Philemon Philemon.
SPEAKER_01What's up, everybody? It's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast, and this is the final bit on the book of Philemon. Not today, but this week. We got today, and then we got two more on Philemon. And we've got some outstanding questions. We have real work left to do here. We're not fully through the text. And one of the big questions that is outstanding here is what are we supposed to take from this? I think we've made some progress on this because if for most of us, slavery isn't really a part of our lives. And that is the social question or the social impetus that makes the whole book happen. I mean, you got a runaway slave, and now he's going to go back to his former master. What's going to happen? What precedent does that set for slavery in the ancient world, an institution that most people didn't ever even think twice about? Yeah, that's all very, very interesting. And that's why we've spent a lot of time on it. But for you and me, for most of us, hopefully, slavery isn't a consideration. It's not a part of our lives. It's not like we're sort of debating whether or not, like, I don't know, it's probably not the best, but maybe we'll do like some slavery. Nope. For most of us, it's it's pretty much just zero. We're not going to do any of that at all. So then what is the outstanding point? Well, it has a whole lot to do with forgiveness and reconciliation. And I think you and I have put in the effort to overcome the obvious analogous hurdle here, which is, well, you know, the outrage we might feel over saying, hold on a minute. Now, I learned from college that this is not an equitable relationship and that there is an imbalance of power. And when that happens, because of the lenses through which I see all relationships, which is power or lack thereof, oppressor and oppressed, okay, Onesimus is the oppressed, Philemon is the oppressor. Therefore, this isn't a breaking up, this isn't a falling out, this isn't relational damage, this is interpersonal, like one party did all the wronging, that being Philemon, the other party did not. If it happened today, I might be inclined to agree with you. I think that would probably be the better way to read it. If somebody ran away from slavery today in the dark corners of the world where it still exists, it's kind of a moral no-brainer. You're not going back. There's no reason to go back. But you and I put in the vast amount of effort to understand that wasn't the situation here, and that isn't how people in the ancient world would have thought about this relationship or what was going on. Also, we trust Paul's judgment on a whole lot of other stuff. We got a big sample size of what he thinks about things, and it's pretty dang ethical. It's pretty dang concerned for people on the fringes of stuff. No, I don't think Paul is going to go around signing off on pure evil to just make some sort of important larger point at the expense of his dear son Onesimus. Hmm, I don't think that's what's going on here. I think in Paul's mind, this is a reconciliation situation. I think Philemon was probably on the fence in that regard as to whether this was a reconciliation situation or a, hey, pal, you wronged me, you stole my stuff, you ran away, you can't do that, and you owe me kind of situation. I think for Onesimus, it might have been kind of a you owe me situation. Although I wouldn't be surprised if anyone in a state of slavery in the ancient world might have had a little bit of Stockholm syndrome. And of the two, maybe Onesimus was a little bit more likely to think, oh, maybe I did wrong him. And this is more of a reconciliation situation. So, in order of opinions, I think Paul was most likely to view this as a reconciliation situation, not so much a social justice-injustice situation. I think Onesimus was second most likely to view it as a reconciliation situation, not as a social justice versus injustice situation. And I think Philemon was the least likely to view this as a reconciliation situation. But the letter of Philemon, I think, involves a lot of Paul trying to reframe it in everyone's mind so that all parties will be on the same page, that in light of what has taken place, this really should be treated as a reconciliation situation, which again is one of the clues that I would point to to say that the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus was way at the good end of the slider of what slavery in the ancient world would look like. All right, here's the next passage. Verse 18. Paul says, If he, that is Onesimus, has done you, Philemon, any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. Not to mention that you owe me your very self. My goodness, there's just so much there we have to start unpacking. I can't keep reading. Okay. What where does that take your brain? Those of you who've been around the Bible a lot. Like if there's anything more, tell me and I will come back and I will pay that. Good Samaritan, right? Remember the Good Samaritan finds that guy beat up on the side of the road and all the fancy religious people cruise right by, they can't be bothered. But the lousy, ratty, dirty, half-breed, ethnically backwards, undesirable Samaritan, he's the one who stoops into the gutter and makes himself unclean and helps the one who's been beaten and robbed and left for dead in a ditch. And he takes them to an inn and he tells the innkeeper, here, everything is paid for, take care of him. When I come back, any additional costs that have been accrued, I will pay. That's a parable of Jesus. And the whole idea of that parable that is inspired the names of hospitals, it's so influential, is that there is something bigger than the normal laws of reciprocity when you're talking about kingdom values, when you're talking about people who are in Christ. And it is the most trifling of things for someone who is in Christ to serve someone else in this way, to sacrifice, to give of their resources to pay for something that isn't actually their responsibility because of how much Christ did that for us by his work on the cross. So Paul is just imitating Jesus here. If there's anything that he owes you, he can't pay it back. He hasn't earned. I can't pay him. That is illegal. Remember, we looked through those things in the primary sources section of this season. Paul can't pay Onesimus. And pretty clearly, Onesimus owes Philemon something. What would that be? Lost productivity? I still stick with the theory that if you were gonna run like that and you didn't have money, you would need to fund the trip and you would have to steal some stuff. Paul is saying that out of the donation money that he gets from the churches that are supporting him while he is in jail and cannot earn, and out of the money that he earned in the past and might still have