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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