by Wendy Reaume

Paul has addressed Philemon and encouraged him with who he is in Christ. He has reminded him that they are brothers in the Lord, soldiers in the battle and that Paul himself is a prisoner not of Rome [or Ephesus] but of Christ Jesus. He has told Philemon that he has refreshed the hearts of the saints because of his godly life and now comes the other part of the equation. Because all of this is true,

THEREFORE…

Whenever we see a ‘therefore’ in the Bible, we need to look and see what it is ‘there for.’ Why? Since all this is true of you, Philemon, you should therefore….

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I appeal to you on the basis of love.

Paul is purposeful in his style. His therefore is LOADED. What is Paul saying? 

                   1.  I am going to ask you to do something.

                   2.  I could be bold and order you to do this. I have that authority in your life.

                   3.  I am not ordering you because of me but because of Christ. (Therefore, what I am                     about to ask is based on your relationship with Christ.)

                   4.  You ought to do this anyway because it is the right thing to do.

                   5.  However, I appeal to you on the basis of love. Make the right decision not                                            because I am telling you to or even because Christ expects it, but because of                                    love.

So, what is it that Paul wants of Philemon?

Before we get to that you need to know the history of who Philemon is, who Onesimus is and how slavery works in Paul’s time.

Philemon is a believer in Colosse. He obviously lives his life in such a way that Paul is encouraged and thanks God for Philemon’s influence. Philemon has a church that meets in his home AND…he is a slave owner. I know. How can we get our minds around this? Not just Philemon but others in the church in Colosse also owned slaves. (Col. 4:1; Eph. 6:5) Wow! Now, before you stop reading, let's see what Paul asks of Philemon.

Onesimus is one of Philemon’s slaves. As we will see later in the 25 verses that make up this book, he stole from Philemon and ran away. Yes, this is the story of a runaway slave. He comes upon Paul and Onesimus hears of and believes in Jesus Christ. As part of his walk in his new found faith, Paul tells Onesimus that he must go back to Philemon and apologize for stealing from him. I’m telling you, Hollywood couldn’t write a more dramatic script! There have been times in my life where I have told a lie and confessing that it wasn’t the truth was painful and hard. In fact, I tried every excuse in the book to justify why I didn’t need to ‘fess up.’ The cost here for Onesimus is much greater. If a slave ran away, the slave owner had the right to beat him or even have him killed. And Paul is saying, ‘My dear fellow believer. If you are truly repentant, you need to go back and make restitution for what you have done.’ Wow. The fact that Onesimus would even go back says a lot about his faith in Jesus.

Now the moment we have been waiting for. What does Paul ask of the robbed and abandoned slave-owner/believer/church host Philemon?

I then, as Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains…I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you.

Those who say the Bible does not address slavery underestimate the power of these words. I cannot even type them without crying because I have seen African professors in Nigeria teach from this book, and it is very, very clear to them. Of all the things the writer of 2/3 of the New Testament could ask of anyone, he says this: I appeal to you FOR MY SON…I [PAUL} am sending him…Onesimus is MY VERY HEART.

Tomorrow we will dig deeper into Paul’s request, Paul’s trust in the power of the Gospel, and an offended, robbed slaveowner’s response.  

Our song for today is Eye of the Storm by Ryan Stevenson.