In this reflection on Philemon 8–25, we finish Paul’s short but powerful letter with a look at Onesimus, Philemon, and Paul’s appeal for a relationship transformed by the gospel. We consider the difficult subject of slavery in the New Testament, why historical context matters, and how individual passages fit into Scripture’s larger story of freedom, dignity, and God’s redemptive work. We also discover a personal reminder in the meaning of Onesimus’s name: God can bring transformation and new purpose into our lives. No matter your past or your present circumstances, God has given you gifts to share, people to love, and opportunities to serve. You are useful to God, and God has a purpose for you.
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Well, good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that things are going well for you as we continue through the week together.
We’re finishing up our journey through some of Paul’s letters this week. We’ve been walking through these pastoral letters, and today we’ll finish the book of Philemon.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at a Psalm. I haven’t decided which one yet, but y’all know I love a Psalm! After that, we’ll head back into the Old Testament. I’m not entirely sure where we’ll go next, so if there’s an Old Testament book you’d particularly like to study, let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts, and we might just go there together.
But today, we’re finishing Philemon. We’ll be reading verses 8 through 25, the remainder of this short letter.
Paul writes that although he could command Philemon to do what is right in Christ, he would rather appeal to him on the basis of love. Paul describes himself as an old man and a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and then he makes his appeal concerning Onesimus, whom he calls his child because he has become a spiritual father to him during his imprisonment.
Paul explains that Onesimus, who was formerly useless to Philemon, has now become useful to both of them. Paul is sending him back, even though he would have liked to keep Onesimus with him to help in his ministry while he is imprisoned.
Paul says he wants Philemon to act willingly, not because he feels forced to do so. Perhaps, Paul suggests, Onesimus was separated from Philemon for a time so that Philemon might receive him back forever, no longer merely as a slave, but as more than a slave: a beloved brother in Christ.
Paul then asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus as he would welcome Paul himself. If Onesimus has wronged Philemon or owes him anything, Paul says to charge it to his account. Paul closes by expressing confidence in Philemon, asking him to prepare a guest room because Paul hopes to visit, and sending greetings from his fellow workers. He ends with a blessing of grace.
That’s the letter. It’s short, but there is a lot packed into it.
As we talked about yesterday, the traditional interpretation of Philemon is that Onesimus was an enslaved person who ran away from Philemon and, at some point, encountered Paul and became a Christian. Paul is now sending him back to Philemon with this letter, asking Philemon to receive him differently.
There is some scholarly debate about the exact circumstances surrounding Onesimus and his relationship with Philemon. We don’t know every detail of what happened. But the letter clearly asks Philemon to reconsider how he sees and receives Onesimus.
And before we get into that, I think it’s important to talk about the historical context of slavery in the New Testament.
Roman slavery was different in important ways from the racialized chattel slavery practiced in the American colonies and the United States. Roman slavery included people enslaved through warfare, birth, and other circumstances. It could also involve people selling themselves into slavery under particular economic conditions. It wasn’t organized in exactly the same way as the racial system that developed in America.
But we need to be careful here. Different does not mean harmless. Roman slavery was still an institution in which people could be deprived of their freedom, exploited, separated from their families, and subjected to severe mistreatment. We shouldn’t romanticize it or pretend it was simply another form of employment.
And that brings us to one of the questions we often ask when we read passages about slavery in the New Testament: Why doesn’t Paul simply condemn slavery?
That’s a fair question, and it’s an important one.
Paul doesn’t explicitly call for the abolition of slavery in this letter. Instead, he appeals to Philemon to receive Onesimus as a beloved brother in Christ. He asks Philemon to see Onesimus in a new way, to welcome him as he would welcome Paul, and to consider the relationship they now share in Jesus.
We have to take that seriously, even as we acknowledge what Paul doesn’t say.
One way Christians have approached difficult passages like this is through the idea of progressive revelation: the understanding that God has revealed God’s purposes throughout the unfolding story of Scripture, and that we must read individual passages in light of that larger story.
That doesn’t mean we get to ignore the parts of Scripture that make us uncomfortable. And it doesn’t mean we can simply assume that every ancient writer expressed God’s purposes in the fullest way we might hope.
It means we pay attention to the historical circumstances of the passage while also asking how it fits into the larger biblical witness.
And when we do that, we see a recurring theme throughout Scripture: God is at work bringing freedom, restoring dignity, and drawing people into a community in which their relationships are transformed.
Think about the Exodus, when God delivers the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Think about the prophets’ concern for justice and the vulnerable. Think about Jesus announcing good news to the poor and release to the captives. Think about Paul’s declaration in Galatians that, in Christ, distinctions such as slave and free do not determine our standing before God.
That larger biblical story matters.
So, when we encounter a difficult passage, we need to understand the world in which it was written, pay attention to what the author actually says, and interpret it in conversation with the rest of Scripture.
We interpret what is difficult in light of what we understand about God’s character and purposes. We don’t do that to avoid hard questions. We do it because the whole story matters.
And in Philemon, one of the things we see is Paul asking a Christian leader to recognize the humanity and the faith of someone who had occupied a very different position in his household.
Paul doesn’t simply say, “Send Onesimus back and carry on as usual.” He asks Philemon to welcome him as a brother in Christ. That appeal challenges Philemon to see their relationship through the lens of the gospel.
Now, there’s another detail in this letter that I find particularly interesting.
Paul plays on the meaning of Onesimus’s name. The name Onesimus is associated with the idea of being useful or beneficial. Paul says that Onesimus was formerly useless to Philemon, but now he is useful to both Philemon and Paul.
