The Epistle to Philemon is a very personal letter, written by Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in Rome between A.D 60 and A.D 65. It is basically a recommendation letter consisting of 25 verses, but contains some elementary and profound ideas of Christianity.
Philemon was a respectable citizen of the Roman empire who lived in Colossae, a wealthy christian who was one among Paul's earlier converts. A church met in his house. Onesimus, one of Philemon's many slaves, fled to Rome from his home with some goods. In Rome, he was arrested and jailed. There in the prison, he met Paul and was converted to Christianity. Paul considered him as his spiritual son(vs.19). In those times, the punishment for fleeing from one's master was death. On the basis of the spiritual relationship Paul had with Philemon and his knowledge of Philemon's broad-mindedness, Paul makes an appeal to Philemon asking him to forgive and accept Onesimus back not as a slave but as a brother because he was now profitable to both of them.
Theme:
1. Forgiveness and reconciliation
2. Christianity is for everyone
1. Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Paul emphasized the importance of forgiveness which is one basic principle of Christianity. Throughout the epistle, he urges Philemon to forgive Onesimus as he was now worthy of greater respect and acceptance.
Here we can see that a runaway slave is found worthy of forgiveness by God and his chosen apostles. He is forgiven by Paul and is expected to be forgiven by Philemon as well. If God can forgive Onesimus, how much more should we who ourselves are mortals, forgive our brothers for their inconspicuous sins.
Paul who once persecuted Christians and Peter who denied Jesus fall under this category. If God can forgive a persecutor and a doubter and turn them into great christian warriors and forgive sinners like us, we should all the more be ready to forgive others. ( Col 3:13, Eph 4:32). This must be done without contemplating their sins.
2. Christianity for all
Christianity is not the sole property of anyone or any group of people contrary to what some think for some purpose, but it belongs to all, regardless of their socio-economic status and their bygone sins.
Neither the status of Onesimus being a slave, a thief and a runaway, nor his sin held him back from being united with Christ. Instead he becomes a useful instrument for the expansion of God's kingdom(Col 4:9)
God does not choose us based on our socio-economic status but rather he chooses without any criteria just like he chose Peter, Andrew, John and James who were fishermen. He makes use of the weak and feeble and the unqualified ones to do great things. He selects the ones that are rejected by the world ( 1 Cor 1:27-29, Psa 115:22, Gal 3:26-29). He isn't looking for ability but availability.
Sometimes our past sins haunt and hinder us from going to our heavenly father. It makes us doubt if God would ever forgive us or not. But no matter how big our sin is, God is always ready to forgive us and bless us, provided we should not take advantage of his long suffering (Psa 56:5, Psa 103:10-12). God forgave David for his iniquities and made the Savior of the world to be a descendant of David during his earthly life. Similarly one of the thieves who was crucified with Christ was also forgiven when he repented. He was taken to heaven therefore no sin of ours has a hold on us if we repent and turn to God because his grace is greater than our sins.( Isa 1:18, Psa 103:10-12, Rom 5:20)
