PRISONER OF JESUS CHRIST

By Hayley Boud

Ephesians 3:1

What is a prisoner?

A person just like you and me. They are people who have no rights, no freedom, no material possessions. They have to follow the rules of the prison and they must respect the prison guards, they must follow the schedule. The prisoner is someone who has no choice at all, they don’t even get to choose what food they will eat or what clothes they will wear. Some prisoners are only given one hour per day to leave their cell and they don’t have a choice where they will go, they are told, “have a shower” and “eat” and “go outside” and that is it. They get visitors only once per week and only if the prison guards allow it and there must be supervision at all times with no touching. There is no freedom at all. They must wear a uniform so everybody will know who is the prisoner.

How is it possible that Paul is a prisoner while the bible says the truth will set us free?  (John 8:32)

What are we free from? Sin, death, satan, addictions, and because of this we are no longer prisoners of death, or prisoners of satan but we are now prisoners of Jesus Christ.

Luke 14:33, “any of you who wants to become My disciples must give up everything”.

Galations 2:20, “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me”

We have to follow God’s rules, we have to obey Jesus and respect Him and follow God’s schedules and remember that He is watching us in the same way the prison guards have to be obeyed and respected and they are watching. We have to wear the uniform that comes from God, people should know we are Christians in the same way the bright orange uniform alarms people, we should also be like an alarm for others. When people are around us and they know we are there, they shouldn’t feel free to make course or improper jokes or gossip because they will see our orange suit and remember we are Christians.

Prison guards are to be feared because there are consequences to actions and this is the same with Jesus, we have to fear Him and know that our actions will bring about consequences, so we must be disciplined.

Why are we to prisoners of Jesus?


Eph 3:1, “for the sake of you Gentiles”

We have to behave as prisoners of Jesus so as not to be a stumbling block for those around us. I don’t drink alcohol because I don’t want to stumble anyone. When I was 16 years old I made a conscious decision that I would never drink alcohol, not even a sip so that I wouldn’t be the reason for someone else drinking. I knew that if someone saw me take a sip, it would give them reason to take a sip and maybe they would like it and maybe they would continue to enjoy it and after a few months, they could end up addicted to alcohol all because I took one small sip.

How else can we be a stumbling block to those around us?

With our mouths, we can cause others to gossip by ourselves gossiping. We can cause people to judge others by talking about others. We can cause people to be offended and even turned off God by our tone of voice, by talking rudely or impatiently. Eating too much, watching too much tv, watching the wrong movies, sleeping too much. Especially those of us who have children watching us.  There are many ways we can stumble someone and although we are free, we have to be careful not to use our freedom to cause someone else to be led down a wrong path.