This week we studied Philemon. Philemon is a letter from Paul to Philemon asking him to forgive his slave Onesimus who ran away. Back then slavery was much different from slavery today. A slave back then was well taken care of and educated. A slave could even own his own slave. Skilled male slave were often trusted with the responsibility of running a small business. Slaves where very valuable and losing a slave was a huge loss to the owner. Because it meant that they would not only have to get a new slave but they would need to invest time and energy into training a him. Thus runaway slaves could be severely punished, the head of household even had the legal right to execute a runaway slave. So you see what Paul was asking Philemon to do. He was asking him to lay down his right to execute Onesimus, forgive him and then send him back to help Paul in his ministry. Everyone was expecting Philemon to execute Onesimus. But Paul was asking him to go against this way of thinking and acting and instead release Onesimus into ministry with Paul.
That is a great story, I never thought reading the bible could be so fascinating. Look at the story of Philemon and Onesimus and compare that to what Jesus did for us, it gives us a deeper understanding of the gift he gave us. The gift of forgiveness, and a new life, a life we did not deserve, a life with him. I will leave you and God to think about what this all means to you. But I do want to encourage you to pick up one of these-
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