Philemon: A Radical Call to Forgiveness and our True Identity in Christ

What does it mean to truly forgive someone who has betrayed your trust, wronged you deeply, or challenged the very fabric of your world? Well, I think it’s obvious that we live in a society where divisions or distinctions like our appearance, our economic status, our ethnicity, our achievements or even our past mistakes can often define how we see ourselves and each other. It can also affect how we might engage with one another, so how do we overcome this so that we might see others as Christ sees them? How does Christ see us?

These are not just philosophical or theological musings, hopefully we are reflective enough to ask these types of questions of ourselves because they strike at the heart of how we might live out our faith in a world that is rife with division. Maybe the answer lies in an unexpected place: a short, 25-verse letter from a prisoner named Paul, written under bondage of Roman imprisonment and addressed to a wealthy Christian about his runaway slave.

If you go looking for this ‘book’ in the New Testament, it’s easy to miss because it’s so short, but it’s large in its ramifications for the society of the time. The Christian identity presented an extremely radical understanding of the relationships between people which conflicted drastically from that of Roman society. This letter speaks to forgiveness, identity and societal change and it begs the question, can an extension of grace to one person, reshape an entire community? Can our faith in Christ dismantle the distinctives and hierarchies we cling to?

As we dive into this story of Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus, let’s do so with open hearts and minds and let’s prepare to be challenged because there are some real practical lessons for us to learn from this letter. It’s a blueprint for living out the gospel in ways that demand courage, humility, and love from us who call ourselves followers of Christ. Let’s take a moment to read about a slave, a slave owner, and an Apostle, this is the book of Philemon. Maybe it might change our hearts, or even more than that.

May God bless you in your engagement with this powerful letter.

Blessings

Josh