I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
The book of Philemon is a fabulous story. It is a story about justice. It is a story about wrong. It is a story about a slave. It is a story about restoring WITH justice to a slave who did wrong. Sounds confusing, but it is not. Philemon was a man in the early church. We can imagine he was a man of some status as he both had a slave and was known to Paul. He may have had a church in his house (most churches met in homes in the days of the early church). Philemon had a slave whose name was Onesimus. Apparently, from reading both the lines of this little letter ,and somewhat between the lines, Onesimus has not just run away from Philemon, but has also taken something of value from him. He finds himself in jail, chained to or in the same area as Paul. Paul leads him to the Lord. Now he has been restored to God but the justice of the cross. He is in jail and is being restored by justice to society by the justice of the law. Now he needs to be restored to justice by the love of a brother in Christ. The text does not address the FACT that Philemon was a believer and had a slave. That is puzzling on the surface. There are several explanations for this behavior, none of which probably fit our challenges with that thought today. Probably the best thought (although this may not be the case in Philemon’s situation) is that the thought of “slaves” in this culture is more like a “fact of life.” The Roman culture simply accepted it as a societal norm. That does not make it right and doesn’t excuse Philemon, but it does give us context. The key to the book being addressed, however, is how this slave had done wrong and was restored from a theological perspective by Christ’s justice on the cross and restored through criminal justice message by time in prison. Now Paul wants Philemon to restore him in relationship to the community of believers. There was to be NO holding grudge, payback, or restitution ... Paul was willing to pay the restitution. Just like Christ paid for the sins of Onesimus toward God, Paul would pay for the sins of Onesimus toward Philemon. This is justice at this best for an oppressed person in the community of faith. He had to take personal responsibility and the church had to recognize a change in status and position in the Body. That is a point to think about when we talk about justice for those who are in awkward positions of status and wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment