Gentle mending

 This week's verses are the entire book of Philemon:

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for the sake of Christ. For I have had great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I fathered in my imprisonment, who previously was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, whom I wanted to keep with me, so that in your behalf he might be at my service in my imprisonment for the gospel; but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion, but of your own free will. For perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

If then you regard me as a partner, accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account; I, Paul, have written this with my own hand, I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well). Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.

Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.

At the same time also prepare me a guest room, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

This book is a great example of how to confront issues in love, and how to be a peacemaker. In it, Saint Paul is simultaneously loving both a slave (Onesimus) and the slave's owner (Philemon). He addresses the issue so gently that we can all learn something from him, as he tries to mend a broken situation in humility and love.

A modern Christian would be very unlikely to handle the situation as gracefully as Paul did. A modern Christian's letter would probably go something like this: "Hey Philemon, you need to stop owning slaves. It is so disgusting that you literally own another human being. Onesimus deserves to be free and you deserve to burn in hell for what you've done. I don't even consider you to be a real Christian. So I'll tell you what: Onesimus is going to stay with us, and you're just going to have to deal with it." The modern approach is all emotional fire and confrontation, but has very little humility and love.

One of the first differences we notice in Paul's approach is that he is friends with both Philemon and Onesimus. He has taken the time to get to know them, and it is in that investment of love that he's come to understand them. He doesn't disrespect Philemon and he doesn't fetishise Onesimus' situation. He's talking to someone he loves about someone he loves. 

Do we love the people we confront when we are seeking justice? Do we even understand the situation before we jump in to correct it?

Paul understands Onesimus' difficult circumstances. He is not able to serve others and travel as he pleases because he belongs to another man. But Paul also understands Philemon's difficult circumstances. Philemon is owed a debt of labor for the price he paid for Onesimus, and maybe he can't afford to make ends meet if he had to hire another laborer. Morally, in Paul's day, there was nothing wrong with slavery. It was the safety net of last resort for destitute families. Both Onesimus and Philemon were in the right, by Roman standards, even if their circumstances were very wrong.

But instead of lashing out at Philemon and telling him to sort himself out while he takes Onesimus' side exclusively, Paul offers to pay the debt. This is the Christlike approach to mediation. He is willing to pour himself out to solve a problem he is not obligated to help with.

This is actually one of the prime arguments against slavery: As slavery is essentially based around a debt relationship, and we are called as Christians to forgive all debts as Christ forgave ours, it is difficult to justify slavery as an institution.

But Paul doesn't push the issue. He is the perfect example of humility. Even though he has a right to insist, due to the nature of his relationship with Philemon, he doesn't push the issue. He doesn't defile Philemon by depriving him of his free will by not allowing him to make his own sacrificial decision on Onesimus' behalf.

The US may soon be entering a very difficult period. We have lost our ability to be gentle and humble. We have been divided by sensationalist media and foreign interference into two artificial tribes, two political religions, and have been subjected to at least a decade of continual brainwashing to convince us that our candidate is America's last hope and the other candidate is literally the worst person in the world and will destroy our nation and possibly the world if elected. The things we believe to be fact are ridiculously distorted, and ancient wisdom like Paul demonstrates in his letter is now completely forgotten.

As Christians, we should be the peacemakers. We should be the ones bridging the gap between Republicans and Democrats, getting to know and love those around us. And if, after all of that investment of love, we find we need to confront or correct, we should read Paul's letter to Philemon and follow his example, not the obnoxious, one-sided, histrionic examples we see every day in the media.

Paul was able to speak into Philemon's life because he saw that both the slave owner and the enslaved were good, decent, Christian people. He didn't try to demonstrate that he was better than them, but simply pointed them to Christ's example and offered himself as a sacrifice to free them from their entanglements. Ask God for the grace to do the same for the people around you.