God might receive us as slaves but treats us as sons

In this meditation I want to finish our long journey through this parable of the Lord Jesus Christ about the useless servant and that we must compare ourselves in the same way and have that attitude of total surrender, but also that God has chosen, in His mercy, to treat us as children and as members of His Kingdom.

And what I want to invite you to do, what I want my brothers who listen to me and see me to be able to do, is to maintain that double image, right? of its true condition. That on the one hand God could demand what He absolutely wanted from us and could treat us with extreme indifference, and with total, as we said, arbitrariness if He wanted, and we have to be willing to do so, but thank the Lord, God treats us with great generosity, love, preference, and that this should be the way we approach the Throne of God, and that our prayers should be bold and daring, and that we have to aspire to receive good things from us. of the Lord, and that we have a bright future before this God who loves us, but that we should never presume to be anything other than what we are, and that God often treats us with such a considerate attitude that it is truly amazing.

The last thing I want to leave with you is an illustration of this duality that I see recorded in Paul's Epistle to Philemon. The Epistle of Paul to Philemon is an Epistle of a single chapter, twenty-five verses, that's all, a minimal gem, but it has a very great teaching. Where the apostle Paul writes to this man called Philemon to forgive a slave who had escaped from him, and that now Paul was returning to this slave, Onesimus was called, to forgive him and receive him as a friend, as a member of his family, rather than treating him like an escaped slave.

Paul had asked Onesimus to the place from which he had run away, now that he was a Christian, but he is also writing to Philemon to treat him with the consideration and mercy that he owes as a Christian, Paul is writing to a Christian.

But notice how Paul addresses Philemon by asking for something that was really a little demanding, right? Because Philemon I imagine he was upset with Onesimus and according to the customs of his time, he should treat him harshly and perhaps even send him to be flogged or worse still, and notice how delicately Paul writes to Philemon.

And he says: "Therefore" this in verse 8 of the Epistle, "For which, although I have much freedom in Christ to send you what is convenient, rather I beg you out of love, being as I am, Paul, already old and Now a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I beg you for my son Onesimus whom I begat in my prisons, who was once useless to you, but now he is useful to you and me. You therefore receive him as myself. I would like to keep him with me to That in your place, he would serve me in my prisons for the Gospel, but I do not want to do anything without your consent so that your favor would not be as of necessity, but voluntary; because perhaps for this reason he separated from you for some time, so that you would receive him. forever, no longer as a slave, but as more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially for me, but all the more for you both in the flesh and in the Lord. "

I invite my listeners and viewers to read that passage for themselves and see here this duality of the Apostle Paul. On the one hand Paul says to Philemon: remember that you met Christ through me, I am your mentor, I am your spiritual father, and as your spiritual father I would have the right to ask you anything I wanted and order you rather that you received Onesimus as your brother, but I don't want to do that, I want to ask you as a favor. I want to ask you as a consideration that I would like you to have with me, your spiritual father.

Isn't that how God deals with us many times, how He deals with us? That God could demand of us if He has given us everything, He has done everything for us, we have no right to say no to anything. But many times God treats us with so much mercy, He asks us to serve Him, He does not force us to do the things He wants us to do, He speaks to us through His Spirit, He treats us with such delicacy, although He could turn us into robots, as automatons that we do what He wants us to do. God is gentle as Paul is gentle with Philemon.

And not only that, but it also invites Philemon to receive Onesimus not as a slave, he says, but as more than a slave, as a brother in faith, as God has received us. God could receive us as slaves but He treats us as friends, as brothers, as children, as members of His family.

So we see here that double aspect that we also saw in the parable of the useless servant. God does not treat us as slaves although He could well do so, but He treats us as members of His family and we have to keep in mind those two dimensions of our identity as servants of Jesus Christ, but also as friends of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May this parable continue to teach you, instruct you, and enrich your walk in faith. I say goodbye to you in the Name of Jesus, until our next meditation.