Intro to Philemon

12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 
Philemon 12 

The letter of Philemon is a letter written by Paul to…Philemon (1:1). This is a very short letter, 25 verses long, and will probably take you less than 2 minutes to read. In it, we read of Paul sending back an escaped slave, Onesimus, back to his master, Philemon. We do not know very much about the individuals mentioned, but what we do know is that Onesimus was probably not a good guy. For one, Onesimus had ran from his master (12) who was a believer despite most likely having been treated with Christian love (5-7). Secondly, Onesimus had come across Paul while he was imprisoned, this might suggest that Onesimus was put in jail for one reason or another, but we are just not sure. Thirdly, Paul makes mention that before Onesimus was useless to him, but now he is useful to both of them now that he was in Christ (11). Philemon, on the other hand, was a man who was highly commendable (4-7).

Somewhere along the way, Onesimus becomes a believer and was a very good servant of the Gospel (13). Paul, committed to doing what was right, was sending Onesimus back with this letter in order to persuade Philemon to accept him as a brother and to rejoice in this new state. One very interesting theological point we find in this letter is the early Christian churches posture towards slavery. While slavery (which is much different than American slavery that we think of) was not condoned or endorsed by Christians, we do not see any indications that Christians were seeking to abolish it completely. Instead, the pattern that we see is that Christians were to have a very unique relationship with their slaves and that the love that they shared with one another would remove the bonds of slavery since they were treating each other as brothers, as opposed to slaves.

Thus, we can see two ideas being presented. First, that Christianity’s relationship towards slavery was not at all similar to how non-Christians thought of slavery. Christianity views each person as having value and dignity and being worthy of respect as each person is an image bearer of God. Secondly, Christians in the first century were not rioting against the culture and government, but was seeking to reform it by obedience to the Scriptures. To elaborate on that last sentence, Christians living in those days understood that they were to both submit to the governing authorities so long as it did not violate any of the commands of God while also submitting to the Scriptures. A submission to the Scriptures would ultimately lead to the end of slavery in the life of a believer, but it was clear to them that the purpose of reading and obeying Scriptures is not for a cultural revolution. The purpose of the Word of God is to show us the way for salvation. So, Christians were operating under the laws and customs of the times, but never in any way condoning of evil. Instead, they would live in a wicked, evil world and have hearts eager to reach out to their neighbors with the message of the Gospel so that, like Paul, they may hold each person dearly in their hearts (12).

Grace and Peace,
Alex Galvez

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These articles follow the current Bible Reading plan for Overflow Ministries. If you would like to join the reading plan, simply download the plan here: Overflow Reading Plan

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