By Christopher Dryden
I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
Philemon 10-11 ESV
Three key characters are involved in the letter of Philemon – the writer, Paul, the recipient, Philemon and the messenger, Onesimus. These three show grace in action and highlight how love isn’t something that rests in feelings, emotions and sentiments but works itself out in actions.
Onesimus was a runaway. His run was from slavery and he met up with Paul, a man in chains as he wrote to Philemon. In coming across Paul and accepting the gospel in a life-transforming way, the runaway was returning with a letter from Paul to his former slave owner.
Philemon was a beneficiary of something that liberated him from slavery to sin which he didn’t deserve or earn. This was given through Paul and enriched him far beyond anything his social status granted him. To a large degree, he could understand that he was in a debt to Paul that he could never repay.
Now Paul is returning the runaway to him and appealing for him to act in grace by not receiving Onesimus back as a slave but as a useful fellow-servant in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace caused all three men to act and express grace in challenging ways – particularly the dynamic of Philemon and Onesimus.
This underlines for us who have received grace that we are the recipients of something that is not designed for us to just keep to ourselves and sit on it. This is now something we are to exercise in the course of actively peace-making. That means sometimes embracing those we would have every right to disdain. This means extending the gospel even to those who may not behave in a manner fitting for it. We don’t operate on our strength or state of heart, we’re not loving out of our love. We love because He first loved us and that requires acting from the heart of grace.
That’s a challenge in a world polarised by opinions so strident that anything slightly deviating from it can result in cancellation, neglect, disregard and worse. The letter from Paul to Philemon serves as a basis for us to see how the gospel enables and equips the community of grace to behave in a way that is an example to the watching world around us that we live by a very different standard.
It is God’s grace that helps what used to be considered useless to be full of use again for the glory of God. It’s our privilege to allow the Spirit of God to enable us to act in the way that suits this truth.
Ask: How is grace seen in Paul’s letter to Philemon?
Seek: What does it take for you to likewise be committed to expressing grace in action?
Knock: Explore areas in your life where you can put grace into action and how you can encourage others to pursue this as well.
(Upper Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Kid Circus on Unsplash)
