Though Paul’s letter to Philemon calls for reconciliation between master and slave, it does not condemn the practice of slavery. Onesimus is Philemon’s brother in Christ, but he is still his slave. Paul does not explicitly call on Philemon to free him. This raises a natural question: if slavery is contrary to God’s will, why doesn’t Paul expressly condemn slavery? Why doesn’t he command Christian masters to do the right thing and grant freedom?
No doubt there are many reasons for Paul’s silence. From a pragmatic point of view, if Christians started freeing slaves left, right, and centre, it would have turned the authorities against them and prevented the spread of the gospel. Believers were already treated with suspicion, there was no point in making things worse. But the ends do not justify the means (Romans 3:7–8) and so there must be another reason.
Perhaps we should understand that Paul is sowing the seeds for the removal of slavery, but doing so in a way that will not distract the church from its primary task. In telling Philemon to receive Onesimus as his brother, Paul has made it clear that master and slave are equal in the church of God. They are family—a new relationship that goes beyond the worship service on the Lord’s Day. When Philemon wakes up to give instructions on the Monday morning, he will be giving instructions to a brother. He cannot treat that brother as property in his home and family during worship. To do so would be to deny Christ, his Master in heaven. Equality in the church of God should thus very naturally give rise to a pursuit of equality elsewhere.
In this we see that the transformation of society takes place in an indirect manner. It is not the church as an institution that gets involved in political campaigns, but individual believers. Christian believers have their minds renewed through the preaching of God’s Word (Romans 12:1–2). Christian believers are transformed by the Spirit and those same believers then go out to be the salt and the light in their respective communities. Politics, business, healthcare, education—wherever you live and work, that is the place where we must stand for what is right and speak against what is wrong.
10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.