Year of the Bible: Part Eleven of TwelveSýnishorn

The Power of a New Identity

The identity that Jesus Christ ascribes to a believer is more important than any earthly legal identity. Legally, Onesimus was a runaway slave and the property of Philemon. Spiritually, he was much more than that; once Paul led Onesimus to Jesus, he became a brother and a fellow child of God. In Christ, he became righteous, holy, forgiven, and blessed. Paul asked Philemon to receive Onesimus in this new identity.

The word “receive” is significant and powerful. Receiving someone who has harmed you is powerful. Receiving someone you dislike as an equal partner in the body of Christ is powerful. There is power in forgiveness, reconciliation, and actions that remove all human, ethnic, and societal barriers between Christians. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to “receive” someone who owes you something, even if that person is also free in Christ!

Paul asked for Philemon’s voluntary consent, not a submission to authority. God didn’t make us robots or subjects who are coerced into following a set of commands. He seeks loving worshipers who will choose to volunteer their lives and will to Him. Paul used his influence to make this request, not out of authority—although he could have—but out of a love motivation: the same great love that motivated Christ to forgive you and me when we owed him a debt we could never pay.

Question: How do you primarily see God: as a Master and Lord or as a Friend and Teacher? Are there Christian individuals or groups you have difficulty receiving as brothers and sisters?

Prayer: Ask and allow the Holy Spirit to show you any individual or group you are holding yourself back from out of unforgiveness. Pray for ways to embrace and receive those who, like you, are sons and daughters of God.