a little bit squirreled away from tent making, that was Paul's job. He made tents and sold them to fund all of this stuff. Out of that meager pool of resources, Paul's gonna put his money where his mouth is. I will pay for it. Now come on, you've been hit up for things like this. You've had people be like, no, no, no. Let's do the right thing here. If there's any expense, I'll handle it. And you're like, dang it. Okay, well, I can't take your money. That's weird. I'm not gonna take your hundred bucks. That's weird. Uh, you know, and it does put pressure on you when someone else is willing to put their money where their mouth is and say, This is the right thing to do. If you're not willing to do it, okay, you just do the right thing and I'll fund the whole thing. That's how sure I am it ought to be this way. So you've got undertones of the good Samaritan in this, you've got uh social maneuver that you and I are very familiar with. You've got a little hint in this verse as to how Onesimus funded his escape. And here again, all the way back to the point of this conversation or where we started with this conversation today. This also points us back to Paul viewing this as a reconciliation situation, not as a larger social justice test case. Paul's framing all of this as okay, y'all have got to do some squaring of accounts with each other. And I'm willing to help with that because I'm not sure all parties have the resources needed to properly square accounts so we can get back to zero with each other and move forward without any outstanding debt that we owe each other, other than the debt of love. So I'll facilitate the money part. I need you guys to facilitate the relationship part. And now Paul exerts his personality in a way that he has in other parts of the Bible as well. If you were here for the Galatian season last time around, you remember this. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. So he grabbed the pen from Timothy, because remember, Timothy is who's writing this thing. And Paul's like, just no, just give me the thing. And I imagine Paul has to squint and lean back. Remember, he's an old man in prison. What do they not have a lot of in prison? Light. So he's got to rock back away from the paper and be like, all right, Paul am writing this, and it's probably real ugly and sloppy, and very big letters. We know he wrote with very big letters. We also know, maybe it's speculation. I think you can demonstrate this from the text. We also know that this was a shibboleth. It was a cipher. It was a thing that Paul used to demonstrate that his letters were authentic. People apparently recognized his handwriting. Maybe there was a distinctive shake to it because he'd been hit so much with rocks and flogged, he had like nerve damage or something and wrote weird. I don't know. But he viewed it as a signature of authenticity, like a wax stamp or seal or something. And so he plays that card here. It is real. Basically, he has just written a check. Here's my own hand. Treat this as a contract. I will pay you back. But before he slathers it on, toothic, but also remember, you owe me your very self. Why? I assume because Paul explained the gospel to Epaphras, and Epaphras went and explained the gospel to Philemon. And somewhere along the line, I suspect Philemon and Paul overlapped in such a way that Philemon owes Paul a tremendous spiritual debt. But how do we take care of debts? We settle up and we reconcile. Forgiveness and reconciliation, as we've talked about so many times, are different things. They're in the same zip code, maybe they're part of the same process, but forgiveness very simply is up to you. And if you want the forgiveness of Christ, you owe everybody forgiveness all the time, and so do I. I know, it's easier said than done, but effectively it is a release of a spiritual debt somebody else owes you when you forgive them. God has forgiven us far more than we would ever need to forgive anyone else. No one could be as far below us in terms of how they've wronged us as we are below God in terms of the massive distance between our imperfection and his perfection. So forgiveness is not an option for the follower of God for the Christian. You gotta do it. The Bible makes it real clear all over the place. Reconciliation, however, even according to Paul, is a bit more on an as much as it's up to you, be at peace with all people level. In fact, those are the words of Paul over in another one of his letters, the letter to the Romans, where he's talking about of course we want to square accounts with people, of course we want to get it right. We want to be at peace with everybody as much as it's up to us. Why, as much as it's up to us? Well, because you've tried to reconcile with people who don't want to, who are being turds. You can't fix everything. I had a neighbor who was the most difficult person I've ever lived near in my entire life at a home I lived at in the past, and I could not work it out with that guy. And boy, did I try. Gifts, kind words, offer, I offer to pay for things, apologies for things I don't think I actually did wrong. I just could not be reconciled with him. And finally, I just had to accept that there will be no reconciliation here. I forgive him for being horrible to my family. And he was horrible. I forgive him. We are not reconciled, however. I would not trust him with my stuff. I would not invite him into my home. I would not put him in a position where he could exert any kind of influence over the fates or outcomes of my family. But how I wish we could be reconciled, because I love the story of reconciliation. It's my favorite. I love it when people figure it out and put it together. The things that stick with me and sting me the most in life about my past are those places where I didn't play my cards right, or maybe I wasn't sincere in my pursuit, maybe I didn't try hard enough, but where reconciliation has not been had. And the places where, like a dumb little kid blinking and not understanding just went down, it's really hard for me when I know clearly I offended, I hurt, I wronged somebody, but I don't even know how. That's just the worst. We can't be reconciled because I'm too dumb to understand what I did wrong and I still don't know. And you won't tell me. Yeah, not reconciliation is a bitter pill, but reconciliation is a beautiful story when we earn it and when we experience it. And what an advantage for these two guys, Onesimus and Philemon, to have a guy in their corner who's willing to fight and put his money where his mouth is to see that reconciliation through for their benefit and as an exemplary benefit for everybody else who saw it happen, and for you and me reading it all these years later. Two more days of Philemon to come. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.