12 I am sending back to you him who is my very heart.

13 I would have liked to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he could minister to me in my chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness will not be out of compulsion, but by your own free will. 15 For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for good— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a beloved brother. He is especially beloved to me, but even more so to you, both in person and in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me a partner, receive him as you would receive me.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

Today Paul finally gets to the heart of why he is writing to Philemon. He’s taken a while to get there, because … he’s a godly, caring pastor. He was eager to start by affirming Philemon of his thankfulness to God for their partnership in the gospel and for the encouragement Philemon has been to him. I love seeing this example of Paul’s gentle, pastoral manner.

Now he gets to the point. Paul is about to send Philemon’s runaway slave back to him – Onesimus, who has now been transformed by knowing Christ. So what does Paul want Philemon to do? In a nutshell: receive Onesimus back, not as a slave, but “better than a slave, as a beloved brother” (v16). Or in v17: receive Onesimus back just as if he were receiving Paul himself!

That doesn’t necessarily mean Onesimus would stop being Philemon’s slave, in legal terms. Slavery in the ancient world was very different from the pure evil of the African slave trade. Under a godly master, it could be a good form of employment. The issue for Paul was not whether Philemon was going to release Onesimus. It was how Philemon was going to view Onesimus from now on. Was he going to relate to him as an inferior, a good-for-nothing slave, or as Christ called him to – as an equal through the gospel, a cherished brother in Christ, someone to both encourage and be encouraged by?

This was an unbelievably radical thing for Paul to ask an ancient slave-owner to do. But that’s how radical and countercultural the gospel is! Christ raises all of us up to the same level. We will still have different styles, different backgrounds, different cultures and subcultures. But in Christ, there is only one level: the highest one there is. Jesus himself calls every single one of us his brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:11)! That makes us all spiritual royalty.

But it’s so hard to live that out in church life. It’s so easy to subconsciously think of each other by society’s class stereotypes. I’ve seen it so often in ministry (and in myself!) – tensions and conflicts and misunderstandings, because of blind spots on both sides of the class divide or the cultural divide. We slip so easily into looking at “those people” with suspicion, interpreting their words and actions in the worst possible light instead of with grace, generosity and deep affection.

Have you ever been on the wrong end of that? That wouldn’t be surprising. We’ll think about that more tomorrow. For today, pray that God would help you to view and treat all your Christian brothers and sisters as spiritual royalty in Christ, just like you are.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister.