Instrument of God

In a Bible study many years ago one member of Trinity expressed a displeasure with Paul’s use of the word “slavery” in this text. Slavery is not good, was her argument, so why use it to describe our relationship with God? While it is possible to translate the Greek word as “servant,”  (according to the commentaries I read) it is not what Paul meant. Paul is contrasting our life before and after baptism and to do so he used the same term to emphasize the contrast. If you are also uncomfortable with Paul’s choice of words, be assured that he was also. That is what he means in verse 19 where he tells us he is speaking in human terms. Because the Romans were still choosing to sin, Paul wanted to drive home the point he is making by using a jarring term. The emphasis here is not about slavery but reminding the Romans the price Jesus had paid for freeing them. Before Christ, your wages for your sin was death. But Jesus’ wages for his death was life eternal for them. If Christ had set them free, Paul asks them, why did they still allow sin to control them?

In this same text Paul is also playing with another contrast. That contrast is between the members of your body that commit sin and your whole life that lives in Christ. While he is not consistent in this contrast he does try to emphasize that a person who sins is disjointed while one who chooses to live in righteousness is whole. I do not want to push this too far. For those who are still in bondage to sin may see themselves as whole and not disjointed. That may be part of their bondage – not knowing the possibilities in their lives. 

But that is not you. You have been freed from the bondage to sin and death and made whole by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. You can choose to live your life so that, through you, others see their own bondage and cry out for their salvation. Our other texts for today can teach us (another theme in Paul’s text for today) what to choose. Our Old Testament story recounts a conversation between Jeremiah and Hananiah before the people. Jeremiah was the true prophet of God warning the people that their unbelief was their downfall while Hananiah told the people what they wanted to hear. We know how that all worked out. By listening to the false prophet the Israelites made things much worse for themselves. They also mistreated Jeremiah. For those who live in Christ we are called to speak the truth despite how those who hear us react and treat us. Jesus emphasizes this as well in our reading from Matthew. He also adds that sentence about giving cold water to the little ones. He is talking about those who are downtrodden, mistreated, and ignored by others. Not only are we to help them, we are called to speak up for them.

That seems like an insurmountable task in our world today. When politicians are belittling others who are different from themselves. When people go on shooting rampages because of the words of others we are called to proclaim God’s word to them. We are to be Jeremiahs to their Hananiahs. We, especially, are to call out those who claim to be Christians while hate is all they spew. As the children of God we are called to be the light of the world. Called to choose life and proclaim God’s love and salvation to all not just to those who look and think like us. Put away your sinful members and dedicate your whole life to be an instrument of God’s love.