{"id":2971,"date":"2016-08-16T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2971"},"modified":"2021-11-26T06:46:04","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T22:46:04","slug":"133-paul-on-forgiveness-and-reconciliation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2971","title":{"rendered":"158. Paul on Forgiveness and Reconciliation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201c<span style=\"color: #008080;\">For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty,\u00a0yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love &#8211; and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus<\/span>.\u201d<\/strong> [<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">Philemon 8-9<\/span>, <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Paul-writing-from-prison.11.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3747\" title=\"Paul writing from prison.1\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Paul-writing-from-prison.11-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"354\" height=\"244\" \/>\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Paul-in-prison.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2975\" title=\"Paul in prison\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Paul-in-prison-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"189\" height=\"246\" \/><\/a>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #008080;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/onesimus-mosaic.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2976\" title=\"onesimus-mosaic\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/onesimus-mosaic.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"245\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[L] Paul writing from prison. [M]\u00a0Paul in prison. [R]\u00a0Onesimus (mosaic).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saint Paul is not usually someone from whom you want to receive a letter. He either scolds you thoroughly or he asks you to do things which you would rather not do and yet you are unable to say no to. Philemon received such a letter from Paul who wrote to ask him to graciously accept back a runaway slave called Onesimus and to then release him to Paul as a freeman.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Paul, writing from a prison in Rome, had spent much of his ministry in the Roman province of Asia &#8211; now known as Turkey, whose territory includes Tarsus, Paul\u2019s birth place, and Antioch, where Paul began his mission to the Gentiles together with Barnabas. He made a number of converts in Colossae, a city about 80 miles east of Ephesus. Among these was the family of Philemon, a well to do slave owner who with his wife Apphia hosted the church in their home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">One of Philemon&#8217;s slaves, Onesimus, has fled his master. A runaway slave, Onesimus was in the worst possible position, and Paul\u2019s letter indicated that he might even have stolen from his master. He would have absolutely no rights under Roman law and could be killed with impunity. Forced into the streets and hiding, runaway slaves struggled for mere survival. Those who were caught were imprisoned without hope of ever seeing the outside world again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As Providence would have it, Onesimus met Paul, under whose ministry Onesimus became a Christian. Paul insisted that Onesimus\u2019 new relationship with Christ required of him to make right his relationship with Philemon. So Paul sent him back to Philemon with a note on behalf of Onesimus. Given the culture and background to this story, Paul&#8217;s request of Philemon was nothing short of astonishing. For us, this short note from Paul carries several important spiritual lessons. It is certainly a pretty fertile ground for seeing how great meaning is found in small places. We see all this in the way Paul articulates his appeals to Philemon, addressing six objects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>1. He appeals to a spirit of gratitude<\/strong>. In all that he is saying in the note, Paul is pointing to how God\u2019s generosity in Christ shapes the Christian life. God\u2019s gracious love, Paul is saying, fosters a spirit of gratitude and an ethic of gratitude. So he begins in his opening address by saying, \u201c<em>I pray that the sharing of your faith may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.<\/em>\u201d Here, Paul the rhetorician repeatedly plays with the word \u201cheart\u201d (<em>splagchna, <\/em><em>meaning the inward parts so pointing to the heart<\/em><em>, <\/em>in verses 7, 12, and 20): he is thankful for Philemon refreshing the hearts of the saints (v.7) and is expectant that Philemon will refresh Paul\u2019s heart by freeing his runaway slave Onesimus (v.20), who has not only become Paul\u2019s son by saving faith while in prison in Rome but has also become Paul\u2019s heart (v.12). As the biblical scholar Robert Jewitt puts it pointedly, \u201cPhilemon\u2026 has Paul\u2019s heart in his hands.\u201d John M. Perkins has also made a useful observation: \u201cThis same Onesimus who had been useless, once saved, becomes useful; no doubt, like Paul the \u2018Apostle of the heart set free,\u2019 he too is freed from the heart and now serves willingly, freely out of a spirit of gratitude. Just as Onesimus serves Paul freely, Paul asks Philemon to give Onesimus his freedom.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>2. He appeals to the spirit of <em>koinonia.<\/em><\/strong> Having embraced the same faith in Christ, Onesimus now belongs to the same household of God as do Philemon and his beloved and now aged Apostle Paul writing from a Roman prison. <em>\u201cI appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment<\/em>.\u201d What Paul has chosen to do is to appeal to Philemon in love as a result of God\u2019s grace at work in Paul\u2019s, Philemon\u2019s and Onesimus\u2019s lives in relation to one another and the whole church. This is an appeal to Christian fellowship \u2013 this<em> koinoni<\/em><em>a<\/em> or communion with fellow Christians in the company of God. The give and take of mutual benefit that is communion (<em>koinonia<\/em>) stems from gratitude we spoke about earlier and it flows from God\u2019s loving grace at work in people\u2019s lives in relation to one another.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>3. He appeals to new relationships grounded in Christ<\/strong>. By running away, Onesimus met Paul and was converted. Having accepted Christ, Onesimus is now a fellow brother in the Lord. Appealing also to Divine Providence, Paul thus points to a fundamental change in identity that comes when one becomes a Christian. Onesimus is now a child to Paul and a brother to Philemon because of what Christ has done for them all.\u00a0 \u201c<em>Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.