Philemon 1-25
We’re going to be looking this morning at Paul’s shortest letter- certainly the shortest one that ever found its way on to the pages of the Bible, his letter to Philemon. It’s a very intimate and personal letter, written from a friend to a friend. Paul is really writing to Philemon to ask him a favour. He’s asking him to do the quire extraordinary thing of taking back a slave who had run away.
Now it’s interesting to begin by just looking at the position of slaves in
the first century in the Roman Empire. Slaves were a normal part of the Roman
world. Generally speaking they do seem to have been treated quite fairly. But,
on the other hand, a slave was in a difficult position. The slave was owned
totally by his master. He got into slavery, maybe because he was in debt, or
maybe even his family were in debt and they sold him. The master bought him. His
whole time, every hour of every day of every week of every year ha was at his
master’s beck and call. He owned nothing. He owned no possessions, no money. He
had no time of his own, so he’d never have the chance to buy his freedom.
In fact a high percentage of people in the Roman Empire were slaves.
They were, really, an indispensable part of society. Some of them had quite
privileged positions within the household. Many were loyal and trusted servants.
But slavery did carry penalties if you did something wrong. It was particularly
hard on runaway slaves. You see, the slave was his master’s property, and in the
master’s eyes and by the law the slave had no rights of his own and if he ran
away the sentence under Roman law would be death.
The favour which Paul is writing to Philemon for is that he would take one of
his slaves back, and not punish him but treat him as an equal. Now why would
Paul do this? What grounds had Paul got to write to Philemon and ask him to take
a slave back and to treat him fairly and not even to consider punishing him?
What on earth was going on here?
Now the grounds which Paul had for
asking this favour of Philemon is that they were brothers in Christ, they were
both Christian. Paul says that he actually remembers Philemon and thanks God for
him in his prayers, because he hears about his faith in the Lord Jesus and his
love for all the saints, and Paul goes on to say I pray that you may be active
in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good
thing that we have in Christ
The point which Paul is going to make is one of very actively sharing his
faith in this matter of taking the slave, Onesimus, back. Onesimus, who Paul
says in verse 10 is his son. Now as far as we know Paul never married, never had
any sons. But we read in another case of Paul writing about Timothy as his son.
I think whenever Paul uses this term ‘son’, he is really writing about someone
he helped to bring to faith So the thing which Paul and Philemon and
Onesimus share is faith.
Faith, which is the very basis of being a
Christian , Paul says when he writes to the Ephesians that it is grace that we
were saved through faith. Not because we have faith but because of the
faith which God implants in our hearts that He is able to do His saving work in
our lives.
Now let’s look at Paul’s motive in asking Philemon to take Onesimus back.
He’s asking him as a Christian brother, and he’s not giving him an order. He is
appealing to Philemon. He says in verse 9 he I appeal to you on the basis of
love, and in verse 10 for my son Onesimus. And he says also, that he might
become useful both to you and to me. There’s actually a play on words here
because the name ’Onesimus’ means ’useful’.
Paul is appealing to
Philemon that he take Onesimus back, doesn’t punish him but takes him back as a
Christian brother and allows him to be his truly useful self. Paul is wanting
Onesimus to reach his full potential.
Elsewhere writing to the
Ephesian church Paul speaks in chapter 4 about the Body of Christ being built up
to its full maturity, into the fullness of Christ. And how sad it is when we see
many Christians failing to or even not being encouraged or allowed to use their
gifts in the works of the Church or in Christian service. It is sad isn’t it
because we are here as the Body of Christ that we may all grow and develop our
potential as Christians.
Now in this situation Paul was taking a risk. He’s taking a risk on two
fronts. First he’s taking a risk in asking Philemon to take Onesimus back, and
the he is also taking a risk with Onesimus. It was quite possible that Philemon
would not only reject Onesimus but demand his rights under the law and have
Onesimus executed.
As someone once said, faith is spelt R-I-S-K.
Bishop David Jenkins in a General Synod speech one said this:
People, especially religious people or the churches are always trying to limit
the risk,
curtail the openness, contract freedom and avoid the
commitment of faith, which is
falling into the risk and the
abyss of love.
There can’t be faith, there can’t be risk without love,
without in fact risking everything, trusting that God will work all things to
good for those who love him. When you take a risk, there is a possibility
of failure.
