GRACE-INSPIRED INCLUSION

Paul has hinted that this is an opportunity for Philemon to grow in faith (v 6). Now he goes further. Philemon’s worldview is to be challenged to its roots. The runaway slave, who under normal circumstances might have expected exceedingly harsh treatment, must be taken back as a brother (v 16). He must be welcomed as Paul would be welcomed (v 17). This further step in Paul’s revolutionary thinking would have been contrary to everything that Philemon had known. Christian faith constantly challenges our preconceived ideas. Peter had to learn that the gospel was for Gentiles;2 Paul had to discover that the one he was persecuting was in reality the risen Lord.3 We will recall points in our lives when our worldview or our behavior has changed dramatically. All this is part of being reshaped in the image of Christ.4

At the heart of this is grace. It would be too easy to argue that Onesimus has rebelled and must be punished. For Philemon to show grace to Onesimus will be costly, but grace, although free to the recipient, is always costly to the giver. It is ultimately the grace shown in Jesus that destroys artificial human distinctions based on ethnicity, social standing, intellectual prowess, wealth, gender or anything else. None of us deserve it but it is freely an offer to all.

It is here, in the realization that in Christ there is neither slave nor free,5 that the seeds of the ultimate overthrow of slavery are found. In the recognition that before God all are of equal worth and should be accorded equal dignity. Slavery, although technically abolished in most of the world, still exists in many forms. Wherever humans are exploited for financial gain or personal gratification, wherever they are trafficked, wherever they are denied basic human freedoms, slavery still exists.

What more might you, might your church do, to show the priority of grace in an increasingly divided and polarized world?