Three Transformed Men

The apostle Paul’s letter to his friend Philemon offers a portrait of three transformed men. Paul, a man who once seized Christians, confining them to prison, was now a prisoner himself, and that because he had become a Christian. Onesimus, a runaway slave who was considered useless by his master, Philemon, had become useful to Paul and, Paul assures, to Philemon. Philemon was transformed from Onesimus’ master to Onesimus’ slave. 

Three men, very different backgrounds, social standing, and life experiences, all transformed from who they were to who they now are. And the transformations that had taken place were not minor tweaks to their behavior or outlook on the world. These were radical metamorphoses that put the men at odds with their former selves and the world they inhabited. Why and how had this taken place? Each one of them had become united to Christ. And having become united to Christ, he was at work in them to transform them more and more into who they were in him.

This is the inevitable result of a person becoming a Christian. When someone responds to the gospel call, the same grace that enabled that one to ‘hear’ is at work in that person to change him or her into who they were created to be: “little Christs.” C.S. Lewis asserts that each believer is being shaped “into a new little Christ, a being which, in its own small way, has the same kind of life as God; which shares in His power, joy, knowledge and eternity.” And why shaped to be like Christ and not just a cleaned up version of our old selves?  Because Christ was the “one man who really was what all men were intended to be.” For Lewis, therefore, the transformation from unreal man into real man is the goal of Christian discipleship. Indeed, “it is the whole of Christianity.”

I believe there are  three components of this change evident in Paul’s letter to his friend: humility, love for Christ, and love for Christ’s church. All three men were humbled by the reality of the gospel, causing them to forsake whatever foolish notions stood in the way of walking with Christ. In all three, love for Christ is evident in their willingness to pick up their cross and follow him wherever he led them. And love for Christ’s church is demonstrated in Paul’s joy at hearing of Philemon’s love for the saints, Philemon’s ready engaging in koinonia, and Onesimus laboring along side of Paul in his imprisonment. The presumption behind all of these components is the presence of the Holy Spirit imparting new life, Jesus’ life.

We do not need to remain mired in our old selves. New life is ours in Christ. It may lead us into difficult places, challenging us to confront the fallenness in ourselves and the world, but I think Lewis is right when he says, “Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”

Using All the Clubs in the Bag

Golf is a difficult game. At its most basic, you're just trying to get a small, white ball into a 4-1/4 inch hole. What makes it difficult is that you start the process hundreds of yards away, sometimes up to 500+ yards from tee to green. And to get from point A to point B you have to decide which clubs to use so that you have the best shot at putting the small, white ball into the 4-1/4 inch hole in a prescribed number of strokes, what's called "par." If you look at the layout of a golf course, you'll see that the designer of the thing intended to make the task difficult. Numerous obstacles are put in the golfer's way so that getting the ball into the hole requires a bag full of different clubs, with different purposes, to make it happen. An accomplished golfer knows what each will do for him and choses the right one for the particular situation he finds himself in.

This full use of the bag by a skilled golfer is not unlike the life of the mature Christian. The apostle Peter teaches that all things that pertain to life and godliness are ours through our faith union with Christ (2 Peter 1:3-8). This is why he urges Christians to take full advantage of this reality by supplementing our faith with a list of characteristics that are ours because they are found in Christ. And, not dissimilar to a golf course designer, God will place us in situations that will force us to make use of all the clubs in our bag.

Such was the case for Philemon. Paul sent back Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus, challenging Philemon to receive Onesimus as he would the apostle Paul. Why should Philemon do that? Because Onesimus was no longer just a slave in Philemon's household, he was a believer in Christ's church. Under the tutelage of the apostle, Onesimus had come to faith in Christ. And despite whatever he was before, he was now "a new creation," and the koinonia, the fellowship and sharing of life that Philemon readily extended to fellow church members, was now due Onesimus.

To our contemporary ears this might not seem like that big of a test. But for a 1st century man, living in a society that understood slavery to be an unquestioned, even necessary, institution, to not treat a runaway harshly would put him at odds with the culture, and, more personally, expose the yet unsanctified aspects of his character. The apostle was confident, however, that if Philemon would receive Onesimus back as a brother, with all rights and privileges, he would discover how pursuing koinonia would "become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ." (Philemon 6).

Isn't this what growing into Christian maturity is all about? In times of testing, are we not being asked by God to discover and make use of all the clubs in the bag? We possess them because Jesus possesses them. And to the extent that we seek him and rely on him to manifest them in our lives we show ourselves to be mature in him.