Remember my chains, Paul says. Remember his chains.
This could mean any number of different things. I think it means that Paul finds the Gospel of such surpassing value that the suffering he has endured in jail is worth it, because the beauty of the Gospel has grabbed his heart and life so completely that there can be no diminishment of the life within him. In Christ, he has found true life, and so what can a jailor do to him? What are chains when you're embraced by the God who created the world? What fool thinks a chain can hold someone who is fed by the Holy Spirit and has consumed the living water?
Paul laughs at his chains, for they are nothing but the world's attempt to hold onto something that is much bigger than the world, like a child trying to stop the rising tide with a bucket.
Paul embraces the Gospel, and all else falls away due to its beauty. Remember his chains, and in the thought of those, may we be set free.
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