Philemon and the Gospel Revolution

The letter to Philemon. It’s only a single page in your bible, but there is a LOT packed into that page.

For a moment imagine that you are Philemon – an early believer who hosts an early group of Christians at your house for church. Then one day, two men show up, each carrying a letter from the apostle Paul.

One of the men was carrying a letter addressed to the whole church – the letter we know as Colossians. The other man was carrying a personal letter, addressed to you. To complicate matters, the man carrying your letter was Onesimus, your runaway slave.

In the letter, Paul asks you to do something that doesn’t make sense by societal norms. But it makes sense in light of the gospel.

Prejudicial social hierarchies are as embedded in our society now as they were in Paul’s day. Those who have power still exploit those who have less power. And all too often, those who profess to follow Christ are just as complicit, just as power hungry, just as cruel as everyone else. Afterall, Christians used used scripture to defend slavery in the US. Even now, women regularly find themselves more excluded in evangelical circles than they are in corporate or professional settings.

Yet the true Gospel of Jesus is at work: wherever there is revolutionary change that restores human dignity, that tears down dividing walls of hostility, that makes things right again…the gospel of Jesus is at work in the hearts and minds of those who have been transformed by grace.