Paul's letter to Philemon
It was written during one of Paul's many imprisonments.
It is actually his shortest letter in the New Testament but don't let its size trick you.
It is actually one of the most explosive things that Paul ever wrote.
Here is the backstory that we can piece together from details within the letter.
Philemon was a well-to-do Roman citizen from Colossae who, likely, met Paul during his mission in Ephesus.
And he became a follower of Jesus.
Then later, when Paul's coworker Epaphras started a Jesus community in Colossae, Philemon became a leader of a church that met in his house.
Now, Philemon, like all household patriarchs in the Roman world, owned slaves, one of whom was named Onesimus.
At some point, these two had a serious conflict.
Onesimus wronged Philemon in some way.
Maybe it was theft or maybe he cheated him. We do not exactly know.
But afterwards, Onesimus ran away.
Eventually Onesimus came to Paul in prison, likely to appeal for help.
In the process, he became a follower of Jesus and then a beloved assistant of Paul.
So Paul finds himself in a very difficult and delicate situation as he writes this letter.
He is going to ask Philemon not just to forgive Onesimus and receive him back
but to embrace him as a brother in the Messiah and no longer as a slave.
Here is how he does it.
Paul opens with a prayer first praising Philemon and thanking God for the love and faithfulness he has shown to Jesus and to his people.
He then paves the way for his request with this line,
"I pray that the partnership that springs from your faith
may effectively lead you to recognize all the good things that work in us leading us into the messiah."
A key word here is "partnership" or, in Greek, "koinonia."
It means "sharing" or "mutual participation".
It is when two or more people receive something together and share in it, becoming partners.
Paul says that faithfulness to Jesus means recognizing that all of his followers are equal partners
who share together in the gift of God's love and grace.
For Paul, this experience of koinonia among Jesus' followers is not just an idea that you think about.
It is something that you do in your relationships, which moves Paul onto his request.
He finally brings up Onesimus.
He says that he's become Paul's "child" in prison,
meaning that Paul led Onesimus to dedicate his life and allegiance to Jesus.
So Paul and Onesimus are now family members in the Messiah.
He has been serving Paul faithfully in prison.
Even though Paul wants to keep him around,
he knows this unresolved conflict with Philemon has to be reconciled if they say that they are followers of Jesus,
which moves Paul onto his bold request:
that Philemon receive Onesimus back, no longer as a slave
but as more than a slave, as a beloved brother in the Lord.
This is a really tall order.
Under Roman law, Philemon had every legal right to have Onesimus punished or put in prison.
Paul is not only asking him to forgive Onesimus
but to welcome back his former slave into Colossae as a social equal, as a family member.
This is way more than kindness.
This is unheard of.
It is freeing a slave and then treating them like a family member.
It upsets the status quo of the Roman social order.
Why should Philemon do such a thing?
Here, Paul pulls a brilliant move.
He recalls that keyword from the opening prayer.
He says, if you are truly a partner with me...
It's that Greek word "koinonia" again,
then welcome Onesimus as if he were me.
If he has wronged you or owes you anything, charge it to me and I will repay it.
In this request we see the heart of Paul's gospel message being acted out.
First of all, it is about reconciliation.
It is just like he told the Corinthians,
"In the Messiah, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's sins against them."
In this situation, Paul is putting himself in the place of Jesus.
He will absorb the consequences of Onesimus' wrongdoing.
He will pay the costs so that he can be reconciled to Philemon.
But Paul's message was about more than just a legal transaction.
It is also about koinonia.
Onesimus and Philemon and Paul are all equals before God.
They all share the same need for forgiveness.
The ground is level before the cross
which means that Philemon and Onesimus can no longer relate to each other as master and slave.
They are family members.
They are brothers in the Messiah.
As Paul told Philemon and the whole church of Colossae,
in God's new family people are not Greek or Jewish or circumcised or uncircumcised
or foreigners or uncivilized or slave or free.
But the Messiah is all and is in all people.
Paul closes the letter stating his confidence that Philemon will do even more than Paul has requested.
He asks him to prepare a guest room because he wants to visit as soon as he gets out of prison.
Then, with some final greetings, Paul ends the letter.
Paul's letter to Philemon is powerful for many reasons.
It is the only letter where Paul does not explicitly mention Jesus' death or resurrection.
This is not an oversight.
He does not need to explain the cross with words because he is demonstrating it through his actions.
Paul is embodying here the meaning of the cross.
He has made himself the place through which Onesimus and Philemon are reconciled to God and then to each other.
This letter also shows us that the implications of the good news about Jesus are extremely personal and never private.
The fact that Philemon and Onesimus are now brothers in the Messiah
makes their master-slave relationship totally irrelevant.
The family of Jesus' people is the place where all are equal recipients of God's grace.
It is a new kind of society or a "new humanity" as he called it in the letter to the Colossians
where people's value, social status is not defined by race or gender or social or economic class.
In the Messiah there are simply new humans who are equal partners,
who share together in God's healing mercy through Jesus
That is what Paul's letter to Philemon is all about.