It will be good for you!

Some thoughts on Paul's letter to Philemon....

Of the many words I can recall my parents saying to me, the ones that still cause me to cringe the most are:

"It will be good for you!"

These words usually followed something like, "Eat this..." when it was something I really didn't want to eat. Or "Do this..." when it was something I really didn't want to do.

"It will be good for you!" is what Paul is saying to Philemon, but, unlike my parents, who usually said these words to me in private, Paul puts Philemon in the gaze of the whole church. Let me explain...

Paul meets Onesimus, while Paul and, probably, Onesimus, are in prison together. Onesimus is a runaway slave owned by Philemon, a person of influence and church leader that Paul obviously had a deeply personal relationship with.  While in prison together, Onesimus comes to faith in Jesus. The relationship between Paul and Onesimus deepens so that Paul refers to Onesimus as "my own son in Christ". Because of this, Paul makes some big requests of Philemon.  He wants Philemon to treat Onesimus as a 'brother in the Lord' and not to punish him according to the law of the day, but to release him so that he might serve alongside Paul.

Now this seems all well and good to us who live in a culture and time when slavery is deemed unacceptable, but at the time of this letter slaves were quite common.  They were the labour-saving devices of the time. They cooked, cleaned, feed the stock, laboured in the fields, handled the accounts, bought and sold goods on behalf of their owner in the market, looked after the children, and many more everyday tasks.  When one broke down through illness or age, or when a particular slave became troublesome and ran away or stole from his or her owner, that slave was punished and then sold off in the local market. (What we do with old kitchenware and appliances and motor cars) At the same time, some slaves became so much a part of the family they served that when they grew old and unable to serve they were 'put out to pasture' so to speak, and became a part of the household to be cared for and treasured for their years of service.

Now by rights and under the law of the day, Philemon would receive Onesimus back, punish him, probably a beating of some sort, and then sell him in the local market where he would be a marked slave usually purchased for a life of hard labour, and Philemon would be quit of him. The slave was put in his place through this punishment and the owner, in this case Philemon, would have his honour restored and save face in the eyes of the community. But Paul puts Philemon in a bind.

He wants Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a slave, but more importantly, as 'a brother in the Lord'. As I mentioned earlier, Paul makes this request publicly in a letter that would have been read to the church that met in Philemon's home. Paul is asking Philemon to lose face...to deny himself justice...to forgive that which in the eyes of the culture of his day was unforgivable...and to meet Onesimus as an equal.

Can you imagine the discomfort Philemon must have experienced with this request from Paul and having to deal with it in a such a public forum as the church which met in his own home?  Can you picture the conversations in that church about Philemon and Onesimus?  How difficult this was going to be for him?  How uncomfortable?  How messy?  But through it all Paul was saying the same thing my parents said to me all those years:

"It will be good for you!"

The story of Paul, Onesimus and Philemon serves to highlight how being a follower of Jesus doesn't necessarily make our life more ordered and easy.  In fact, quite often, the opposite is true. Following Christ makes life messy. It puts us repeatedly on the spot in hundreds of ways everyday.  But through it all, Jesus says in so many words:

"It will be good for you!"

While that may be true, it's still messy and you may not enjoy it. I know I rarely do.