A Prisoner of the Lord

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

A "prisoner", of course, is one under arrest, a captive, one who is bound. This denotes one in a different status than a slave. This person had committed some crime or offense against authority and was held to answer for that offense. The root of the word ties back, in secular usage to the idea of binding: metaph. binding as with a spell, or enchaining. That, of course, is not the idea in the Bible. In the Scripture, the word is usually found in the plural, either masculine or neuter. When used in the neuter, it stands thus for the actual “bonds” which bind a prisoner. When used in the masculine plural stands frequently in a figurative sense for “a condition of imprisonment.” Paul used the word in this fashion in Philippians 1:7:

...just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.

He goes on mentions the concept again, using the same language in verse 13:

..so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ;

There are quite a number of other instances of the same usage (1:14, 1:16; Col. 4:18; 2 Tim. 2:9; Philem. 10, 13; Heb. 10:34).

Note the phrase "...of the Lord" - By mentioning his imprisonment again, Paul gently reminded Ephesian believers that the faithful Christian walk can be costly and that he had paid a considerable personal price because of his obedience to the Lord.

It is curious and interesting that the Bible even casts anyone as the "prisoner" of the Lord. If one were to listen to the modern preachers these days, God is a God of love and a God of great love, mercy and grace and He does not make anyone a prisoner. No one, they would argue is in servitude to this God, for He is a God that frees and no One that enslaves and binds. This is the God that breaks the back of the oppressor and sets Himself against all those who are being held down by those more fortunate.

Yet, here God is portrayed as the One holding Paul prisoner! Surely, Paul is a willing prisoner, but he is a prisoner none the less! And it is no use saying that Paul has placed himself in servitude to God, or that this just a metaphor, for any self-respecting God (according to our modern friends) should immediately reject this kind of language as rude and inappropriate; disrespectful to our friends and to the generations that have before that actually WERE prisoners and even slaves! No, this is inappropriate language and we need to change it...

But wait...there is no other meaning for this word. It has no "honorable" or just meaning and cannot be construed to mean anything that might fall into the category that modern folks might find palatable. It means ONLY what Paul intends it to mean.

But that IS palatable to the genuine believer! One who was captive to sin's dark power, to the crushing weight of the inexorable and merciless grinding power of the terrible nature that Adam passed down to us and who has experience that nature's outworking is perfectly glad to see God's call come and to see that horrible bondage exchanged for the glad bondage to a merciful master.

The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as what men imagine freedom. What the secular (and, sadly, even some Christians) call freedom is an illusion. Even God does not have the freedom that most men imagine that they have; that is, the freedom to choose between any two options at any time. God is a "prisoner" of His nature, and happily so! He "cannot" sin, He "must" act justly and righteously, etc.

To believe that man is any more free than his maker is as dangerous as it is foolish. We are most assuredly prisoners of our natures. God must change that nature before we can act "contrary" to them. Of course, then, once they are changed, we are not acting contrary to them any longer! But that suggests another line of discussion that we are not here prepared to pursue.