How can everybody be equal ?

by Christo Jovner

We once had a family gathering and talked about our experience visiting Home affairs. One statement was that “Home Affairs is such an Equaliser”, meaning no matter what your social status, race or gender is, everybody gets the same treatment… and everybody wants that much needed commodity – that ID card, passport or unabridged birth certificate.

With the COVID19 pandemic on our doorstep, it also “such an equaliser”, because the virus doesn’t ask you permission to infect you based on your social status, gender or race… And everybody wants that much needed commodity – health!

When it comes to our spiritual life, there is also “such an equaliser”. His name is Jesus Christ. And the much needed commodity is to know Him!

Paul of the Bible is in lockdown for three years and writes a thank you letter to the Philippians. In chapter 3 he writes about his past, his accomplishment as a spiritual elitist and his zeal in persecuting the church.

Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!5I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.  Phil 3:4b-6 (NLT)

But then Paul meet the spiritual Equaliser: 

Jesus Christ. No effort of your own can suffice, only faith in Jesus. From a lockdown prison cell, Paul writes about his primary persuit in life: To know Christ and to obey Him!

I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Phil 3:7-8 (NLT)

And when wrapped in time and seclusion, Paul is liberated from his past – his religious superiority that hardened his haughty heart as well as his church-persecuting-mistake that could so easily paralise him emotionally.

Today, in our lockdown, we are also wrapped in time and seclusion, and our past also might need some liberation, from the haughty hardened heart to the emotionally paralised heart…

 

Only one thing is needed: that I might know Jesus and obey Him. Don’t you want to join me on this liberating journey that only “such an equaliser” – Jesus Christ can do in us?