Friday: Philemon
Hello!!
Today, we are on to the Epistle to Philemon. So - some interesting facts about this book. It is the shortest in the New Testament, and it is a bit different because it is actually a personal letter to one individual. So, it contains less doctrine and is instead a bit more personal.
It is about Philemon, who was probably a Greek convert and lived in Colossae. The congregation there met in his home - so I imagine he was pretty well connected with the saints there. He had a servant, Onesimus - who robbed him and then ran away to Rome. After running away, Onesimus joined the church (Paul talks about him as being "a brother beloved in the Lord"). Does this sound like a Shakespearean play to anyone else?!? :)
**How do you think the counsel Paul gives can be applicable to each of us in our lives?
Today, we are on to the Epistle to Philemon. So - some interesting facts about this book. It is the shortest in the New Testament, and it is a bit different because it is actually a personal letter to one individual. So, it contains less doctrine and is instead a bit more personal.
It is about Philemon, who was probably a Greek convert and lived in Colossae. The congregation there met in his home - so I imagine he was pretty well connected with the saints there. He had a servant, Onesimus - who robbed him and then ran away to Rome. After running away, Onesimus joined the church (Paul talks about him as being "a brother beloved in the Lord"). Does this sound like a Shakespearean play to anyone else?!? :)
In their culture, obviously slavery was acceptable
-- and runaway slaves could be beaten, branded on their forehead, or
even killed. This letter is Paul trying to counsel Philemon to treat
Onesimus as a fellow church member, instead of inflicting any of those punishments.
**How do you think the counsel Paul gives can be applicable to each of us in our lives?
The fact that Philemon the Greek convert used his home as a meeting place reminds me of the super early days of the then-Capitol Hill Ward when we met in a business that used to be a bar (or was it a space above a bar?)
ReplyDeleteWhat Shakespearean play does that sound like? I don’t know. Maybe Midsummer Night’s Dream?
The counsel Paul gives seems disconnected and extreme because it is about beating slaves, something that does not happen today. But to apply this, Paul is merely telling Latter-day Saints that status does not mean anything. It means very little, if not nothing, because we are all in the same boat.