As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1

As I think about this letter I am reminded that Paul is writing this letter while a prisoner in Rome, waiting the court ruling on his fate.  He wrote very little about that.  He was not much interested in personal safety, nor was he chaffing under his circumstances.  He did not dwell on the fact that he was a prisoner of Rome.  I think I would have pushed this front and center, not Paul.

As he began what we call his fourth chapter, he uses the word, prisoner.  That he was.  How does he view his imprisonment?  Here we have an additional insight into how Paul viewed himself.  He is a prisoner, right, but we are startled as we read that he sees himself As a prisoner for the Lord.  I should have thought he would have written that he was the prisoner of Rome.  Not so.  Or that he was a prisoner of the Lord, which, in fact he was.  Rather he wrote, he is a prisoner for the Lord. 

What is he saying?  I think he is saying that his physical situation is a prisoner of Rome but that is of little consequence to him, and even less for his readers.  He is a prisoner for the Lord. My eye fastens on the three-letter word, for.  Paul saw his imprisonment as a gift to the Lord, not punishment.  That makes all the difference.

Thank you, Paul, for seeing your imprisonment as a gift to God.  I am impressed with how important it is to view things from God’s perspective, not our own.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit – to give us his perspective!