A Master and his runaway
In this episode, we dive into the book of Philemon and explore a story of a runaway slave, a master, and the transformative power of the gospel.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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So now I'm actually done. Bye for now, stay with it.
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