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.”