Philemon 6 (ESV)
I loved playing high school basketball. I would space-out in English class thinking about it and dreamt of it at night. I hung posters all over my wall and could name every major player in the NBA. My friends and I would watch NBA games and try to decipher plays and patterns, and of course we watched Hoosiers about 65 times. There was only one problem—I completely stunk. Though I went to a small Christian school and had a graduating class of only 7, I was sequestered far down the line of the 2nd string. To give you some idea of how bad I was, my average game-play my senior year was about 1 minute 30 seconds (yes, per game).
But then something truly remarkable happened—I got the chance to attend a Pistons/Bulls game. This was in the era of the Piston’s “Bad Boys” days with Spiderman Sally, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, and Dennis Rodman (before he wigged out on everybody). At the game, I got the once-in-a-lifetime chance of meeting Michael Jordan. OK, so it was brief and all he said was “hey kid”—but for a 16 year old fan it was amazing. Going back to school and basketball practice I determined I was a ‘new man’. No longer would I be sentenced to 2nd string. After all, I had met the greatest player in the world. Oddly, my coach didn’t seem to see the significance of this—and still gave me the job of holding down a metal chair at the sideline.
Knowing someone with great faith, like knowing someone with great athletic ability, doesn’t mean it will somehow ‘rub off’ on us. In the verse above, Paul is praying that the members of Philemon’s church will “share in” the strong faith of Philemon. But Paul is not saying that such faith will ‘magically’ rub off on them. A puritan preacher once noted that “No man can be saved by another man’s believing, no more then be nourished by another man’s feeding”.1 Certainly Paul is urging Philemon to live in such a way as to nourish faith in others (see tomorrow’s devotional on this), but if we are to truly share in the faith of others we must bring something to the table—a God-given desire to grow spiritually.
This is what the prophet Habakkuk meant when he wrote “..the righteous shall live by his faith”(2:4b ESV). We do not get to heaven because someone close to us is a Christian, nor do we become mature in Christ simply because we know some who are.
It doesn’t help with basketball, either.
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1 William Attersoll, A Commentary Upon the Epistle of
This might be the best blog I have ever read of yours Josh.
ReplyDeletePerfect analogy and absolutely a point that needs to be made over and over again.
We are not Christians because mom and dad were, anymore than we will be great ballplayers simply because dad was. (Although it does increase the liklihood?)
I bet you held that chair down great. You were probably skimming 17th century Puritan writings while you did?