It’s a clever play on words, but I think there’s a spiritual lesson here, too.
Some readers have understood Philemon as an illustration of the way Christ changes us. We shouldn’t treat the letter as though it were simply an allegory with a hidden meaning, because Paul is writing about real people and a real relationship. But we can certainly reflect on the spiritual truth that a life can be transformed by Christ.
And that brings me to something I want you to hear today: God has a purpose for you. You are useful to God.
I was talking yesterday with the children in our weekday ministry here at Starkville First. I do chapel with them, and I have this little picture Bible that I use. It’s actually the Bible I had when I was a child.
Yesterday, we were talking about Moses and the burning bush. I showed them a picture of Moses and talked about how God had a special purpose for him.
God called Moses to do something that only Moses could do in that particular moment. God gave Moses a responsibility, and God worked through him to accomplish something important.
And I told those children that God has a purpose for them, too.
Now, that doesn’t mean that every one of us is going to be called to do something as dramatic as leading a people out of Egypt. Most of us won’t have a burning bush experience. And we may not always know exactly what God is calling us to do.
But that doesn’t mean our lives lack purpose.
God can use us in the places where we live, work, learn, worship, and serve. God can work through the kindness we show another person, the encouragement we offer someone who is struggling, the time we give to a neighbor, and the ways we help our communities become places where people can flourish.
Sometimes, we get so focused on what we can’t do that we overlook what we can do.
We look at somebody else and think, “Well, I can’t do that. I don’t have those gifts. I’m not that person. I don’t have that opportunity.”
But God isn’t asking you to be somebody else.
God is calling you to be faithful with the life, the gifts, and the opportunities you’ve been given.
And I think that’s one of the things we can take away from Philemon.
Onesimus had a past. He had a complicated relationship with Philemon, and we don’t know every detail of what had happened between them. But Paul believed that what had happened before didn’t have to define what happened next.
Paul saw someone who had become a brother in Christ, someone who could contribute to the work of the gospel, someone whose relationship with Philemon could be transformed.
And Paul wanted Philemon to see him that way, too.
That’s a powerful reminder for us. We should be careful about defining people only by their past, their mistakes, their circumstances, or the position they occupy in society. In Christ, we are called to see one another as people who bear God’s image and who can grow in faith and love.
And that applies to how we see ourselves, too.
Maybe you’ve made mistakes. Maybe you’ve spent years wondering whether you have anything meaningful to offer. Maybe you’ve reached a point in life where you’re asking yourself what your purpose is now, or whether God can still use you.
Hear me when I say this: don’t doubt that God can work through you.
Don’t be afraid to ask where God might be calling you next. Don’t assume that because you’re not doing what somebody else is doing, your life has less value.
God has given you a life to live, people to love, and opportunities to serve. There is purpose in that.
You are useful to God.
And sometimes, the question isn’t whether God can use us. The question is whether we’re willing to offer ourselves to God and allow God to work through us.
Paul makes another interesting point in this letter. He tells Philemon that if Onesimus has wronged him or owes him anything, Paul is willing to put that debt on his own account.
Paul is willing to take responsibility for the cost of reconciliation.
That’s a remarkable thing to say. Paul is asking Philemon to welcome Onesimus as a brother, and he’s willing to help make that reconciliation possible.
It’s another reminder that reconciliation isn’t always easy. Sometimes, repairing a relationship requires us to take a step toward someone else, to offer grace, or to help address the harm that has been done.
Paul doesn’t simply talk about Christian love as an abstract idea. He puts himself into the situation. He is willing to do something to help these two people move toward a different relationship.
And that’s what faith does. It moves beyond words and into the way we live with one another.
Finally, notice the people Paul mentions at the end of the letter. He sends greetings from several fellow workers, including Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke.
We’ve encountered some of these names elsewhere in the New Testament. Mark, in particular, reminds us that relationships in ministry can have difficult histories and still develop in new directions. In Acts, Paul and Barnabas disagreed over taking Mark with them on a journey, but Mark later appears among Paul’s coworkers.
The story of Christian ministry is full of real people, complicated relationships, disagreements, growth, and opportunities for grace.
And that makes Paul’s letters so interesting to read.
Paul can be direct. He can be challenging. Some of his words can be difficult to understand, especially when we separate them from their historical context. But Paul also gives us some of the most beautiful reflections on love, grace, faithfulness, and life together in Christ.
His letters aren’t simply abstract theology. They are written to real communities and real people who are trying to figure out what it means to follow Jesus.
And Philemon, short as it is, gives us a glimpse of that very thing.
It reminds us that the gospel is meant to change the way we see one another. It calls us to recognize the dignity of others, to pursue relationships shaped by love, and to trust that God can bring new possibilities out of complicated circumstances.
And it reminds us that God has a purpose for each of us.
So, friends, don’t doubt what God might be doing in your life. Don’t dismiss the gifts you have or the opportunities God puts before you. And don’t assume that your past has the final word about your future.
God is still at work. There are still ways for you to serve, people for you to love, and opportunities for you to be a witness to the grace of Jesus Christ.
You are not here by accident. You have a life to live and a purpose to pursue.
So be open to what God is doing, be faithful with what God has given you, and trust that God can use you in ways you may not yet understand.
Hey, thanks for being with me today. Tomorrow, we’ll spend some time in a Psalm. I haven’t picked one yet, but we’ll find one together.
Thanks for being with me. Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you in the morning!