Reading With the People of God #7 CommitmentSample

Memorization Challenge:

6 Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. (Joshua 1:6-8 NLT)

Reading Primer: Embracing Our New Identity

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” – Galatians 3:28-29

Today, we will both start and finish the shortest book in the New Testament: Philemon. Philemon is a letter Paul wrote to a man named Philemon, an (at least somewhat) wealthy man whom Paul converted to Christianity. The situation seems to be that one of Philemon’s slaves, a man named Onesimus, ran away and, in God’s providence, ended up in prison with Paul. During their time together in prison, Paul converted him to faith in Christ. Paul now wants to reconcile Onesimus and Philemon. Paul wants Philemon to receive him “no longer as a slave, but as better than a slave, as a dear brother.” Paul goes on to model Christ’s love for us in his love for Onesimus, just as in Christ, our sin is no longer counted against us but taken on by Christ himself. Paul insists that if Onesimus has wronged Philemon in any way, he should charge the wrong to him instead. Under Roman law, Philemon had the right to punish Onesimus in any way he pleased, but Paul is confident that he will set Onesimus free and accept him as a brother in Christ.

Slavery was pervasive in the ancient world, but in Christ, it no longer makes sense. The institution of slavery went unquestioned in the ancient world, that is, until in the early 5th century when St. Gregory of Nyssa, in appealing to the shared image of God in all humanity, argued passionately against any form of slavery (it’s a good read if you want to Google it). Jesus changes everything, and though it took longer than it should have for Christians themselves to recognize the implications of their own theology, those implications eventually became impossible to ignore. Due, in no small part, to the history of Christian abolitionism, no one reading this has slaves. That being said, there are doubtless ways in which we have failed to follow Christ truly and come to simply accept the world as we know it. As we follow Christ together today, let us all be open to the correction of the Spirit.

• Wes Viau, Data Analyst