At only 25 verses, the brevity of Paul’s letter to Philemon makes it stand out among the books of the New Testament. But the letter to Philemon also stands out because it has a real-life, flesh-and-blood dimension: the imprisoned apostle takes a personal interest in the relationship between his friend Philemon and his slave, Onesimus, who has also become a dear friend to Paul.
Even though it is a short letter (only 355 words in the Greek New Testament), Philemon has been the focus of a great deal of scholarly attention over the years, including a recent commentary of more than 500 pages – nearly two pages for every word in the letter!
The letter seems to be a pretty straightforward piece of correspondence about early Christianity and slavery. But a closer reading reveals that the letter is also about the relationship between a trio of 1st century believers – an apostle, a slave owner, and a slave – and how their connections come to bear on the situation at hand. It provides a glimpse of how the Christian faith impacted real human relationships in a 1st century church and might just have something to say about the same today.
If we can read Paul’s correspondence to Philemon a little more closely than we’ve done in the past we may find ourselves as challenged as its first readers were.
