October 2000 chaplain's corner

The Chaplain's Corner is a monthly message for chaplains.

Last month I began speaking to you Correctional Chaplains from Paul's letter to Philemon on principles for disciplining born-again inmates. If you just signed on you can go back and get the text from July, 2000 - to see where we've been.

Beyond the basics of teaching a new believer about God's true nature, how to study and memorize the word, how to develop a prayer life, how to properly relate to others in the true body of Christ, and to be a witness for their Lord, we saw last month from the word of God, two important things.

Paul called Onesimus, who was like many of the inmates you should be disciplining in the faith, "my son" in verse 10, and "my own heart" in verse 12. Paul truly loved this man, and in the same way, every chaplain should love the inmate they are helping to follow Christ.

Then, in verse 13, Paul told Philemon that Onesimus was now one who ministered to help him "in the gospel." From this, we saw the importance of giving Christian inmates a service or ministry to perform.

This month, I want to show you how Paul also taught Onesimus to seek to make restitution and reconciliation with Philemon, the one he had wronged. This is seen in Philemon verse 12

12 I am sending him back. * * verse 12 - NU text reads: "I am sending him back to you in person,"

Put in other words, Paul taught the fugitive Onesimus to turn himself in to the man he had wronged. In terms of inmate culture, this is huge. But this also agrees with the teaching of other Scripture.

For example: when the prodigal son repented, he had to return to his father and say he was wrong.

I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven (a Jewish way of referring to God) and before you" Luke 15:18 (verses 20,21 show us he followed through and did it).

When the criminal boss of the extortion ring of Publicans in Jericho, Zacchaeus, was converted he literally said to Jesus:

"Lord, I do here and now give half of my goods to the poor and if, as is the case, (or since) I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I do here and now restore him fourfold." Luke 19:8

The literal translation of that verse is important - because it indicates the new heart within the former extortioner. He didn't say something like "If they come with a complaint, or a warrant, then, I'll admit I did it." Zacchaeus was saying "I am guilty and I am willing to pay right now."

And Christ, noting the reality of his true conversion, responded in the very next verse by saying:

"Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham." Luke 19:9

The criminal Zacchaeus was not saved because he sought to make restitution, rather he did that because through faith in Christ he was a new man, with a new heart for righteousness. His act of restitution didn't earn salvation, rather it proved the reality of it.

When I served as Chaplain, I remember an inmate, who truly seemed to lay hold of Christ as his Lord and Savior. He was facing serious charges stemming from his former drug habit. He not only robbed a person, but by transporting him to an ATM machine to get the funds he wanted, was also charged with kidnapping.

When he went to court, like Zacchaeus, he did the right thing - he told the truth. He said he was guilty and ultimately was sentenced to 25 years. But he rejoiced that he was enabled by the indwelling Spirit of Christ to do the right thing.

When this all happened it was quite a testimony to the power of the gospel. The court eventually ordered him to have a psychiatric examination because he wanted to tell the truth. They kept asking him "Is anybody forcing you to do this?" His unrelenting reply was always, "Yes!" They would ask "Who?" He would keep answering, "God, the Lord Jesus Christ!" They would then say in effect - "He needs his head examined!"

The court and judge had seen many that had claimed a conversion to Christ, but few who admitted their guilt and wanted to make things right. From Philemon verse 12 we see Paul had taught Onesimus to go back and make things right, to seek restitution and to reconcile with the man he had wronged. Like Paul, teach your believing inmates the same thing.

There are many applications to this. If you are disciplining an inmate that is already sentenced, like in a state or federal prison, and there are no other legal charges they face, the principle is still valid. For instance: an inmate's family is also wronged when they go to prison, and the inmate needs to see that, and do what they can to seek the families forgiveness, and right what he or she can.

In review, any correctional chaplain working with newborn legal offenders, should first love them to the point that they know it and trust them. Secondly, the chaplain should give them some ministry responsibility to help the gospel cause, and thirdly, the chaplain should help them be ready to make restitution to their victim and if possible be reconciled with a person they have wronged. Sometimes that simply means pleading guilty and doing the prescribed time for the crime.

The next thing you must teach an inmate that comes to faith in Christ is that in Christ, they have a totally new identity. Look at this in Philemon verses 15-17

15 For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever,

16 no longer as a slave but more that a slave - a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17 If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.

This is a major issue. I personally believe it is the most important thing to teach a believing inmate. The great enemy of our souls is after our mind and our imaginations. With those that are in prison, he has a great advantage. In warning the godly against evil company, Proverbs 23:7 says "as he (the evil man) thinks in his heart, so is he." Our own concept of who we are dictates the way we think and eventually act. Inmates are often made to feel lowly and useless and as the human trash of their own generation. When they truly have Christ, that should all change.

Paul acting on what he'd already taught in 1 Cor. 7:22, wanted Onesimus to know, even though he was still a slave, he was the Lord's freed man.

Paul also wanted the master or boss, Philemon, to treat him as a true brother and to build him up in his new spiritual identity in Christ

"no longer as a slave but more that a slave - a beloved brother, ... in the Lord"

A convicted (or about to be convicted) felon is a prisoner, and his sin brought him to that, BUT in Christ he is to no longer think of himself as a criminal, but as a true son of the Most High and Holy God! Every morning as he wakes he should reaffirm to his own mind who he is in Christ, a redeemed and adopted son of the King of Kings.

This is a true New Testament theme. The idol worshiping Gentiles that believed in Christ were generally considered the no accounts, and the human trash by the religious Jews of the 1st century. This is why Ephesians 2 stresses the change in identity that union with Christ brought them. Look again at these verses in Ephesians 2

10 ... we are His (God's) workmanship (or masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

11 THEREFORE (capitals for emphases) remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh - who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands -

12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household (family) of God.

The issue in the life of the believer is victory over the temptation of the flesh and sin. Realizing and dwelling on their new identity in Christ is the most important weapon in the Holy Spirit's arsenal for Christian inmates and ex-criminal offenders.

Ephesians 4:17-24 stresses this very principle.

17 This I say, therefore and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk (live daily) as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,

18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

19 who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But you have not so learned Christ,

21 if indeed you have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:

22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

"Putting off" and "putting on" has to do with the thought life. The new man thinks in a new way, with the very nature and image of God who created the believer in Christ totally new at the point of his conversion by the Holy Spirit.

Said another way in Colossians 3:10

10 put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One creating him.

The Creator of the new man is God. The image of the true God made known to the believer renews his thinking.

The Holy Spirit through Peter echos this same thought in 2 Peter 1:-4

1 ...To those who have obtained like precious faith with us...

3 ... through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue (that is Jesus),

4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these (promises, such as now actually being adopted into God's family)you may be partakers of the divine nature, (we share in God's nature) having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Actually this new identity and new thinking will be used by the Holy Spirit to enable the ones you are disciplining in the faith, to go back and make restitution where they can and seek restoration when they can.

Disciplining inmates in the faith is the ministry of every Christian Chaplain. That teaching should always include:

1. Loving them to the point they know it, and trust you

2. Giving them a ministry to perform for the furtherance of the gospel

3. Encouraging them to go back and make things right. Make restitution and seek restoration.

4. Giving them a totally new personal identity in Christ. They must think of themselves as God's true children with His true nature dwelling in their hearts and minds.

Next month, we'll see even more about a Christian discipleship ministry to criminal lawbreakers from how Paul worked with the fugitive, Onesimus. We'll see some things about God's sovereignty and your investment in the lives of the inmates.