Year of the Bible: Part Eleven of TwelveShembull

In Jesus, Everyone becomes Family Almost everyone has experienced betrayal. Siblings, school friends, co-workers, spiritual leaders—every human is capable of offending or betraying another human. It is a natural by-product of a heart born in sin. However, Jesus! Jesus is the greatest reconciler of relationships the world will ever know. According to God’s promise, Jesus arrived on the scene right on time to accomplish the right mission: reconciling the lost into relationship with God. Those who receive this reconciliation have the opportunity to be reconciled with our betrayers. As with most things, obedience to Jesus’s model of living is essential. In today’s reading, Paul presents Onesimus with an opportunity to practice reconciliation. Forgiving a slave’s debt would have been unthinkable for the surrounding culture. However, that slave had become a brother in Christ. Therefore, the relationship had changed. Modeling Jesus’s forgiveness and reconciliation would witness to the culture of the day that a believer in Jesus had the unworldly freedom to forgive a wrong. Question: What freedoms do you have that the culture of your day does not have? What part of Jesus’s character can you demonstrate to witness to others the opportunity for reconciliation with God and others?