\u201d<\/em> In Christ we are bound together in new <em>familial relationships<\/em> that will endure beyond the limits of mortal life. Will outsiders see and recognize us as Christians \u201cby our love\u201d? Whether or not we are conscious of it, the Christian community is being constantly watched, tested and judged on the reality of the new relationships which are supposedly formed because of Christian faith. Real faith results in real change in relationships. We are family; we are kin! Is it true in our faith community? Is the grace of God evident in the church-community where we worship?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>4. He appeals to the deserved-freedom of Onesimus<\/strong>.\u00a0In Christ the walls between slave and free are done away with, as Paul wrote in another epistle: &#8220;<em>There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus<\/em><em>&#8221; <\/em>[Galatians 3:28]. Without directly attacking the institution of slavery common in his time, Paul is deeply concerned to show that in the Christian community, all barriers and distinctions have been pulled down in favor of our oneness in Christ. Paul has understood his Lord well who during his earthly life had dismissed the issue of status. Teaching his followers to defy the status-ridden convention of the world, Jesus insisted that status must have no place in the Christian community where the one who is greatest\u00a0becomes a servant. Jesus said to his disciples,\u00a0<em>&#8220;Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all&#8221;<\/em> [Mark 9:35]. Today, Pope Francis as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church is painstakingly teaching the clergy to live this one, clear, and simple teaching from the Lord. The Holy Father is calling the ordained ministers of the Word to be obedient servants of the Word, and not be its rebels!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>5. He appeals to freedom rooted in forgiveness in Christ.<\/strong> Paul expresses the heart of Christian faith when he says to Philemon regarding Onesimus,\u00a0<em>&#8220;<\/em><em>If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account&#8230; I will repay it<\/em><em>.&#8221;<\/em> This is a powerful allusion to the cross of Christ who, in his magnanimous love had made the ultimate sacrifice on the cross in order that all iniquities might be charged to his account! So Paul appealed to Philemon to let divine grace flow freely in him so as to allow the sin-defeating and death-defying power of divine love move him to forgive Onesimus out of the depth of his renewed and believing heart. What we have here is both a lesson on the Christian doctrine of forgiveness in action. As Christians, we are to forgive those who have injured us, to be prepared to be reconciled with our enemies,on account of Christ.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>6. He appeals to love and free will, not to command<\/strong>. Paul&#8217;s credit balance, as it were, with Philemon, as they both knew, was considerable. From what we have read about Paul\u2019s life and work, we have no reason to suppose that he is exaggerating. Philemon&#8217;s debt (and all Christians, for that matter) to Paul is incalculable. However, resisting the urge to demand Philemon\u2019s obedience, Paul prefers to see him voluntarily releasing Onesimus to him as a personal aide. So Paul makes his request by a soft touch, instead of a crude demand; he requests; he does not compel. <em>&#8220;<\/em><em>Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love\u2019s sake I prefer to appeal to you \u2013 I Paul, an ambassador and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus\u2026 <\/em><em>I <\/em><em>would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel; but I would prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will<\/em><em>.<\/em>\u201d Writing in a relational context, Paul\u2019s appeal to the heart, is coupled with the reminder that they are all in one another\u2019s debt in the Lord who is at work in and through them. This, too, is a deep lesson on Christ&#8217;s saving grace which drives mutuality and reciprocity &#8211; a Christian reality on which contemporary faith community can learn much from St Paul.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Bible does not tell us whether Philemon released Onesimus to Paul and, if he did, whether Onesimus, now a free man, actually returned as a free man to follow Paul. There is a paucity of historical records concerning him. In the Eastern Church tradition, his death is placed at around 68 AD. Known also\u00a0 by the names of\u00a0Onesimus of Byzantium\u00a0and\u00a0The Holy Apostle Onesimus\u00a0in some\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"Eastern Orthodox\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eastern_Orthodox\">Eastern Orthodox<\/a> <a style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"Church (building)\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Church_(building)\">churches<\/a>, it is believed that he is the same Onesimus whom the second century St <a style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"Ignatius of Antioch\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ignatius_of_Antioch\">Ignatius of Antioch<\/a> has referred to as Bishop in\u00a0<a style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"Ephesus\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ephesus\">Ephesus<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The letter to Philemon is one of those wonderful examples of how, in grace, great meaning is found in small places. This little New Testament book has surprisingly quite a few important spiritual lessons for those who have hearts to listen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.<span style=\"font-size: 15px;\">Copyright \u00a9 Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh, August 2016. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to<strong> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">jeffangiegoh@gmail.com<\/span>.<\/strong> You can also be dialogue partners in this <em>Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry<\/em> by sending us questions for discussion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cFor this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty,\u00a0yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love &#8211; and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.\u201d [Philemon 8-9, NRSV] \u00a0\u00a0 [L] Paul writing from <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2971\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Dr. Jeffrey &amp; Angie Goh","author_link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?author=1"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?cat=1\" rel=\"category\">From Our Perspective<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"\u201cFor this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty,\u00a0yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love &#8211; and I, Paul, do this as an old man, and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.\u201d [Philemon 8-9, NRSV] \u00a0\u00a0 [L] Paul writing from&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6812,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions\/6812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}