Readings Luke 17: 1-11 The epistle of Philemon.
The letter to Philemon was written around AD 61 to 63 - approximately 30 years after Jesus's death and Resurrection.
Paul was in prison in Rome and at this time he would have also written Colossians, Ephesians and Phillippians. Philemon was a citizen of Colossae which is in modern day Turkey. He was a rich member of the church and owned slaves.
One of these slaves Onesimus, (whose name means useful) became useless, in that he ran away, likely to Rome in an attempt to hide in the anonymity of a big city. There however he encountered Paul who led him to Christ.
Paul then tells Onesimus that it is his duty to go back to Philemon and be his slave again. Paul gives him a letter so that Philemon will hopefully accept Onesimus back without punishment.
Did Philemon accept him back? Well 50 odd years later Ignatious, the bishop of Antioch, was being taken to Rome to be martyred wrote complements about the bishop of Ephesus called Onesimus – calling himself useful – the same pun that Paul used in his letter.
Philemon also went on to be a Bishop, the Bishop of Colossae. And finally tradition has Philemon, his wife Appia and their son Archippus along with Onesimus being martyred in the first general persecution that the Emperor Nero had ordered.
So it does look like that Pauls letter worked and Onesimus was taken back by Philemon and also that he was freed.
However on the surface this seems to support slavery, Paul the apostle who was given revelation by God in doctrine and morality told a runaway slave to go back to his slave master. In the 1800's in the USA there was the "Underground Railway" where Christains who fought to end slavery would smuggle slaves out of the South to the north where they were free. But here is Paul sending a slave back?!
Lets have a look at the situation of slaves in Roman times.
Slavery was universal in all the ancient nations. The philosopher Aristotle said slavery was part of the Natural order of things.
The civilization was economic based on slavery. Slaves were not just manual laborers doing the ditch digging and sewer cleaning, they were household servants - like butlers or maids. Slaves could be doctors or artists, teachers or musicians, all in all slaves made up of around one third to one half of the population.
And every single one of them had no rights what so ever, in fact it was only in AD20 that the Roman senate granted them a right to a trial…, before that if accused of a crime there was no need for proof they could be just executed.
In fact this happened in the household of a roman called Pedanius. He was murdered and it was suspected that it *could* have one of the slaves so they executed the household slaves - all 400 of them. History does not tell us if they got the murderer though.
The owner of the slave had all the legal rights and the slaves none. An owner could treat his slaves well or he could treat them badly and cruelly and the law would not stop it - in fact the law supported the slave owners right to do what he wanted to a slave. One tale of a bad owner was Vedius Pollio who entertained the emperor. Vedius had a tank in his mansion in which he kept hunger conger-eels. If a slave annoyed him in anyway then the slave was thrown into the tank to be eaten alive.
In trying to think of a metaphor to compare roman slavery to today I thought perhaps of dogs. The dog belongs to it's owner, and they may use the dog for hunting, show trials etc. and some owners treat the dogs with love and care, almost like their own child.
Some will beat and kick and not feed and otherwise mistreat their pets. Where the analogy breaks down is that today we have laws to protect dogs from bad owners.
The Romans had no such laws - the owner had the right to beat, mistreat and kill his slave. Indeed a runaway slave once returned to the owner was often branded on the forehead with the letter F meaning Fugitivus - runaway.
A better comparison would be to say the slaves were like tools. The slave was just a tool like a hammer, a spade, a lawn mower or remote control - something you use to get the job done.
Some people take care of their equipment and some leave the shovels out in the rain to rust.
There is no law to stop me getting the remote control to my VCR and jumping up and down on it. The flatmates might be a bit annoyed if we want to change channels - but it's my property and my right to do what I want - if it really bugs me that I can't play videos - I'll just go buy another.
And so it was with the slaves - they were just the tools and equipment of the owners - do be used and treated as the owner so desired.
The Greek attitude of slaves was very similar to the roman attitude and both of these attitudes are in complete contrast to the attitude we read about slavery in the Old and New testaments. God has something else to say.
In Ephesians 6:5-8 it is written
5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.
That seems a heavy load to put on a slave to treat their master as if his will is the will of Christ but note the next verse 9.
9And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
The master is to treat the slave as if the slave is Christ himself! And that in Gods eyes the owner and slaves are equal and He has no favoritism.
What a surprise it would be today if we were told to treat our lawn mowers as if they were Christ. This is the kind of attitude barrier Paul was trying to breach.
The New Testament says that the Slave is our Brother, in fact Paul calls Onesimus a Dear brother, and that slaves are to be treated with respect love and indeed just the way we would treat Christ.
The Old Testament teaches the same thing about equality.
In the Passover which is one of the most holy ceremonies that a Jewish family could do without a priest, they are told in Exodus 12:44 that Slaves may take part in it - yet a hired worker cannot! The slaves were to be accepted in the ceremony as one of the family.
And then in the law of Moses it goes one further. After seven years the Hebrew slaves are to be freed. Let go, they are their own property again. They may come back if they want to but the law is that they can go free.
These attitudes are in total opposition to the Greek and Roman times and slavery as it has been known in our last few centuries of modern times. The Bible teaches that all people are to be treated with love and respect.
That answers one question, the letter of Philemon and the rest of the Bible does not support slavery. What then are the spiritual truths of this letter?
Martin Luther in speaking about this book said...
We are the Lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.
Martin Luther compares us all (including himself) with Onesimus.
We are runaways from God. In our sin we have abused God damaged his property and flee from Him as much as we can.
Before the Lord God almighty we have no rights, if so demanded we cannot do anything that is not His will. If we were to return to God on our own, He could reject us, brand us, or put us to death.
In this parallel, the Father is therefore Philemon. He is the one whose property has runaway. The Father is the one who has all the rights, legally and morally to do with us as he wills.
Paul is the Christ-type. Paul mediates with Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Paul has authority as an apostle to order Philemon but instead he says, please do it for me, as a favour, on the basis of Love.
Jesus as part of the trinity is our mediator and says to the Father - forgive these people, not for any works but on my behalf. And just as Paul was willing to pay for any damages or theft Onesimus may owe, Jesus not only offered but paid for the price of our sins - with His death on the cross.
Onesimus whose name means Useful or Profitable was made useless by his running away. By returning he became useful and profitable again. We who are Christians were useless before the Lord but now thanks to Christ we are useful and profitable to him. We are the Lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.
We are servants who have chosen to do so out of love for our master. Yes he has the right, Yes He deserves to own us but we come to Him through Love. The Love of Jesus for us first, the Love of Jesus displayed on the cross, the Love of Jesus certified through the Resurrection.
Like Onesimus, who Philemon took back and did not punish but loved like a brother, and it appears freed him to no longer be a slave so the Father has done for us. Yes we are His servants but in Christ we are much more than that.
Luke 17 tells us that we are not to expect great praise or glory when we do God’s work but as his profitable servants – we are to do our duty – in whatever form it is that God has for us to do.
We are the lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.
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