Philemon, the New Testament letter from Paul to a Christian leader, offers a diplomatic, though compelling, message that Philemon needs to give up his slave.
The backstory is that Onesimus, a runaway slave “owned” by Philemon, has fallen out with his “master” but become friends with Paul, who is imprisoned (probably) in Ephesus. And the apostle wants to do something to change the status of this runaway.
As the Anglican theologian N.T. Wright says:
As the weeks turned into months during the dark prison days sometime in 55 or early 56, some of Paul’s friends were able to come and take care of him, and he had a visitor, a frightened young man named Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave. He belonged to Philemon, a wealthy householder in the small city of Colossae, some 150 miles inland from Ephesus. He had run away, as slaves sometimes did, probably grabbing some money as he went. Runaways were regularly punished with death.
Wright points out that it was a serious crime to help a runaway, but Paul had seen Philemon convert to Christianity. He continues that Paul would have shared the Gospel with Onesimus – and in verse 10 of Philemon there is a reference to his conversion.
But before we get onto the purpose of Paul’s letter, let’s remind ourselves on the culture the apostle would have inherited.
Anti-slavery in the Old Testament
Paul, having been brought up a devout Jew, would have thought of slavery through the lens of the Old Testament.
A defining moment in the Hebrew scriptures is when Moses secures the release of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
The anti-slavery message continues when the law is set in Leviticus. If someone falls on bad times and tries to sell themselves into slavery to pay off a debt, they are instead to be given paid employment. And then the Year of Jubilee comes, their remaining debt should be written off.
This, however, is very different to the practices of the Roman Empire, where slavery is said to have involved 10% of the population. So Paul and Philemon and Onesimus were living under a legal system very different from the one ordained by God for the Jews and shared by Paul. Despite this, the apostle applies his Christian beliefs to pursue a radical solution for rehabilitating his new convert in society.
The effectiveness of the letter
Paul’s letter urges Philemon to take back Onesimus “no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother”.
The apostle applies plenty of charm. He doesn’t try to impose the release of a slave on an unwilling reader. Instead, he says “although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love”. He has actually sent Onesimus back to his “master” with the letter, so that Philemon had the power to do as he pleased.
Paul also tries to overcome any objections by saying: “If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me”.
F.F. Bruce writes in The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians that the request was successful. He says:
Was Paul’s request granted? Yes; otherwise the letter to Philemon would not have survived. That it survived at all is a matter calling for comment, but if Philemon had hardened his heart and refused to pardon and welcome Onesimus, let alone send him back to Paul, he would certainly have suppressed the letter.
Reconciliation of Philemon and Onesimus
One profoundly Christian aspect to this letter is that Paul did not just want Onesimus to be released. He also wanted reconciliation. It’s a theme that we can also see in the work of the late Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
As the great South African said: “It [reconciliation] is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end only an honest confrontation with reality can bring real healing.”.
Later, Onesimus may well have been the same Onesimus who became Bishop of Ephesus. That may well explain how the letter has been preserved.
As F.F. Bruce writes:
To Onesimus the letter was his charter of liberty. That Onesimus did become bishop of Ephesus is not improbable. If so, then, wherever and by whomsoever the Pauline corpus was first compiled and published, Onesimus could scarcely fail to get to know about it, and would make sure that his Pauline letter found a place in the collection.