Philemon 17

So if you consider me a partner, welcome [receive/take] him as you would me.

Onesimus coming to faith meant he was on equal footing with Philemon in the Kingdom of God.

Paul’s exhortation to Philemon is this: Because Philemon is in the position of social privilege, Paul is putting it on Philemon to deal with Onesimus, not according to the ways of the world or according to the laws of the land or even common etiquette, but according to godliness, according to the social protocols of the Kingdom of God.

When sin entered the world (Genesis 3), we immediately see the division and oppression of others based on nationality, race, and class being practiced. When Jesus comes, the restoration of Israel is fulfilled in Jesus–in part in his first advent, and ultimately in his second. This includes the restoration of social constructs.

What this means for Philemon and Onesimus is that we can’t have a situation within the people of God where one is being oppressed by another, where one is the slave of another, where one’s social status means the disparity of another.

Within a congregation, no one can be held more or less important than someone else. The congration needs to:

* Have space for those who are hurting in our society.

* Allow people of higher social standing to serve as normal people without making them feel like a tool or a bank while challenging them to remain generous.

The Gospel is fundamentally about the forgiveness of sins and being transformed from our sinful state. But, one of the immediate effects of sin was social stratification. Therefore, one of the immediate effects of the Gospel is social healing. In Christ, we all come to the same table.