Philemon 1:8-16: a reflection

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.

Paul is sending a runaway slave, Onesimus, back to his master Philemon, and he could pull rank; he says he has the boldness in Christ to command what ought to be done. But he chooses another way: for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you. He sets aside his authority and asks, rather than orders, leaving Philemon free to do right freely.

And notice what he asks. Receive Onesimus, he says, no longer as a slave but as more than a slave, a beloved brother. The gospel has done something to the category. Onesimus was a piece of property, a runaway, once useless; now Paul calls him his own heart and asks Philemon to see him as a brother. The relationship of owner and slave is being quietly dissolved into the relationship of brothers in Christ.

There are two things here to carry. First, love often prefers to appeal rather than to command, even when it has the right to command; it wants the good done freely, not forced. And second, the gospel changes how we see people, moving them out of the categories that reduce them, useless, beneath me, only a role, and into the category of brother or sister. Is there someone you have filed under a category that Christ is asking you to receive as a beloved brother or sister? Appeal to yourself in love, and see them again.

Lord, your gospel turns slaves into brothers and the useless into the beloved. Help me set down my right to command and appeal in love, and to see the people I have reduced to categories as brothers and sisters you love.