Reflections on Paul 

Number 2

Sitting back and reflecting on the Letter to Philemon, a number of gospel-driven themes come to mind which clearly warrant canonical status given the book.

The first impression is one of freedom, not just freedom as in the opposite of slavery but freedom in terms of being able to make a morale choice consistent with a new morale framework that comes with the Christian message. Slavery was as much a part of everyday life in the 1^st century AD as pet ownership is in our time. Being either a slaveholder or a slave was no barrier to professing Christianity as far forward in time as the US Civil War.

In modern times, embracing a Christian faith would bring with it an abhorrence to slavery in any manner. Paul does not condemn Philemon nor does he condemn the practice. He just very simply and casually appeals to Philemon to do the right thing of his (Philemon’s) free will. We know from what we experience in other texts Paul is perfectly capable of bringing on the heavy stuff. Think about the pan of hot gravy he spilled on the Galatians – (Gal. 6:6 ). He makes a specific point of not being heavy handed in his discourse in this letter which, of course, contradicts his efforts to be light handed.

Paul surely wanted Philemon to come to his own decision about slavery for reasons not fully articulated. Perhaps Philemon owned other slaves and Paul’s ultimate goal would be the freedom of all of Philomon’s holdings. The point is that if Philemon were to find his way to free one slave, he might also rise to freeing all his slaves and to become an example for others.