PAUL TO PHILEMON: TEN ‘PILLARS OF WISDOM’

Philemon 1-25

Introduction

During the past week the fate of ‘The Bali Nine’ has featured on news broadcasts around the world. These young people (the youngest is only 19)

are convicted drug smugglers/’mules’. Question: As you look at these ‘criminals’ what is your Christian response?

I’ll leave that up in the air for the moment…

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The Story

A young man decided to run away from ‘home’. The main problem: Onesimus was a slave, and if he was found the penalty was usually death by public execution – often by crucifixion. He would have known that. And how would he live in a strange place? He decided to steal some stuff from his master Philemon, and away he went.

Like so many other fugitives, Onesimus made his way to the anonymity of a big city (Rome?) and there, by coincidence – or was it Providence? – he came into contact with an old man, a prisoner, Paul the apostle, and under his influence was genuinely transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ.

They would have talked about many things, including: ‘What do I do about my crime, now that I’m a Christian?’ I can hear the old man say ‘Onesimus, that’s a good question. Why don’t we pray about that tonight; come back in the morning and we’ll decide something together.’

Next day, after their discussion, Paul wrote this letter to Philemon. It’s shortest book in the Bible, and the only private letter to get into the New Testament. And there are at least ten important lessons about Christian wisdom embedded here…

1. HUMILITY. Paul, remember, was a Hebrew scholar and also a well-born Roman citizen. He had appeared before kings and rulers, and could hold his own with the finest minds of his day. He had the oversight of an expanding number of young churches on his mind. And yet, in spite of all this, he has the time and sensitivity to relate to this runaway slave who belonged to the lowest class in the Roman World. This is the essence of being a follower of Jesus, and back then when slaves were regarded as ‘objects’ rather than fully human, this was utterly revolutionary: every human being is made in God’s image, even a criminal, runaway slave.

The Chinese have a saying: ‘the bamboo that is tallest bends lowest…’

2. OPPORTUNITY. Remember, Paul was in prison, or under ‘house arrest’, immobilized, chained to a soldier, and had been incarcerated unjustly. In his humiliation he could have grown bitter with rage. But this spiritually creative evangelist did not need a pulpit to share the Christian ‘Good News’: every situation for him was filled with opportunity – even with this young man.

3. ENCOURAGEMENT. People are human (now there’s a profundity for you!) and they need others’ encouragement to carry on. Encouragement is both a gift of worth to the other and a gift of courage. Paul calls Philemon his ‘good friend and fellow-companion’; and whenever he prays for Philemon his prayers translate into thankfulness for Philemon’s strong faith and love. ‘Friend,’ says The Message translation, ‘You have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow-believers.’

Now ‘encouragement’ can be a crafty way of ‘winning friends and influencing people’. I read on a desk-calendar: ‘People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.’ We can depend so much on positive feedback that such praise becomes addictive: we cannot function without it.

That said, many of us err too much on the side of negativity. We cannot bring ourselves to compliment another. An eighty-year-old saint in a church where I was having a hard time wrote me a note: ‘If he earns your praise bestow it; /If you like him let him know it; /Let words of true encouragement be said. /Do not wait till life is over, /And he’s underneath the clover; /For he cannot read his tomb-stone when he’s dead!’ Suspect theology, but wise psychology!

4. SEEING THE POTENTIAL IN OTHERS. Paul saw potential in this young runaway slave that others probably didn’t. A slave was a menial nonentity to most people. Paul was able to fan a spark into a flame in this young man. As the old saying has it ‘Gold is gold, wherever it is found, even in the gutter.’ In the most literal way this young man was ‘converted’, and his name gave Paul an opportunity to make a play on words. ‘Onesimus’ literally means ‘useful’ or ‘profitable’, so Paul wrote to his owner: ‘Previously he was useless, but now he is going to be useful, both to you and to me’ (verse 11). In other words, Onesimus became by nature what he he’d been only in name.

Each week sort our garbage to ‘recycle waste’: God has been in this business for a long time, and here’s a wonderful example of how he does his work. The name of our little ministry – ‘John Mark Ministries’ – comes from a missionary who also ran away, but when Peter and Barnabas got hold of young John Mark, their encouragement made him into a great Christian leader.

The Nazis did the opposite: when they deemed someone unfit – Jew, Gipsy, homosexual – their strategy was to liquidate such people. But the One who ‘made all things and loves all that he has made’ does not work that way. He seeks to reclaim, to recycle waste products to that what was useless can become useful again.

