Slavery was part and parcel of the Roman world, it was the way society operated. Scholars estimate that approximately a third of the total population were slaves—one in every three men and women.
There were slaves who worked in the fields picking olives and figs; slaves in the home, cooking and cleaning; slaves who helped with administration and education; slaves who played music and wrote letters. Everywhere you went, there were slaves. Some of them enjoyed a decent standard of living with regular food, clothing, and shelter. It was the master’s responsibility to provide such things. However, many would most certainly have been neglected and abused with long hours and harsh discipline. One thing to bear in mind is that anyone could have been a slave. It was not based on skin colour or ethnicity. Certainly there would have been parallels with the Atlantic slave trade, but there were also many differences.
Within this system, whether you were chained in the fields or free to roam your master’s house, you were considered to be property. You belonged to someone. You were not a person with rights. You could not appeal to courts when you were wronged. There was no equality between you and your master. He was the boss and you the servant. He told you what to do and you had to obey him, or else. That is the context in which the early church lived and now Paul says to Philemon: no longer as a slave but better than a slave, as a dear brother.
As modern readers, we probably do not fully appreciate exactly how radical this statement would have been at the time.
16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.