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You Are Free: A Lesson from the Greco-Roman World
Most of us know that the world of the earliest Christians included slavery. The book of Philemon details the return of the slave Onesimus. And elsewhere, Paul flips the usual household codes, addresses slaves directly (scandalous!), and tells masters they, too, have a master. But even more personally, Paul refers to all believers as manumitted from sin and free to serve our new master: righteousness. Here are three examples from Paul’s letters. Notice what he says about who owns the believer. Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting…
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The Burden of Shame
If anyone should have been burdened by shame—the feeling that at the core of his being, he was inherently flawed and unworthy of love—it would have been the Apostle Paul. His crimes weren’t minor. He zealously persecuted Christians and personally condemned and participated in the deaths of many (see his story in Galatians 1:11-24). If I were Paul, I don’t think I could have ever forgiven myself for my crimes. I imagine that I would lay awake at night for hours, struggling to fall asleep as the scenes of brave Christians dying for their faith, replayed in my mind. I would find it hard to smile at children and their…
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A Singular Resolution
I could sell tickets to the prize fight in my mind. Endless choices pummel my thoughts. I hang punch-drunk on the ropes in a stupor. A life of freedom in Christ seems concealed somewhere amid the alternatives. We fight the pugilism of satan, the world, and the smallness of our thinking. We juke around with itsy bitsy choices which merely perpetuate an itsy bitsy existence. Strategies of marketing leave us stranded in aisles and choosing between low-fat and whole-grain. Strategies of media shipwreck us with technology as we send strangers the snapshots and sayings of our so-called lives. God guides us beyond the ring, instructing us to filter the myriad…
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F-R-E-E-D-O-M!!!
On this Fourth of July, what is on your agenda?
