Normally, there would have been no question of how to deal with a runaway slave that had been caught. After escaping his master Philemon and finding Paul in prison, Onesimus was probably dreading the severe punishment he’d inevitably receive when Paul sent him back. Such was the normal way of the world. But the ethics of the worshipers of the one true God were anything but normal. Their ethics were built on a foundation of love, and love is revolutionary.
The love of God has several unusual characteristics. It is a love that considers even the most worthless of persons to have infinite value and worth. It is a love that draws us toward the people we would otherwise see as not even worth our notice. It is a love that never happens by requirement or compulsion or even request; it must always be given freely, just for the sake of the love itself. And most importantly, it is a love that always, always directs the lover to God as the foremost object of our love.
This is the kind of love that Paul constantly preached about, but in his little letter to his friend Philemon, we get to see him put that love into practice. Paul had formerly written to Philemon’s church in Colossae that love binds everything together in perfect harmony, and now he reminds him that the same is still true. In the church body, we are one in Christ. There is no master or slave; there is no superior or inferior; rather we are equally loved by God, equally called to love God, and equally called to love one another. I imagine the full weight of love never occurred to Philemon until he had a chance to radically put it into practice!
Love is the greatest commandment, but paradoxically, we’re not loving if we’re just trying to check the box. We love because we have been shaped to be like God; we love because we simply can’t help it. We have the opportunity and the privilege to love our brothers and sisters with the same radical love that Paul asked of Philemon. That includes our parents and spouses and children, our friends and our enemies, our coworkers and even subordinates, those that are good to us, and even those we can’t stand. Who have you been neglecting to love, and with whom can you share the radical love of God?
