If you listen to Jesus, it almost sounds like there is a prejudice against the wealthy and the well-to-do. Is that true? Is the Kingdom stacked against those who do well for themselves in this life? Paul provides the answer, which is that the Christian identity combines humiliation and dignity.
At the time when the Apostle Paul was writing his letters to the churches throughout the Roman Empire, society was rigidly and often brutally stratified according to class. Nothing about a person was more important than the social class to which they belonged. But the gospel brought a radically new type of community into being—a community in which class was irrelevant, race and tribe were irrelevant, wealth and all of the other markers of success and prestige were irrelevant.
But Paul’s people still experienced the immediate effects of their status and other conditions of life in this world. So he addresses the natural tendency we have of seeking to improve our situation. The first thing he says is that it’s a mistake to concern ourselves with questions of status in the church. God has assigned us our path in life, and we don’t have to reinvent ourselves in order to come to Christ.
God designed the life you’re living, and he has a purpose for the condition you’re in now.
Being a disciple of Jesus means being yourself without self-pity or pride, and allowing others to be themselves without passing judgment. Circumcision is singled out because it was such a clear marker of the Jewish identity, which Paul says is also irrelevant now that Christ has come. If Jews and gentiles could worship side by side in this new community, then there was no human prejudice that the gospel wouldn’t eventually cure.
Paul’s next statement, however, comes very close to being offensive until we see the whole message. “Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t worry about it.” Easy for you to say, Mr. Roman Citizen. What does he mean now?
Paul was convinced that all of these things that matter so much in the world—wealth, social status, heredity—were now obsolete because of Christ’s death and resurrection. (Remember that he was the Arch-Pharisee before his conversion.) He wasn’t being trite in his advice to slaves: he really meant that there was something about the Christian identity that took the sting out of being a slave.
The Christian identity is a drastically new quality of life.
The climax of Paul’s argument is in verse 22: “For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ.” It is crucial to understand he is not saying that somehow the positions of Roman slaves and Roman citizens were reversed. Instead, what he means is that, in Christ, everyone is free, and everyone is a slave.
This is a pattern that reflects the paradox of the gospel. The Christian identity combines humiliation and dignity because the message of the gospel tells us both about our sin and God’s love for us.
This is why the gospel is especially good news to those who already know they’re unlovable, poor, weak, unsuccessful and dishonored, but is so frequently rejected by those who are used to being admired, accepted, wealthy and comfortable. Jesus himself taught that the Kingdom would be especially difficult to enter for the “rich” in this world—and “rich” includes not just financial wealth but all kinds of worldly virtue and value. This echoes the very first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3). Does this reflect a prejudice against those who have done well for themselves?
Not a prejudice, but a consequence of grace: it is easy for the humble to receive, but a bitter humiliation for the proud.