A Master and his runaway

0:00 There's something extraordinary about opening the pages of God's Word and discovering others history or rules. But the heart of God, the story of his people and the way his love moves in the most unexpected ways or places, and that's what we're going to be diving in today. Hi, welcome or welcome back to Rooted With Me. For me here, timeless biblical truth is taken and brought into everyday life in a way that's clear, honest, and grounded. And I'm happy to have you here again. If you could see me.

0:40 I'm blushing. Anyway, how are you? Personally, I think I've had the toughest week at work. This week was not so pleasant. It really wasn't all that, but glory to God, you know, the normal Christian statements, but really glory to God. I was thinking yesterday about how a lot of times the words or the teachings that we receive are not always for the moments when we receive them. You know, sometimes you hear something and it's like, oh, I needed this right at this time. It was a very timely word. And there's some occasions where you hear something and OK, that's nice.

1:25 And it's maybe in another season at a different time that what you learned or that word makes sense to you. I think that's me now. I learned about residence some time back. And I mean, I tried to apply it, but it just wasn't a season where I was necessarily striving to be resilient. I think it was a kind of lead back season for me. I tried to just, I finished school so everything was true. But recently I've had to be resonating so many years I've had to push myself in a lot of ways, just step out of my comfort zone essentially.

2:07 So I was just reminding myself yesterday about how I need for me. You have joy on your inside. You have to stir up joy on your inside. I constantly had to remind myself while at some point our face pause and think, should I run away? Is it ready to retire? You know, funny things like that. But really, glory be to God, not just because it's the Christianese thing to say, but because really God is glorified when I'm able to overcome these struggles or hurdles. Anyway, let's get into where we're here, firemen.

2:42 So let's start in Rome at a time where the city was loud, busy, crowded. I'm full of so much tension. Somewhere inside all of that, inside this big empire, Paul is under house arrest, not in the dark dungeon, which so many people would imagine. I think that was the case with me as well. When you just say, oh, Paul is in prison, what do you think? Automatically is dark dungeon chains or deep cave with maybe he's holding a candlelight or something. Well really was a small rented place. He was actually poor that had to pay for the rent himself.

3:24 So it's like there's a Roman soldier that is always a poor. He's literally maybe chained or attached to the Roman soldier that's watching him day and night. So you can imagine things clinking of chains, shuffle of sandals on the floor, the smell of oil lamps. Make no mistake, there were still oil lamps and smoke drifting and the place. So Paul isn't under house arrest because he committed the crime. He's there because he preached Christ. And now he's waiting for something most people in his world would never dream of, a hearing before Emperor Nero.

4:00 Emperor Nero at this time was, I think, still early in his room. So he's young. Of course he's powerful. He's the Roman Empire after all. He's unpredictable and there's a lot of political tension. So he as of this time, he wasn't the violence Christian killer that history knows him to be. Like if you look through church history, emperor is not even in other books, like I've read maybe books on make believe mythology like Emperor Nero is no, is in no way good. But as of this time, he's still young.

4:33 So he's like, maybe he's growing into it, but All in all, standing before a Roman emperor is not a small thing. Like it can never be a small thing. So even though emperor was young, they like look into the hearing with him was no small thing. He was high stakes and poeted for years. In fact, the book of Ark tells us that he stayed on the House arresting room for about two full years. He was chained to gods. You know, like I said, he was living in a small apartment that he had to pay for himself and never that time.

5:04 He never actually got to see Emperor Nero. At least scripture doesn't tell us that. What we know is eventually he was released, but he was arrested again. I mean, you feel like you just want to clap for Paul. Like I wouldn't You are sad for him because I mean, he got imprisoned for and then he can just say that he was really passionate about the gospel. So during his first imprisonments, while he waited and was waiting, I was waiting. Life didn't exactly stop for him. His house was a kind of ministry hope.

5:39 I don't know if that's the proper word, but they were guards that were changed to him. They had the gospel over and over. Like, imagine someone that just talks and talks and talks. But the good thing is it's a life giving message. And I'm sure some of those soldiers were probably saved in the process, you know? So they were leaders from different churches that came to meet him with reports and questions. He had friends like Luke, Timothy, I think even a Paphras that would support him, that stayed with him.

6:08 He had messengers that would come with concerns from churches in different cities. So sometimes it could be loud, sometimes it could just be a solemn atmosphere with Paul sitting, praying, because we can tell from his epistles that he did a lot of that which we should emulate. So you can just imagine the mix of anxiety and hope. Fear fades all in that prison or house that Paul stayed in. So here's where we're actually getting into Now, in the middle of all of this, something unusual uncomfortable happens.

