~The Freedom of Christian Slavery~
Perhaps the cross serves as the best, though seemingly unlikely, place to find understanding in the Letter to Philemon. While on the cross, Christ considers those mourning his loss in John 19:26. Although the Lord has prepared them theologically and eschatologically for His departure, He now considers the abiding physical void that His departure will leave in the life of his mother, Mary and his beloved disciple John. He considers that Mary will be without a son, namely this son, whose thirty three years of life have affected her exponentially more than she affected Him. Then there was John, who was without a beloved Covering. He no longer had one to share such intimacy as that shared with his Lord and God. Jesus, then, gives a provision that serves to inform the Church on the practical implications of the presence of God, “Woman, behold your son, Son, behold your mother”.
Central to the fellowship among believers is the concept that they exist in an abiding hope-filled fellowship, where which Christ has left the practical ethic of His presence. Indeed, the Christ who has promised to be with us until the end of the Earth has kept His promise in many ways. He is with us in daily devotion, where one eats the bread of His word and drinks the water of His Spirit. He is with us in the struggle of Christian living, where His Spirit convicts, comforts and sets free. He is with us in Christian work, empowering our witness so that a lost world might see Him and know Him through the transforming power of the preached gospel. He is with us in worship, where we eat His flesh and drink his blood, where He washes our feet and invites us to do the same, where he breaths the breath of His Spirit on us and even encourages us to touch His wounds, so that we might believe.
However, through the with-ness abiding in our adelphoi, Christ has provided another, more practical and physical way for Him to be with us. Simply put, among all the ways Christ has left His presence, He has placed it “in me for you” and “in you for me”. Likewise, He left it in the Beloved for Mary, and in Mary for the beloved; in Peter for James and in James for Peter; in Paul for Timothy and Timothy for Paul; In Philemon for Onesimus and in Onesimus for Philemon.
The Letter of Philemon is far from a request for manumission. Rather, it is a call for Philemon to regard Onesimus as one who bears the presence of Christ, moreover the call of Christ. He essentially is being asked have a higher regard for Onesimus, so he might live out his days as a slave with Philemon, not for Philemon. This regard of brotherhood is essentially an acknowledgement of their mutual enslavement to Christ and the gospel, which practically calls each of them to the life-long service of the other. No longer are they slave and master, but slaves of the master and servants of each other.
This concept should impact American Christianity in a variety of ways. First, it should remind us that the common testimony of Christ makes us brothers and sisters; a relationship that has preeminence over all other bonds. Perhaps this impact should inform how the doctrinally and culturally separated American Church should interact within itself. It is not enough to seek multicultural ministries. Such is highly appropriate, in instances where the community is multicultural. However, it calls for mutual affirmation and fidelity with the one another; where which we fellowship with, learn from and grow with one another. This should be done, whether or not the outside culture reaches cultural unity. Of course, when one says cultural, it implies all that separates the church (i.e. racial, geographical, doctrinal, political, economic and historical).
Lastly, we are reminded that Christians are not emancipated beings. That is to say, we were not freed from sin and endowed with gifts and power so that we could use them to chart our own course and lay out our own destiny. Rather, we have been freed from sin and bought with a price, so we can do the Master’s will. We are slaves to Christ and prisoners of the gospel. We go and do as He commands. We do this with the constant reminder that He is with us; not only with us in Spirit and power, but with us in each other.
Samuel J. Doyle
Samuel J. Doyle
