After some background in Philemon 1-14, if we were reading this letter from Paul for the first time (and, maybe you are, as part of this mini-series of articles), the next couple of verses clarify the situation between Onesimus (“he” in this passage) and Philemon (“you” in this passage).
Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
Philemon 1:15-16 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/phm.1.15-16.NIV
Now we learn what Philemon, Paul, and Onesimus already knew, although maybe we suspected as much: Onesimus had been Philemon’s slave. The two were separated, and it seems likely that the separation was not mutual, meaning that Onesimus ran away.
So, now we don’t just have a trusted helper (i.e., Onesimus) leaving Paul to bring a letter to Philemon with a request. We probably have a runaway slave returning to his former master, carrying a letter from Paul on his (Onesimus’s) behalf.
However, Onesimus has changed. Something about his time away from Philemon has made things better. And, given that Onesimus and Philemon are described as brothers in the Lord, it sounds to me like Onesimus chose to follow Jesus while he was on the run. Maybe Paul led him to Christ, or maybe Onesimus found – or heard about – Paul’s needs after his conversion, and chose to help Paul out as a way of serving Jesus. Maybe Onesimus was already a Christian, but learned more from Paul about what it meant to serve Jesus while he was away from Philemon. Maybe, after running away, Onesimus decided to do the right thing: to act upon his faith, rather than it being a merely theoretical idea.
Editor’s note: The rest of this article will get into the sensitive subject of slavery, but I hope you’ll read through to the end to learn a key lesson about how to read the Bible.
When we talk about slavery, there’s a risk that we project too much of “modern” history onto the Roman Empire of the first century. Without condoning human ownership of other human beings in any form, we should recognize (for reasons to be explained later) that slavery in the Roman era was not identical to the chattel slavery of the western world in recent centuries.
What we do find in the Bible is that Paul gave instructions to those who were currently slaves within the Colossian church in Colossians 3:22-25, as well as instructions to those who were masters in Colossians 4:1. (Onesimus is also mentioned in Colossians 4:9.) These instructions point back to God as ultimately being sovereign over both groups. While unpacking more details about various forms of slavery, servanthood, and service is beyond the scope of this article, I hope that we can agree that God is in authority over everyone, and no one loves us more than He does.
We don’t have to get into the details about what it meant to be a Roman slave or master, though, in order to learn from this passage. In fact, we don’t even have to agree whether there were any redeeming qualities of first-century slavery, in order to appreciate what Paul was asking. There are some theological metaphors in the Bible related to us choosing to give our lives to Jesus as our Lord and Master, but that doesn’t mean that we must endorse the behavior of anyone who treats their employees, servants, or slaves with less love than Jesus does.
What we are obligated to do, though, is to understand that the situations of people in the Bible weren’t exactly the same as our own. They lived in their respective cultures and dealt with situations that wouldn’t always make sense today. Some of what they experienced around them, and even some of the decisions that they made, did not reflect God’s ideal for humankind. However, they lived where and when they did, and their circumstances factor into the history that we learn about them from the Bible. The cultures within which they lived and served God inform how we understand what they said and wrote, but not every part of their respective cultures was God-honoring.
In fact, if Jesus doesn’t return soon (which would be awesome!), future generations may look back and be appalled at some of the things that Christians did or accepted around us. Our best defense is following God’s righteous leading as best as we can with His help (even when that means not following the crowd), and remembering that all of our sins – like those who followed Jesus in the first century, even though they were imperfect – were paid for by Jesus Christ.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for August 17, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Philippians, Colossians & Philemon, by Anthony L. Ash. © 1994 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 