Faith in Character: Philemon

Faith in Character: Philemon 1-9

This brief letter of Paul to Philemon is a unique letter. It is different than any other letter the apostle has written (with the possible exception of Titus). This letter does not delve into any theological issues, which is far different.

For example, the first eleven chapters of Romans addresses doctrine. The first three chapters of Ephesians are doctrinal in nature. Likewise, many of the books penned by the apostle contain a great deal of doctrine.

Philemon, though, is a personal letter. It is still filled with theology, but rather than dealing with theology and doctrine in an abstract way, this letter displays the outworking of doctrine. Or, to put it another way, Philemon presents the Scriptures doctrine through practice.

Philemon is a godly man in whose house the church was meeting (Philemon 2). He owned a slave (Onesimus, 10), and this slave ran away. We do not know all the details, but eventually Paul and Onesimus cross paths, and Paul leads Onesimus to the Lord (v. 10).

This letter is an appeal to Philemon to accept Onesimus back, not as a slave, but as a profitable brother in Christ. We will discuss this as we go through this small letter, slavery was a part of this world. Paul, working within his context, did not set out to abolish slavery, per se. He did, however, expand our views of who we are as individuals to be Kingdom-oriented rather than earthly-oriented (cf. Gal. 3:28).

What we have before us is a display of biblical theology in individual lives. There is much that we can learn for our lives as we seek to conform our lives to Jesus (Rom. 8:29).