The Merciful MasterSample

Receiving a Brother

American abolitionist Harriet Tubman stated sorrowfully after the Emancipation Proclamation, “I was free, but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land.” It would be a whole century before African Americans were received as equals in American society overcoming grave injustices such as racial segregation and other inequalities. In fact, even today the question of racial equality is a hot button issue in American culture and politics. Paul understood this reality well. Just because Onesimus was free in Christ and a member of God’s household did not mean Philemon would necessarily treat him as such.  

Forgiving is difficult. It is more than not holding a grudge. It is also accepting the offender by receiving them into fellowship. Philemon is called by Paul (and God) to embrace his runaway slave as a social equal. Paul is clear that if Philemon considers himself a partner in his ministry to God and shares in the redemptive blessings of the gospel, then he must receive Onesimus as he would receive the revered apostle himself. Philemon as a Christian cannot behave as the cold elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son. He does not have the prerogative to view Onesimus with self-righteous indignation and suspicion over his past sins. 

Paul by this request is overturning the entire social hierarchy of the ancient Roman world. There is a new relational order established in Christ. When one becomes a Christian, human categories of class, race, and other distinctions cease to matter for there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, since all are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). We are all sinners in need of grace. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. In the body of Christ, we are all one held together by the love of Jesus who is all, and in all (Colossians 3:11). Thus, we are to forgive and accept each other as the Father has accepted us in Christ. As C. S. Lewis said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”.