5. LEADERSHIP AND DECISION-MAKING. Paul, remember was both Philemon’s and Onesimus’ ‘father in the faith’. He believed he had a special ‘apostolic authority’. He could have used that authority – sometimes he did – to tell people in the churches he planted to do specific things, or desist from doing other sinful acts. With young/new Christians against the backdrop of a pagan world, such directness is sometimes necessary, if delivered with love, and by someone with an appropriate authority.

But in this instance, he’s appealing to Philemon’s heart and treating him with respect, and allowing him to make the final choice about accepting his former slave as a brother, releasing him, re-hiring him, or sending back to Paul (who hinted that that would not be an undesirable option!).

There’s an old saying: ‘Good teachers do not teach people what to think, but how to think.’ A basic axiom of good counseling is that we counselors do not ‘play God’ with people: giving ‘advice’ is a way of perpetuating someone’s dependency, instead of their ‘owning’ their behavior/attitudes in a mature manner…

I like Paul’s approach here.

6. INTEGRITY. Paul did not want to do anything behind Philemon’s back, or without his consent (v. 14). That’s what the apostle John calls called ‘walking in the light’.

And integrity is a valuable quality today: psychologists tell us that when given an opportunity to cheat without being caught, Christians are almost as bad as the general population!

The word ‘integrity’ comes from the mathematics word ‘integer’ which means to ‘be whole and unified’, ‘to be complete and open’. It means to be ‘undivided without duplicity or pretence’. It means to be ‘consistent’. Integrity is about living and thinking in private as if you were open to public scrutiny. It’s an important hidden virtue which gives us spiritual strength. [When] engineers say a building has structural integrity, they mean that the building has a hidden life, a strong foundation that gives the whole building integrity and strength.

Paul writes a lot about this hidden and beautiful quality. He encourages us to be on our guard at all times: ‘Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable– if anything is excellent or praiseworthy– think about such things’ Philippians 4:8. A key part of all this is sexual integrity. Here’s a good text from Job: ‘I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.’ Job 31:1

7. RESTITUTION. Paul and Onesimus have to make a decision involving ‘duty vs. love’ (Philemon 8). How does he follow his Master Jesus in this situation? Well, he chooses to follow *both* law and love, but, he says, with the emphasis on love.

We are not called to be utterly permissive: Romans 13 is our guide here in terms of obeying the State and the rule of law. From a legal standpoint Onesimus remained the property of Philemon, in Colossae. In addition, the young man had stolen some money from him and run away. Paul realized that for Onesimus’s spiritual health he had to take responsibility for his past actions. Repentance and forgiveness do not eliminate the realities of what one has done: rather they provide new resources for dealing with that past creatively. So another aspect of integrity is ‘facing the music’ – a course of action fraught with danger for Onesimus, of course. He would have known, and almost certainly witnessed, other runaway slaves being executed.

But when confronting a ‘sinner’ a Jesus-follower’s *first* instinct is to say ‘I do not condemn you’ before ‘Go and sin no more.’ If we reverse the order – or the emphasis – we’re in danger of becoming modern Pharisees.

8. EQUALITY AND ACCEPTANCE. Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of this story is how Paul accepted Onesimus as a ‘brother’. ‘He’s no mere slave, but a beloved brother’ (verse 16). He’s not merely a ‘domestic animal’ or a ‘living tool’, but a fellow human-being, and a brother in Christ. And Paul asks Philemon to receive this young man back as a brother too.

What went on later in the mind of Onesimus as Philemon read Paul’s letter aloud to the extended family and ‘house church’? I can imagine Philemon catching his breath in astonishment at this revolutionary request. It was utterly radical considering the mindset of that era. It meant unlearning and relearning one’s whole approach to relationships with others…

9. AN ALLEGORY OF SALVATION. Here’s a very different approach to this story, more popular with preachers of previous eras. They couldn’t understand how a simple letter about a slave returning to his master could ever get into the Bible. It had to have a deeper meaning. And it doesn’t take much ingenuity to figure that out. Briefly: Philemon = God, whom we too have wronged, and to whom we owe a debt we can never repay. Paul = Christ, the intercessor, who pays the price for our redemption. Onesimus = all humankind; all have sinned. When we repent God ‘receives us back’, forgives our debt, we begin a journey of faith, hope and love – and Christian usefulness.

10. SOCIAL JUSTICE. An interesting question: why did Paul seem to accept the institution of slavery and not condemn it? Good question (thanks for asking!).