6:41 He meets a slave. Like I said, Paul wrote letters. He wrote personal, pastoral, theological, corrective, encouraging letters. But he would run to a master. And why did he write this is because a slave, a runaway slave, showed up at his door. His name is Unisomos. He came nervous, probably tired, because I think he traveled a very long distance, like moving from where he was to get to where Paul was, very, very long distance. And he's unsure of what's going to happen next. If he makes one mistake, if he says one word out of his, he could face brutal consequences, as you'd see later.

7:23 Yet somehow in everything, in a big city like Rome, he finds Paul. And what makes him more peculiar is Onysmus wasn't just any sleeve. He belongs to Filemon, one of Paul's close friends, someone Paul had personally led to Christ. Filemon was a respected Christian leader and his own was actually where the church in Colossae gathered. So you can imagine Paul's reaction when this young man introduces himself. Before we go deeper, someone will probably have that question like why did fireman even have a slave?

7:56 Or how does it make sense for a Christian to have a slave? To understand this you have to understand that the whole world Paul lived in was different from the one that we have today. It was a society that was built on slavery. It was not a side issue, it was the foundation of the entire economy. Many wealthy households owned slaves and their rules were very different from the type of slavery you might have in mind. You're probably thinking chains and people on long St. lines walking and walking fields.

8:27 But then that wasn't always case. Yes, some people were farm workers, but a lot of the time people who were slaves manage businesses, taught children, served as secretaries, or even practice medicine. Romance slavery stretched across every level of society essentially. So now that doesn't make it good, but it helps to explain why it was so widespread and law was extremely strict about it. A slave was legally considered as property. If a slave ran away, the master had every right according to Rome to punish them harshly.

8:59 Beatings, branding's, even executions were not uncommon. Like a slave could be crucified, and anyone who shot at the runway slave could also get into serious legal trouble. So it's not just the slave who ran away, it's also the person who harbors that slave. And for him to then show up in Rome, one of the hardest places to hide, it becomes even more risky. Yet in God's strange Providence, he ends up in front of Paul. And that means set the stage for one of the most personal moving letters that Paul ever roots.

9:32 So now let's introduce Filimon properly. Filimon wasn't just a casual Christian. He was a respected believer in Colossae. He was someone that pulled himself out, led to Christ. His home was one of the meeting grounds or places for the church. Remember that back then, churches didn't have cathedrals or sanctuaries. They gathered in living rooms, courtyards, maybe dining rooms. And Filimon's house was basically one of those places. So when Paul wrote this letter, it was primarily addressed to Philemon, but it also it was also meant for the whole household or the whole church that met in his house.

10:08 And it was even for anyone else who would read and who would want to learn, like me and you today. So the letter also mentions Apfia. Some theologians speculate maybe that's his wife. It also mentions Archipus. Some people speculates could be his son. We really don't know. And that really isn't important. But later wasn't written in isolation. Essentially. Paul probably wrote it's the same time he wrote collisions. You can tell because he mentioned some of the same people in both books. And like I said, Feidman was based in colossi, collisions, colossi, you get the idea.

10:46 So yeah, they were given the sense probably sent by the same messengers. He had the idea, all of that. So now why did Unismos run away? The Bible doesn't tell us exactly what happened. So many people have views, but the Bible only gives clues. Paul hints that enigmas had wronged Philemon, probably financially. Some scholars think that he stole. Others think maybe he messed up something in the household and ran away before facing the consequences. Whatever we he caused some sort of loss for, and in the Roman world this is a big deal.

11:23 If he was caught, the punishment could be brutal, and anyone who helped him could get into trouble too. So the last place you would expect the running a slave to go to is anywhere near someone as well known as Paul. But most people agree that enigmas didn't just bump into Paul. Rome was a big piece. So Paul was under house arrest. You had to find him. So it means that in one way that Unismos probably intentionally went to meet Paul. He probably intentionally searched for him, maybe because he had heard finally one talk about him.

11:55 Maybe it's a thing where he's scared and he's looking for who might help him get out of this situation. And maybe he goes to meet Paul. We can't be sure. But whatever the case, Paul meets him, talks with him, listens to his story and eventually leads him to Christ. And from what Paul write in the letter, he doesn't treat omissimos like an inconvenience or a legal problem. He treats him like family. Paul disciples him, teaches him and watches him grow to the point where Paul starts calling him my child like he he calls him I think verse 10, he calls him my child, my very heart.

12:31 And so let's unpack some of the beautiful and when I say gospel implications of this story, the first thing you need to notice is that Omissimos's name literally means useful or profitable. So once he was unprofitable, he was running away, he was hiding, he was trying to survive. But after Paul shares the gospel with him and walks with him, disciples him, he becomes exactly what his name implies. He becomes fruitful, he becomes valuable. He becomes a vessel of God's work. It's as if his very name was waiting for this moment of transformation.

