Philemon: Fixing Fellowship pt 6
The Gospel is about reconciliation. God being reconciled to humanity through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But how often do we think about how this ‘Gospel reconciliation’ impacts our relationships with each other? The apostle Paul challenged his dear friend Philemon to be reconciled to his former slave, Onesimus, who ran away from him. In Paul’s encouragement to Philemon to forgive his former slave, we see an amazing picture of how the Gospel transforms our relationships — especially with those who have wronged us.
11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
Reflection: The Gospel brings true and total transformation to our hearts. Hearts that were once hard and cold, become soft and warm. God uses each one of his children for his purposes in his kingdom. There are moments when we forget the ‘usefulness’ of those around us. We can either ignore or look down on others because we wrongly think they have no use. In a radical display of the gospel in Onesimus’s life, he has now been transformed to serve. Philemon is challenged to see this and respond accordingly.
Question: Are there people around you that you have looked down on because you didn’t think they were of use in the kingdom?
Prayer: Lord, thank you that we are part of the body of Christ and each member plays a vital part. May we see each person in our church community as valuable.
Angus is one of the pastors at Orange Presbyterian Church. He and Steph have three children, a puppy and a veggie garden.
This devotion first appeared in the Bible Society’s Daily Bible Devotions, February 2023
More Reflections.
Often, we build something up so much in our minds, that the experience we want becomes almost unattainable. We romanticise what we think it will be like and we think “If I can just do this one thing or tick this one experience off my bucket list, then I will be able to feel a sense of fulfilment that I wouldn’t necessarily have had otherwise”.