Daily Manna · Day 9 · January 9
No Longer Servants
“Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”
Under Roman law, an adopted son took a new family name and his old debts were cancelled on the day the papers were witnessed. He could be a grown man. Nothing about his character had changed that morning. His standing had.
Paul is writing to people who kept working like staff. You know the posture, because you have been holding it: answer fast, stay late, apologise twice, and underneath it the running arithmetic that says if you slip, the arrangement ends. Paul's argument is legal rather than emotional. The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all (4:1). What happened to you was not a promotion won in a good week. It was a change of category. And then he says the frightening part: he fears these same people will turn back to the weak and beggarly elements, days and months and times and years (4:9-10). Sonship can be lived like servitude by anyone who forgets which one he is.
Father, I have been working hard for something I already have. I have kept an account open on a debt you closed. I cannot tell my obedience from my anxiety any more; from the inside they have felt the same for years. Teach me the difference slowly if it has to be slow. I am not staff here. Make me able to believe that on Thursday afternoon, when nobody is watching and the old arithmetic starts again. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 9 is Who Shall Abide (Psalm 15:2).