The slave of God (Part 2)
In the first part, I promised to explain why Paul concluded that we are laborers together with God. Let us read in 1 Corinthians 3: 3-9 “For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building"
There was a division in the Corinthian church because some said they were of Paul and others of Apollos and Paul tried to clarify things by explaining that both (Paul and Apollos) were only servants through whom they believed as the Lord gave to each.
In other words, all the work is done by God through His servants. If you believe in Christ and know the truths of the Word, it is because God used one or more people in your life and glory must return to the Lord. Those who were used by the Lord are his servants. They are also called "God's fellow workers" because they put into practice the plan designed by God, which He prepared beforehand so that we should walk in it according to Ephesians 2: 10.
As I showed you in the first part, not only Paul presented himself as the servant of God, but in some letters he presented himself as the prisoner of Christ and he wrote to the saints to remind them that they are slaves of God.
Let us first talk about the prisoner of Christ: "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer" (Philemon 1: 1)
A prisoner has no right to go where and when he wants. All the prisons of the world are fenced by walls and doors tightly locked. If a prisoner leaves the prison to the court or the hospital, he cannot go alone but a guardian must follow him wherever he goes to make sure it won’t flee away.
Inside the prison, prisoners have a life, they do sports, they are friends but remain separated from the outside world. The difference between the World prison and Christ’s prison is that Christ loves his prisoners who are the saints. He does not bind our hands or feet, there is no guardian to follow us but an angel is with us wherever we go. All this to prevent us to be misled but He gives us the choice to become his prisoners for our good. I love the prison of Christ because it is heavily protected.
One day I went to visit someone in prison at Bujumbura and I was impressed by the conditions for entry. I had to leave my cell phone at the entrance, I had to report the amount of money on me, the guards checked that I did not have a weapon on me and if you have food, they check to know that it is not poisoned. All this encourages me because I know that if I am in the prison of Christ and that I stay in it with pleasure, all my enemies cannot reach me easily because they will find at the entrance of the angels of God stronger than them. The devil and his demons gnash their teeth when they find a child of God hidden in Christ's prison. The prisoner of Christ depends on Christ and not on the world or the devil.
In the third part, I will talk about the slave of God
Chris Ndikumana
