- …no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. Philemon 1:16 – Paul was asking a big ask from Philemon with this letter! What we have is a runaway slave named Onesimus who happens to find himself with Paul while he was imprisoned at Rome. In their time together Onesimus accepted Christ and became a fellow believer. Now, as all faithful Christians should do, it was time to make things right with the people we have hurt, and it was time for Onesimus to make things right with his master Philemon. Notice though the verbiage Paul uses within our verse above, not only is Paul asking Philemon to accept his old slave back, but to set him free and give him a new label. Instead of slave Onesimus would be considered Philemon’s brother in Christ. Culturally Paul was asking a lot, something that almost never took place. While we don’t have the slave/master relationship in our culture today like this, the principal of this verse can be applied to our story. Many of us have people who in their sin nature hurt us and they carry labels in our lives as a result. “They’re the one who hurt my family,” “They’re the one who broke my heart,” “They’re the one who took so much from me.” Yet what if like in our chapter that same person found Jesus, and they sought reconciliation with us. Would we be in the right to hold such labels over them? Remember there was a good amount of labels we shed off when we placed our faith in Jesus, maybe we too can let go of some of the labels of people in our past who have since then found Jesus. We can label them instead brother or sister in Christ. Let’s be open to these label changes with such people for it will dramatically impact how we chose to show God’s loves to them. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3411
- Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. Philemon 1:11 – Just yesterday I was chatting with one of my students at church about the idea of who can become a Christian. They had the answer that God’s love and grace is available to everyone, but it still tripped them up when it came to people that had done horrible things. I wish I had read this verse yesterday rather than today because it does some up the conversation. People can change when Jesus gets a hold of their life. No heart is too dark and no past is too vile for God to work with. It’s not God who is the one rejecting people , it’s normally the already-perfect Christians that can seems to give people a chance to let God change their hearts. Let’s make sure we remember what God can do in someone’s life and be open to accepting the truly changed people into our lives as well. If God saw them worthy enough to bring close, maybe we should be open to giving them a chance as well. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 735
- For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. Philemon 1:15-17 – Context of Philemon. Paul is writing to Philemon and the church that meets in his home. Philemon was a wealthy Christian who once owned a “useless” slave by the name of Onesimus, and one day Onesimus ran away. Eventually Onesimus met Paul, embraced the gospel, was transformed, and is now useful to all. To make things right between Philemon and Onesimus, Paul rights this letter to tell Philemon telling of the radical change he’s seen in Onesimus, and to hopefully convince Philemon to accept Onesimus again. Not only as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. What we see in this chapter is how deep of a role we can play in helping in the reconciliation between two believers. We can be the voice of reason, we can speak to the change we’ve seen, and we can remind them of the command to reconcile we have from the Lord. Is there then any one in your life that you know needs to seek reconciliation with someone? How then could you follow the lead of Paul and help within that reconciliation process? Believers are not to exist in opposition or in a state of unwillingness to forgive. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to step in and help seek peace within our family so our family can find the unity we’re called to live in. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2783
Daily DEVO 