Does Philemon Support Slavery?

Big Idea

Tension: How does Philemon bear on the institution of slavery?

Resolution: it subverts the spiritual foundation of slavery.

Exegetical Idea: Philemon bears on the institution of slavery by subverting the spiritual foundaiton of slavery.

Theological Idea: The gospel subverts the foundation of slavery.

Homiletical Idea: As the gospel changes us, we change culture.

Outline

Introduction:

Why would we even address this in a sermon?

It is a legitimate question that comes about as we’re preaching through Philemon. If we believe in expositional preaching that preaches the “whole counsel of the word of God” we need to address this question.

Many of you have probably heard this objection, that Christianity supports slavery. And so, we just need to address that.

Maybe there are some of you who are doubting your faith, and you are afraid to ask questions. But what I hope to demonstrate here is that we’re not afraid of questions. Because, while I don’t think all our answers will be answered this side of eternity, I do believe that nobody else answers our questions as satisfactorily as the gospel of Christ.

Why doesn’t Paul just outlaw slavery?

Romans put slavery down brutally.

Paul thinks merely being “free” under the legal stipulations of the Roman Empire is a pretty pathetic goal. Paul wants all things on heaven and earth to be reconciled. He wants heaven and earth to be reconciled. He doesn’t care what someone’s legal status is under the law, he wants two believers to break bread together.

How Paul handles slavery in Philemon:

Lord Jesus Christ

For the sake of Christ

“more than a slave” vs 16.

uses the same language to refer to Philemon as he does to Onesimus

calls Philemon and Onesimus brothers

If Philemon only would have freed Onesimus, he would have been pretty transparently inconsistent.

How Paul handles slavery in general (1 Cor 7:20-24; Eph 6:5-9; Phil 2:5-11; Col 3:22-4:1; 1 Tim 1:8-11; Tit 2:9-10):

Yet, Christ is also Lord of all. So we are all slaves of him.

One of the most subversive ways that the Bible handles injustice is to sacralize it. Christ became a slave so we might become free (Phil 2:5-11)

Paul elevates the status of slaves

Paul says that those who “enslave” others have no place in the kingdom of heaven (1 Tim 1:10)

Paul says that those who are enslaved should seek their freedom (1 Cor 7:20-24)

Nevertheless, Paul cares more about reconciling slaves and masters to one another and giving them a relationship than giving slaves a new legal status.

Paul believes as the gospel changes the hearts of believers, believers transform society.

How the Bible handles slavery (Ex 21:1-11, 16, 20-21, 26-27; Lev 25:1-7, 35-55; 1 Pet 2:13-25, 3:8-22):

Paul’s relationship towards slavery is exactly that of the whole Bible.

We are all servants of the Lord

We are all free in the Lord

The kind of slavery that is permissible among Israelites is what we would today call indentured servitude, which would have been an unthinkable restriction in the ancient world

Slave abuse was legislated against (both physical and sexual)

Killing slaves was strictly forbidden

Forcing somebody into servitude was forbidden, they could only serve if they desired it

Every 7 years, these slaves were to be released in teh eyar of Jubilee

If a fellow Israelite hit on hard times, according to Lev 25, it was preferable to take an Israelite into one’s house as a guest than to enslave him

If your kinsman became so poor he had to enslave himself, it was your obligation to actually buy him out of slavery

The only exceptions in Leviticus were for those who were taken as slaves in war. Even these were protected from any kind of abuses.

If those slaves converted to Judaism, they enjoyed the privleges of the year of Jubilee. But if they retained their pagan practices, then they would simply be treated according to their own custom- which certainly did not allow the release of slaves.

The Biblical system is a tax on slavery, it forces reconciliation, it makes slavery so cumbersome that to continue to practice it is simply impossible. This is precisely the point. It puts slavery to death by a thousand cuts.

How the Church has historically handled slavery:

In the early church, the strategy was precisely this. You would find some authors condemning it. Local churches often paid money to buy slaves and free them.

As the church gained more power in the Roman Empire, it pressed harder and harder against slavery. At one point, John Chrysostom, who is arguably the most influential preacher in Christian history, who served at one time as the kind of chaplain for the emperor, preached against slavery. He told the wealthy in his church to buy them, teach them a trade, and set them free.

When the Roman Empire collapsed, the German tribes that took over hte capitol themselves became Christians. They started to abandon slave practices. For example, King Clovis II of the Franks married his slave Bathilda, who then led an abolitionist campaign in their territory. Everywhere the gospel penetrated, slavery was eradicated.

It was actually the case that European Christians were bought and sold into slavery by Vikings and Muslims in the middle ages. In the 100 years before the discovery of the New World, muslim raiders took up to 1 million slaves from teh shores of europe for the slave trade.

When the new world was discovered, and colonies were started, they tried to use indentured servanthood. But that didn’t work. So to our shame, Christians in the west started readopting slavery from Islamic and other societies.

However, it was evangelical Christians, who after a few hundred years started working tirelessly to abolish the slave trade. For example, William Wilberforce entered into parliament at age 21, and for 53 years he beat that drum, until, on his deathbed, he received news that Parliament had finally voted to abolish slavery, even by voting to buy back 700,000 slaves. In his life, near as I can tell, Wilberforce wrote three books in his life. Two were written about slavery. One was written about the gospel. In America, one of the amazing things that would happen is even in New England, people’s slaves would get saved, and they would be brought into church membership and given communion. The southern slave owners wouldn’t read their slaves to read so they couldn’t read their Bibles. Because you don’t have to work hard to see what we’ve seen in regards to slaveyr. It was evangelical BIble preaching Christians who championed the cause, who worked with Abraham Lincoln to take the cause of emancipation.

Today, of course, we are figuring out the problem of racism, an ongoing legacy of southern slavery. And while the rest of the world is trying to figh ta war over this, it is Christians who are fighting for racial harmony, for peace, for forgiveness. It is Christians who are saying, “it is not enough to be equal under the law, we must be reconciled as brothers.” CRT and the rest of this culture pushes a Marxist narrative and agenda that has decided we need to push down teh oppressors for the sake of the oppressed. But the Church is the one who opens up membership to black and white, to the near and the far, to the other, and brings them to the same table, and welcomes them home.

Applications

1 - The only hope for the brokenness in our world is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 - As the gospel changes us, we change culture.

3 - The church must continue to exercise a prophetic witness to injustice in our culture.

4 - If you fail to engage deeply in the church, you are aiding the injustice in our world.

5 - We need to be honest about the times that Christians have failed, but we should also be proud of the many more ways that Christians have worked to serve the brokenness of this world.

6 - It is not enough to champion another person’s rights, we must also seek to help as they try to make it.

7 - There is still work to do.

8- But our labor is not in vain.