Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour Podcast. And have you ever had a really legitimate falling out with someone? I don't mean a little misunderstanding or things turned a little gossipy and you sort of drifted apart. I mean a straight up scorched earth, not cold war, hot war fight where you argued with somebody, you did things to each other to try to advance your cause and hurt the other person, and there was real damage done, and maybe it happened in front of other people, so your social circle was aware. You ever had one like that? Okay. If you have, or if you've had more than one, I guess my follow-up question is have you ever had one of those where time passed and then one party or the other reached back out, maybe even showed up at the door? I've had that happen. That's a crazy thing because you know you hear a knock on the door, you're sitting at home, and then you're like, oh, well, who could that be? And in your brain, there's been this one person that you've been fixating on for months and months because of this outstanding hurt or whatever. And you walk to the door and you open the door, and it is that person. What does your gut do? What does your heart do? I mean, you get blasted with adrenaline in that moment, right? There's no question as to what the person at the door is there to talk about when this happens. What else is there to talk about other than the incident, the state of your relationship, what happened? It's on. This might be pleasant, this might be healing, this might be horrible, but immediately you go to an 11 in terms of being amped up and ready to go. Flip it around. Imagine you're on the other side and you've been stewing on this other person for all this time. And if you see their vehicle in a parking lot or something, you're like, oh, I'm out of here. I'm not risking that. You're nervous at the supermarket, but it's eating at you. And finally you're like, I just got to do something about it. And it has to be today. And so you drive over there. And in the past, every time you went and visited this person's house, it was like going to your own house because you were so tight with each other. But now things are poisoned and horrible. And you get up to the door and you're sweaty and your heart is pounding. You've got that sick feeling in your stomach, zero appetite. And you reach out and your hands are a little shaky, and you're like, I don't want him to see that I'm shaky. That is not good. But you pull off the knock, and then you sit there and you breathe. And maybe you put your thumb over the ring camera and they come to the door, boom, and there you are, face to face. Either side that you envision this moment from, it is pretty intense. And both parties in this situation are feeling it. And both parties in this situation, just by the nature of what is happening and where you're both standing and what has happened in the past, both parties know we're about to deal with the thing. Hope it goes well. Okay, that's pretty much what the letter of Philemon is. Because unlike other letters that we encounter in the New Testament, where somebody writes the letter and then they send it off to someone. And then someone gets the letter from a courier or whatever, and they're like, What? What is this? What have we here? Let me just open this up. Oh my goodness, it's a letter from Dear John. Let us read. Oh, it's Peter! The best! I love his letters. Gather round, everyone. Saint Peter has sent us. It's not like that. Here, the very person who is delivering the letter, the very person who is knocking at the door, is the one who is in the fight with the recipient of the letter. The letter of Philemon is addressed to a guy named Philemon. He lived in an ancient town that had been in decline for some time in what we would call modern day Turkey, and he had at least a few bucks to his name because he hadn't enough money to own household servants or household slaves. That meant something a little different back in Roman times than it has meant in modern times for the last couple hundred years. We'll unpack all of that later. But this gentleman, Philemon, is also a Christian, and he's a Christian who's been wronged by somebody he trusted. The guy who wronged him is named Onesimus. He's Philemon's slave, but it looks like Onesimus stole some stuff from Philemon when Philemon wasn't looking and then ran away. This is an offense that often in ancient times carried with it a penalty of death. You're not gonna see voluntarily, that is, a runaway slave come back to your door and knock. So Philemon sitting around at his house one day, probably in the early 60s AD, during the reign of the mad Emperor Nero. Yeah, our buddy Philemon there in Colossae. He had business stuff to think about, he had church stuff to think about, he had social stuff to think about, he had family stuff to think about, sure. But I betcha he had Onesimus on his mind all the time. Then there's a knock at the door. We'll be back to that in a minute. Okay, now let's think about the other side of this equation. There's this guy named Onesimus, probably a lifelong slave. Slavery in the Roman world wasn't really ethnic, like it was in the transatlantic slave trade that you learn about leading up to the American Civil War and history classes. It was at certain times in the ancient world, in the Roman world, it was a product of sort of a caste system. At certain times, slavery was kind of like employment, and you were just attached to a household. At other times, slavery was incredibly cruel with no way out, under the authority of an abusive master who delighted in the ownership and abuse and exploitation of other people. Probably young Onesimus had been a slave for a long time, my guess would be his entire life. But something happened and an opportunity at freedom presented itself, and he decided to take it, knowing full well what the consequences could be. Sure looks like he had heard word about a kind man who people looked up to and held in high regard named Paul. I don't think that Onesimus had probably ever met Paul before. But what would you do if you'd been a slave your whole life? Where would you go? Well, I think a really attractive place to go would be a great big city, far, far away where nobody would know you and you could blend in. And you need a quest, you need an arrow, a direction. Then you heard a rumor that this Paul guy, who people think highly of, is in a prison somewhere. That makes him findable. So we're gonna go find this Paul fellow and see if he has any advice. He's been good to other people in the past. Maybe he would be good to me. I'm speculating. I don't know what Onesimus was thinking, but what I do know is that he was a part of the household of Philemon as a bond servant, as a slave. It looks like he stole some stuff from Philemon, probably to fund his escape, and then he found his way to wherever Paul was in prison, probably Rome. More on that later. Somehow, in the process of meeting Paul, and maybe hoping against hope that Paul would have counsel for him or direction for him, Onesimus becomes a Christian. Paul quickly makes the connection that he knows people in common with Onesimus, and in fact, even knows his master, Philemon. Well, now Paul is in a very difficult and tricky situation, and ultimately he decides that the thing to do is to send Onesimus packing all the way back to Colossae with a fellow traveler to go back to his master Philemon's household. But Paul doesn't send him empty-handed. He writes a very personal letter addressed to Philemon to be carried by Onesimus himself. Well, have you ever gone on some gigantic trip where you dread what is at the other end, but you have to go on the trip either way? And as you get closer, as the climate and the air starts to feel more like this place that you know you have to go to, that you remember where things are tense, the more you start to feel angsty inside, the more you lose your appetite, the more you get sweaty, the more you think about anything you could do other than finish the trip. And then as you get out of the car and you walk up to wherever it is that you're dreading having to go, but that you have to go, picture your emotions in that moment. It's pretty intense, right? Now add a possible death penalty on top of that if this doesn't go well. That's what Onesimus is feeling as he and his traveling partner crest the hill into the ancient Lycus valley, and they see the old familiar town of Colossae there, sitting on a little rise in the middle of this beautiful valley surrounded by green peaks. And as Onesimus is resolutely putting one foot in front of the other down that old road that predates even Rome toward his master's property there in town, no doubt he makes eye contact with a couple of people who recognize him and crane their necks. And as Onesimus gives them a quiet nod of acknowledgement and keeps pushing toward his destination, no doubt those who recognized him took a minute to think, wait, what? He's not wearing chains, he's not under arrest. Why would he be coming back here voluntarily? And as those people are still trying to run that equation in the rearview mirror, Onesimus makes his way to the gate with all the familiar sights and sounds and smells, and with a sealed letter in his left hand, he reaches out trembling with his right hand and knocks. And we'll imagine what the next few moments might have looked like tomorrow. I'm Matt, this is the Ten Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.