Scripture Daily

Context No. 58 of 4322 · Philemon

Context · Reflection

Philemon 1:8-16: in context

8Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, 9yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. 10I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have become the father of in my chains, 11who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. 12I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, 13whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News. 14But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will. 15For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while that you would have him forever, 16no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Philemon is the shortest of Paul's letters, a single page written from prison to a wealthy Christian in Colossae whose house hosted a church. The subject is one person: Onesimus, a slave belonging to Philemon, who left and somehow ended up with Paul, where he became a Christian. Paul is sending him back, and this passage is the request that goes with him.

Paul opens by naming the authority he is not going to use. I could order you to do the right thing, he says, but I would rather appeal, as an old man and a prisoner. Then a pun the recipient could not miss. The name Onesimus means useful, and Paul writes that he was once useless to you but is now useful, to you and to me. He calls him his own child, born in his chains, and says sending him back is like sending his own heart.

The ask is placed carefully. Paul wanted to keep him, but would do nothing without consent, so that the good would not be forced. And then the line that does the real work: receive him no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother. Under Roman law a runaway could be branded or worse. What am I within my rights to demand, that would be worth more to me if I asked for it instead?

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