We live, don’t we, in a very success-oriented society. Our lives are very
much counted and rated on a success-scale. Successful by what we achieve, by
what we get done. If we fail we are more or less written off. And so in the
Christian life of faith, we can’t, or shouldn’t work by measuring ‘success’, but
rather by taking risk, by doing things which involve a risk, which involve a
risk of failure
In 1996 at the time of the Olympics of that year, the
Church of England newspaper ran as story about Jonathan Edwards It tells how in
1992 Jonathan Edwards gave up athletics after trying to qualify for the final of
the Barcelona Olympics.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever felt such pain
and anguish’, he said, ‘It had to be a bad dream. My
whole
future in athletes seemed blown apart in just three awful jumps. But failure
taught
him an invaluable lesson which kept him going when
others might have given up. ‘God
taught me again that my hope
was to be in Him and not in happy circumstances, and
that, come
what may He is to be praised.
The rest is history, a history culminating in
Gold in Sydney last year. All because he trusted in and lived for God, which
counted for more than ‘success’ or ‘failure’
Paul was willing to take
the risk of asking Philemon to take Onesimus back with that double risk that
Philemon would say ‘No’ or exercise his legal right of having Onesimus put to
death. Paul’s motivation is actually quite clearly there in verses 15-17
Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was
that you might have him back for good, no longer as a slave, but
better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, but
even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. So,
if you consider me a partner, welcome him just as you would
welcome me.
So Paul risks everything in asking him to take this
man back as a brother in Christ and as an equal, no longer a slave but a free
man. Paul risks failure. Because of the immense issues involved, failure could
well have engendered fear.
So many people today live lives crippled by fear. It can be fear of all sorts
of things. But how much of our fear is centred round the fact that we fear
failing. We brought up, with rewards for success. So we may fear failing our
employer, failing our husband or wife, failing our children, failing our
fellow-Christians, failing God. Because we fear failure, we fear rejection, we
fear punishment
Would Philemon forgive Onesimus? Would he accept him
back? Would he be reconciled with him? Or would he seek revenge? Would he seek
the justice the law demanded? That was the thing at stake for Paul. It’s so easy
to want revenge, to want retaliation. We say, “They did that to us, so we’ll do
this to them”. Because we think we’ll only feel better if we square things up.
If we can get our own back. And how much of that attitude lies at the back of
religious strife and warfare and even atrocities? How much of that lies at
the back of Northern Ireland? How much of that lay at the back of Bosnia?
How much of that lies at the back of the situation in the Middle East today.
That fear-driven desire for revenge. The only thing that can liberate us from
such situations of fear and failure is forgiveness.
Forgiveness and reconciliation can only fully and properly when we know
forgiveness as Christians, that forgiveness which the Lord Jesus Christ won on
the Cross.
Writing to the church in Collosae where, of course
Philemon lived, Paul said this is 3:13:
Bear with
each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have
against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave
you.
That’s the key, isn’t it? Forgive as the Lord forgave you. It’s
what the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to say as we pray: Forgive our sins as we
forgive those who sin against us.
Christian people are those who are
forgiven by God. We are expected and required to forgive those who do bad things
to us. How often we fail at just this point! But wherever forgiveness is
received from the Cross and given in the Church, there is a tremendous
liberation. There’s a tremendous
liberation comes from forgiveness
I think some words by the poet John Masefield in The Everlasting Mercy
express something of the liberation that comes from forgiveness:
I did not think, I did not strive
the deep peace burnt my ‘me’ alive
I knew that I had done with
sin
the fast-barred gate had broken in
and then
later on in the poem
he rent the veil that blinded me
and gave my soul new eyes to see
and so to my new sight the earth
has had like me a second birth.
This surely is the ‘big issue’ in Christian life, the ‘big issue’ of the Good
News of the Gospel- forgiveness and the freedom that comes from forgiveness- the
freedom of living in Christ and for Christ. Thomas Cranmer surely had it right
in that Collect which says ‘whose service is perfect freedom’
As we forgive other people, we liberate them. If we hold anything against them
and refuse to forgive, then we bind them in unforgiveness too.
Paul took a risk. he took the risk based of faith. He took the risk in the
face of possible failure. He took the risk in the face of the fear of failure,
trusting in the forgiveness from the Cross to bring liberation.
Did
Philemon take Onesimus back? There is a little clue in Paul’s letter to the
Colossians. In 4:8 he says this: (Tychicus) is coming with Onesimus our faithful
and dear brother who is one of you Surely, Philemon had replied to Paul
and said “Yes. I will take Onesimus back, not as my slave but as my Christian
brother”. He did this. Paul was released. Philemon himself was released and
Onesimus was released- to be useful, and to reach his full potential.
Faith, failure, fear, forgiveness and freedom. These are the issues we’ve thought about, through the story of Paul, Philemon and Onesimus. We see how, supremely, the Cross brings forgiveness which empowers our faith, which gives us courage in the face of failure, courage in the face of fear and releases us into a life of liberty.