I think it’s the hardest in the daily rhythms of life, to walk it all out, loving and serving wholeheartedly, being patient with each other, with ourselves, and with our circumstances, working through the day-by-day with joy, staying rooted and built up in Jesus.
At least it is for me, and it seems like it was for the Colossians. I’ve been reflecting on the old: old life, old self, old habits and thinking, old instincts, old ways… What struck me about the Colossians is that they were still surrounded by all of that old life, and on various cultural fronts, dealing with the culture of the empire where everyone worshiped everything and followed what was good in their own eyes.
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
—Colossians 2:6-8 (ESV)
They also had to deal with Jews insisting on laws and traditions as part of the Jesus-life. And I guess this was all bookended by people teaching that the body was evil and needed to be deprived and punished to be kept in check, as well as other folks just advocating to just do whatever felt right and good.
What I’ve been meditating on is how, as we put off and leave the old to put on Jesus and seek the things that are above, the old never magically goes away. Everything is everywhere around us, and packaged up as new, now, and needed.
And something I heard recently is that human beings are really good at adapting to our environment and circumstances, given enough time. In other words, we’re really good at getting used to things—accepting and adopting whatever are the activities of the daily rhythms of our lives.
We are what we eat and drink, and see and hear and say and engage/allow/pursue, and so on. There’s no getting away or around it. We can’t just close ourselves off from everything. But, we can practice, focus, work, and walk out this new and true life in Jesus. And then sometimes it can be even harder to both recognize and turn from the old norms surrounding us. Apparently, Philemon was hosting and leading a church in his home and he, like the rest of the normal world, had slaves. Onesimus was one of them, and I guess something had happened, and he ran away.
So Paul writes this letter to Philemon.
For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
—Philemon 1:15-16
In short, loving in Jesus means literally loving others as equal heirs in Jesus. Paul wants him to be reconciled with Onesimus because that’s right—but also, and I guess even more so, reconciled as brothers in Jesus because that’s righteous.
I wonder how that all turned out.
I guess I wonder how I’m turning out.