13:10 And then think about the spiritual relationships. IP Philemon, the master of Oneisimos, is a child of Paul. Paul explains this in the earlier verses. And then Oneisimos becomes a son of Paul, but in Christ. What this means is that Oneisimos and Philemon are now brothers in Christ. You need to see it that way. So what it means is that in terms of spiritual standing, they are equal. They are bound together not by social hierarchy, but by faith. And Paul, their spiritual father, is bridging the gap between them.

13:46 And now here's the radical part. Paul asks Philemon to forgive Unisomos not just for the debt he owes, but he receiving back not as a slave but as a beloved brother. I need you to pause for a moment and imagine this is the Roman society. It might not seem as crazy a thing now because of maybe where you live or the context of where you live. But then a runaway slave could be punished, could be tortured or even executed for what Onissimos had done. Forgiving him completely welcoming him as a brother would have been almost scandalous.

14:22 The same way how Jesus Christ forgive me of all your sins sometimes seems scandalous as a song scandal. I love it so much, right? Scandal of Grease, rather, that's the song. If you check it out on the spot, file any platform. I love the song so much. Maybe I'll listen to it after this, I don't know. But the point is that Onis Philemon rather forgiving Onisimos in that moment could seem foolish, would seem foolish, not even could seem would seem foolish to so many people, even dangerous in the eyes of some people.

14:56 Yet Paul is asking Philemon to act against the culture, to step out of what might be the comfortable thing to do and follow the higher law of Christ's love. It's not theoretical, it's practical. It is costly. Yes, it is difficult, but it's what God would have us to when his mouse is no longer property. He's a brother, he's a fellow child of God. He is equal in spiritual standing. And that's exactly what the gospel does. It calls us to forgive in ways that feel impossible, to love in the ways the world would not expect us to, and to put reconciliation above pride or social approval or status.

15:37 In fact, Paul even suddenly reminds Philemon that he's acting in the spirit of service, of humility. So while Philemon is the master, Paul calls him to serve like a slave in love, just as Christ, the true master, served us by dying on the cross. So it's ironical because Arapont, you really ask yourself, who really is to sleep now? The one who is being served, or finally one who is actually serving Unisimus by forgiving him? So at the end of the book, the picture is clear, like so many people might read the book, and what's really on their mind is the whole tension between a master and a slave.

16:14 But you need to see fun, fun fact, this is the only book where Paul does not directly mention the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the only book where he doesn't explicitly talk about. And really he doesn't need to because the story that is at play, what he's asking for anyone to do reflects us, where we had a debt that we could not pay and someone steps in, Jesus Christ steps in and pays that debt for us. And so it's a thing where only Seamus normally is bound for trouble. He's supposed to get punished and he can't get out of it.

16:50 And so Paul is asking Philemon to forgive him of that death. So the gospel transforms relationships. It turns deaths into forgiveness, hierarchy into brotherhood, fear into love. It cause us to live differently, to forgive extravagantly and to see every person no matter their past as a candidate for redemption. Like the book of alimony is a sort of practical of the gospel. I don't know if maybe you had dictionary way, you learned something in class, you learned maybe a theory and then it's time for practical.

17:27 And when you learned it in class, it just seems so straightforward. It seems so easy to do both. When you didn't get to the practical section, it just seems not so easy. It seems sometimes messy, like it's supposed to go like this, but it's not going like this. Why is it so difficult? Why is it not going straight away with the gospel? It's kind of like that. You hear the gospel and he hits you. It's so lovely and you probably want to preach His gospel. You want to live by it, you want to live your life transformed by it.

17:56 But when you actually come to a scenario where you have to, it might not be so easy. In a sense, it's messy. It's not how you imagined it, but you just have to. And of course, God's Spirit within you helps you to do that. And so that, my friend, is the heart of Philemon. A short letter, yes, but in it's brevity lies a deep, powerful lesson. The gospel transforms lives, restores relationships and causes to radical inconvenience. World changing love.

18:34 That's a wrap for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you liked it. I hope it stayed something within you. I hope it's that extra push you need to be forgiven. Remember that this might not apply to you now, or you might. Whichever the case might be or whatever the case might be, whenever you see yourself in a situation where you need to forgive somebody, as annoying as it might be, I hope that this can help stir you in that directional God would have you walking. I hope this again, I hope this place too.

19:08 And please share this with someone, share this with someone. Maybe you can even share to that person that I annoyed you and stuff like that. I don't know. But yeah, take care of yourself, I think. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it's OK. Follow. If you're not following, you can turn in your notifications if you aren't. So you know when another episode drops, typically they drop on Fridays. Can give tree rating as well. Please be very nice and generous with your rating. So now I'm actually done.

19:38 Bye for now, stay with it.