Philemon

The epistle to Philemon.

1. Paul's Appeal for Onesimus

7: Imagine getting told by an apostle that 'the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.' Are you the type of person who encourages other Christians or exhausts them?

10: Not a literal child, but a young man who Paul now feels a fatherly love for.

11-16: Okay, so we need to sketch a portrait of what happened here based on what Paul is saying.

Onesimus used to be a bondservant of Philemon. It looks like he was useless in some way or maybe even ran away, but somehow found Paul and began helping him. Paul finds out that Onesimus is bound as a slave to Philemon, and so Paul doesn't feel right about continuing to have him help out when there's already this previous master. Paul is sending him back hoping for reconciliation, and not just reconciliation, but Onesimus freedom. He wants Onesimus to serve Philemon as a brother in Christ, not as a slave in the Roman slave system.

16: Surprisingly, it seems Onesimus is related to Philemon in some way, not just as a Christian (in the Lord) but by family (in the flesh). Very unusual to have one of your brothers as a slave! But maybe it's a distant relationship; maybe they are 'brothers in flesh' in that they are both the same ethnicity.

Another possible scenario is that Philemon and Onesimus have the same father but different mothers; one was born the heir, and Onesimus was born into slavery.

18: Onesimus may have stolen from Philemon or have not paid back a debt of some kind. Even though Paul is in prison, Paul says he will pay that debt.

What can we take away from this?

Paul wanted to honor the authority Philemon had as a master over slaves. But he also loved Onesimus and wanted Onesimus to be free of his chains, and to clear any bad blood that might exist between them. Brothers in Christ shouldn't own one another and shouldn't hold things against each other. But they also shouldn't go rogue and do things their own way. It's good to go by the book.

Christians are to work to liberate one another and pay one another's debts.

In the modern day, we should think about applying that to the debts our fellow Christians have to the world's banking system, mortgages, student loans, medical debts, etc. We should be careful not to accrue debts ourselves as individuals, and also work to pay off one another's debts so that Christians can live in freedom and not live with those kinds of burdens on their back.