had no idea what was going on. On a different occasion, one of my other sons (I've got 3, and now you've met all of them) woke up to use the bathroom, but not actually in the bathroom. My wife and I were out in the living room, and here comes a son. This blessing from the Lord stumbles down the hallway--whining and mumbling--stands behind the couch, and begins peeing right into a basket of clean clothes.

In First Thessalonians 5, Paul says that people who are asleep have no idea what is going on. The same is true of those who are drunk. Sometimes the main reason people get drunk, is so they can forget what was going on, or so that they won’t remember what will go on. 

Paul says that Christians are to be different. Our conduct is different. Rather than be like those who will be left behind, we ought not to be lethargic or careless about spiritual things. Lost people are asleep to spiritual realities and incapable of properly responding to them. They are incapacitated by their own wicked lifestyle. But Christians are to be sober. We are to be spiritually alert at all times.  Paul uses the breastplate, which protects the heart, and the helmet, which protects the head, to remind us that our affections and thoughts are a favorite target of the enemy. 

Paul says much the same in the last handful of verses in Romans 13. Verse number eleven began this blog post, but verses 12-14 detail what Christians ought to be doing instead of slumbering away the interim between salvation and glory.

In short, we are not to love the things that this world has to offer. We are not to allow ourselves to be seduced by worldly philosophies, attitudes, and attractions. We are meant for more and we are waiting for more. This world isn’t our forever home. But we are still called to engage culture and to be salt and light. We are strangers and pilgrims, but we have been commanded to be ambassadors for Christ on our pilgrimage. 

In Acts 17:6, the apostles are described as those who have "turned the world upside down." Their brand of Christ-following had caused a significant disruption in the culture. This new way, markedly different from the immoral polytheism of the Greeks and Romans AND the self-righteous monotheism of the Pharisees, was breaking society. Christians were making a difference.

While it is hard to pinpoint exactly how many born-again Christians are in the United States, recent data suggests that 63% of American adults self-identify under the Christian label (Smith, 2021). That is over 200,000,000 people taking on the name. If even half of that number are Christians in the biblical sense, that would mean nearly 1/3 of the United States population is saved by grace and serving Jesus as Lord. 

That is a lot of salt and light. That is a mass of pilgrim ambassadors. And if the Jews thought some apostles were turning their world upside down, imagine if they were alive today to see the massive disruption that 100,000,000 Bible-believing Christians are making in the United States. Except, that isn't what they would see. What they would see is a society every bit as Godless as Corinth and Rome, maybe more so. They would encounter millions of Christians consuming culture that they ought to be marking and avoiding. They could use Google to find a plethora of articles describing America as a post-Christian nation.

A post-Christian nation comprised of 63% Christians? Perhaps we have been sleeping. You are nearer to meeting Christ now than you were when you started reading this post. It is high time for us to wake up.

Reference

Smith, Gregory. (2021). About three-in-ten U.S. adults are now religiously unaffiliated. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewforum.org/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/

The 10 Commandments for the Modern World | The First Commandment - Ben

If you’ve read the title for this post and you’re still here, I’ll assume you don’t want a piece that is filled with worthless platitudes.  I'll even venture a guess and say you'd probably like some background so that you might better grasp how a commandment that’s thousands of years old can still apply today.  And I won’t take it for granted that you love the Bible and want a better understanding of one of the most misunderstood commandments in all of scripture. 

Ready for a quick Old Testament fast-forward? Allow me to first sum up Gen. 1:1-Exodus 20:1: God created man.  Man sinned.  God promised to redeem man.  Time passes.  God calls a man named Abram to follow him, changes his name to Abraham, and promises to make him a mighty nation.  Later, Abraham's great-grandson, Joseph, saves his family and all of Egypt from a severe famine.  Joseph and his family settle in Egypt.  400 years elapse.  Joseph's family, now called the Israelites, are the size of a nation but have become enslaved by the Egyptians.  God calls a man named Moses to deliver them.  Pharaoh refuses to free the Jews, so God sends ten plagues, and the Israelites are set free.  They then head towards the lands promised to their ancestor, Abraham.  But before they enter the titular “promise land,” God wants to lay down some ground rules.  Commonly referred to as the 10 commandments, these rules will help maintain a healthy relationship between the Israelites in their God. 

(Pause for applause……….pause a little more…….thank you…thank you….aaaaand bow.)

Why the context?  Because it's important to see that before God ever set down any formal requirements, he proved by his actions that he loved humankind.  Before he ever commanded them to refrain from having other gods, he demonstrated what kind of God he was.  Not until he laid out his love for them did he lay down the law before them (cf. Ex. 20:2).  And the first law God instituted was this: 

"You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3 (ESV)

Now, if it wasn't for God, the Israelites wouldn't even exist; in light of this fact alone, the first commandment seems a natural starting point.  Their fidelity to God was to be undivided in the same way that God’s love for them had been unbroken.  God deserved all the credit, and it was to him that they owed their allegiance. 

What’s more, this commandment set the tone for the Jew’s entire belief system.  Polytheism—a belief in multiple gods—was the norm.  And while people groups may have recognized some prime deity, they often worshiped a whole pantheon of gods (i.e., Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, etc.).  For God to require that the Jews worship only him, he, in essence, created the very first monotheistic—a belief in one god—religion.  Meaning that, for the Jew, going and serving some other deity was a sin called idolatry. 

But what does this have to do with us?  Practically speaking, that meant the Jews weren't to have any idols in their home.  And if our idea of an idol is nothing more than a statue made out of wood, stone, or metal, I don't think there is much of a problem today.  Or, I should say, I feel that this isn't a problem for modern Christians living in a Western context.  However, suppose we expand our definition of an idol to incorporate anything that draws us away from God? In that case, all of a sudden, this commandment becomes incredibly applicable.

The idols we have to be wary of today are not physical in the traditional sense.  Idols carved from stone have been replaced by cars molded from steel and phones built from technology.  Before, entire belief systems governed how one ought to worship an idol.  Today, the only belief system that controls anything is a person's happiness.  The love of self is the modern-day equivalent of idol worship. 

And what's so hard about trying to talk about idolatry today is that most people don't see it for what it is. Rather than call it idolatry, they call it something like the "American dream." Rather than acknowledge that they're more concerned with their own wants and desires than with God's, they ignore the problem altogether.

But anything and everything that takes us away from God is idolatry.  The dad who puts his family before God has made his family an idol.  The woman who thinks only of her career has confined God to the closet of her conscience and put heart’s desire at the center of her life.  Good things turn into bad things when God is not our main thing. On the flipside, when we place God first, he helps us to be a better spouse, parent, employee, friend. Priorities tend to fall into place, when we place God first.

Way back in the beginning, God told the Israelites that he ought to be the only one who sat on the throne of their hearts.  How much more so for those of us who have been redeemed by God's Son?  While we were like pigs wallowing in our filth, God sent his Son to die for us (cf. Rom. 5:8).  What sort of allegiance ought that to instill in our hearts?