Quite simply, there were an estimated 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, half a million in Rome alone. The whole culture was organized around this institution. Slaves were often treated very cruelly in those times. If a slave-owner made an inventory of his possessions, his chariot might be worth more than his slave. They were essentially non-persons… I read this somewhere: Sometimes if a master was murdered by a slave, then all the other slaves within hearing were executed, as well as the slave who did the murderous deed.

Jesus said the poor will always be with us. He could have said the same about slavery. There have always been slaves…

Following the work of campaigners – including many Christians – in the United Kingdom, theAbolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865. And in the last month the Church of England in the UK (but not the PM) has apologized for its previous role in the ‘slave trade’…

According to Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organization, there are currently over 200 million people in bondage around the world today, if you define a slaves as not legal subjects but legal objects – the property of other people. I met slaves in India whose great great grandfather incurred a debt, and now all his descendents are still paying it off. UNICEF estimates that 200,000 children from West African nations are sold into slavery each year. The Anti-Slavery International website says 179,000 children around the world are in work which is harmful to their health and welfare. The enslavement of the Dinkas in southern Sudan may be the most horrific and best-known example of contemporary slavery. An estimated 90,000 blacks are owned by North African Arabs, and often sold as property in a thriving slave trade for as little as $15 per human being.

As I traveled while with World Vision, I learned that Christians in situations where terrible injustices – and oppressive governments – exist have a range of opinions about what to do. Conservative Christians often accept the status quo: change will come with the ‘millennial reign of Christ’ or whatever. But many concerned about social justice simply believed that if injustice is ingrained within a culture, the best antidote is to preach about grace, and the ministry of Jesus to the marginalized and outcasts. In Christ all human barriers – between males and females, rich and poor, between ethnic groups (Galatians 3:28) – have been abolished. Eventually the gospel will be fruitful in bringing about social change, even though it may take a long while, and even some Christians may resist! Perhaps that was Paul’s view. Certainly if the early Christians had campaigned to free the slaves there would have been economic and social anarchy.

Conclusion:

What happened to Onesimus? There’s no other mention of him in the New Testament. But let’s ‘fast forward’ forty years… The Roman Emperor Trajan ordered that Christians give their allegiance to the Emperor as Lord, and in Syria the Bishop, Ignatius of Antioch, led the opposition to emperor-worship. He was arrested, and deported to Rome… but on the journey he wrote letters to some of the churches and their leaders, and several of these have survived. I remember reading them as a theological student, astonished at the courage of this great Christian who said he couldn’t wait until he could hear his bones being crushed in the jaws of wild animals!

Anyway, he makes a special reference to the beloved bishop of Ephesus. And his name? Onesimus! There is good reason to believe that the young man who’d committed criminal acts by stealing and running away, became the leader of the church in that great city. More than that, many scholars believe that Onesimus may have been the one to collect Paul’s letters and share them widely with the church. Which explains, of course, why a private, personal letter by Paul, gets into the New Testament! It was Onesimus’ way of saying: ‘See what happens when someone as useless as I was is found by Christ? Here is who I was and what I did: and look at what God in his great mercy has done for me!’ We talk about recycling waste: this is what the Divine Mercy is all about: a Jesus-follower like Paul being willing to relate to someone at the ‘bottom of the pile’, and Philemon’s willingness to grow beyond the accepted norms of his day…

John Claypool, to whom I am indebted for some of these ideas, writes: ‘Who do you suppose, Onesimus-like, is someone close to you, waiting to be discovered and liberated and recycled into usefulness again? And where are those frontiers in the human family across which you need to move and grow? Do you still have trouble seeing black people as persons…[or we could add homosexuals or Muslims] or any other kind of people as persons?

‘The problem of the Grinch in the Dr. Seuss book is still our problem – “our hearts are two sizes too small.” May Paul’s challenge to Philemon become our challenge to keep on growing. I am confident of this – God will not be satisfied until we who are made in the image and likeness of his love have achieved just that.’

Back to the ‘Bali Nine’…

As I said above, Paul, when relating to a young ‘criminal’ he met in a foreign place has to make a decision involving ‘law and love’ and engages with both, but with the emphasis on love.

I wonder: during the past week did any of us ask ourselves ‘Did any of those young people in Bali *not* have family/friends with them? Should I get on a plane and do for that one what Paul did for Onesimus…. ?’

Well???

Rowland Croucher February 2006.