Unconditional Forgiveness
Philemon 1-21
Paul Weary, Croydon, UK

This afternoon, I thought that we could do a study of an entire book of the Bible. But
before you start to get worried about how long you’re going to be here, le me put your
minds at rest. In fact we’re going to look at the shortest book of the NT, Paul’s letter
to Philemon, which is just 25 verses long. It’s so short, that it is easily overlooked.
But it repays careful attention, not least because it is the most personal of Paul’s
letters.

I’ll read the letter through in a moment. But first it might be helpful to fill in some
of the context. The letter is written by Paul to Philemon, a member of the church at
Colossae. The subject of the letter is Onesimus, Philemon’s slave.

Mention the word ‘slave’ and we realize that we are talking about a very different
culture from our own. A high percentage of people in the Roman empire were slaves -It
has been estimated that at one point here were some 60m of them. They formed an
indispensable part of society. Not all were ill treated; many held privileged positions
in households and were loyal and trusted servants. Nevertheless, a slave was not regarded
as a person, but as a living tool. Any master had the power of life and death over his slaves.
One Roman writer wrote of a friend’s attitude to his slaves: “He can box their ears or
condemn them to hard labor – making them, for instance, work in chains upon his lands
in the country, or in a sort of prison-factory. Or, he may punish them with blows of the
rod, the lash or the knot; he can brand them upon the forehead, if they are thieves or
runaways, or, in the end, if they prove irreclaimable, he can crucify them.”

Slaves were a normal part of life in the Roman world; even Christians owned slaves. Generally
speaking they seem to have been treated fairly, though Paul’s warning in his letter to
the Ephesians ‘not to treat your slaves harshly’ tells us that the slaves’ lives were
not necessarily easy, even in Christian households!

From the letter, it is clear that Onesimus – by the way, the name Onesimus means ‘useful’
- is with Paul in Rome. Quite what he is doing there is not certain. After all, when we
read the letter, we only have half of a conversation. Paul does say that Onesimus may
have wronged his master. Traditionally, it is assumed that Onesimus is a runaway slave
who has got himself into trouble. One commentator has written: “We do not know at all
what this refers to, but it sounds like one of those minor domestic transactions which
lie somewhere between borrowing and stealing.” Whether Onesimus ran away to Paul or was
sent, we do know that while with Paul Onesimus has become a Christian and has also been
of great assistance to the apostle. So Paul writes to Philemon, either because he wants
Philemon to forgive Onesimus, to free him or even to assign him back to Paul as a helper.

And so Paul writes this most personal of his letters, with great delicacy and diplomacy,
and sends it to Philemon in the care of Onesimus.

(read letter)

For me, there are two questions that arise from reading this letter. The first question
I would like to ask of Paul.
In his letter, Paul talks about how useful Onesimus has become in the service of the
Gospel. Because he is a new brother in Christ to Philemon, Onesimus should be received
and treated as such. It was as a slave that Onesimus ran away, And it was as a slave that
he was coming back, but now he was not only a slave, he was a beloved brother in the Lord. 

However, today it is hard for us to read this letter without longing for Paul to take the
argument yet another step. Why doesn’t he assert the immorality – the impossibility of one
human being owning another? Why not demand the release of Onesimus, the release of all
slaves everywhere? 

Well, Paul may have had several reasons for not doing so. William Barclay comments:
Slavery was an integral part of the ancient world. It may be that Paul accepted the
institution of slavery, because it was almost impossible to imagine ancient society
without it. Further, if Christianity had, in fact, given the slaves any encouragement
to revolt or to leave their masters, nothing but tragedy and disaster could have
followed. Any such revolt would have been savagely crushed.

But if Paul was not able to go as far as we are able to go, the seed had been sown. 
The implications of this new relationship in Christ could not be overlooked. One who
is a brother in the Lord can scarcely be a slave in the flesh.

The second question is directed more at myself. What would I have done, if I were
Philemon?

Onesimus must have been terrified as, clutching Paul’s letter, he returned to Philemon.
After all, the penalty for a slave who ran away was execution. We don’t know how
Philemon responded – did he send Onesimus back to Paul with his blessing, or did he
take him back as a Christian brother? Or did he punish Onesimus? What is clear is that
Paul takes no chances: “If you consider me your partner, receive him as you would
receive me. If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.”
And then, in a piece of arm-twisting Paul reminds Philemon that he owes Paul his very
life. One is reminded of Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant, who is released by
his master the king from an un-payable debt, yet fails to be merciful in return. In the
parable he is told by the king: “I forgave you all that debt because you pleased with
me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you.” Paul
reminds Philemon that as he has been forgiven, so in turn he should forgive and offer
Onesimus the opportunity of a fresh start.

Forgiveness and reconciliation, in that order, are essential parts of the Christian life.

Revenge and retaliation are often tragic features of the lives of those who don’t know
Jesus. Ethnic, racial and religious strife, warfare or atrocities are all due to someone
saying, ‘they did that to us, so we’ll do this to them!’

Forgiveness is never easy. It means writing off the incident, obliterating that action
or situation and not taking it into consideration in the rest of your dealings with
them.

Philemon must have found it hard to forgive Onesimus. Would he have felt able to take
up Paul’s offer to repay him everything that Onesimus owed him, after reading Paul’s
letter? We should be the first to forgive, unconditionally. We should be the first to
ask for forgiveness where we have played even a small part in a fault.

What happened to Onesimus subsequently? We don’t know for certain, although he is
mentioned again in the letter to the Colossians. As I said before, the name Onesimus
means ‘useful’ and there it is clear that he was proving useful in passing on to eager
hearers all that he had learned from Paul.

But there is a possible post-script to the story. Fifty years later, Ignatius, one of
the great leaders of the early church, is being taken to be executed from Antioch, his
church, to Rome. As he goes, he writes letter – which still survive – to the churches of
Asia Minor. He stops at Smyrna, and he writes to the Church at Ephesus, and in that
letter, he has much to say about their wonderful bishop. And what is that bishop’s name?
It is Onesimus; and Ignatius makes exactly the same pun as Paul made – he is Onesimus
by name and Onesimus by nature, the profitable one to Christ. It may well be that
Onesimus, the runaway slave, had become with the passing years none other than
Onesimus, the great bishop of Rome.

If this is so, we have an explanation for this little slip of a letter surviving. After
all, Paul must have written many personal letters, but nearly all were destroyed. It is
practically certain that the first collection of Paul’s letters was made at Ephesus.
There, maybe, about the turn of the century, these letters were collected, edited and
published. It was just at that time that Onesimus was bishop of Ephesus. And it is
possible that it was Onesimus who insisted that this letter must be included in the
collection, little and short and personal as it was, in order that all people might
know what the grace of God had done for him. Through it the great bishop tells the
world that he was once a runaway slave and thief, and that he owed his life to Paul
and to Jesus Christ. Through it the great bishop insists on telling of his own shame
that his very shake might redound to the glory of God.

Did Onesimus come back to Paul with Philemon’s blessing? Did he become the great bishop
of Ephesus, he who had been the thievish runaway slave? Did he insist that this little
letter must be included in the Pauline collection to tell what Christ, through Paul, had
done for him? We can never be certain, but it is a lovely story – and I for one hope it
is true!

Prayer

Loving God, build our faith and trust in you and in all that Jesus did for us on the
cross. Help us to be people who know in their hearts that they are forgiven and who are
ready to forgive others. Give us courage to take those steps of faith and so become true
and loyal witnesses to your love. Amen.