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What is Paul Doing in the Book of Philemon?

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The short book of Philemon is one of the greatest anti-slavery passages in the Bible.

The slave Onesimus had run away from Philemon. At some point while Paul was under arrest, he encountered Onesimus, who then became a Christian.

Paul appeals to Philemon to accept Onesimus back “no longer as a bondservant, but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother” (v. 16) and to “receive him as you would me” (v. 17). These are clear anti-slavery statements. If Paul wants Philemon to accept Onesimus as he would receive him, clearly that is not as a slave. As Paul has said elsewhere, “do not become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23).

But there is one difficulty here: Why did Paul send Onesimus back at all? Why not say “slavery is wrong, you are free, don’t go back”?

The first part of the answer is in verses 8-9, where Paul says to Philemon: “Though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you.” And verse 14: “I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your good ness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord.”

In other words, Paul wants Philemon to do the right thing willingly, by choice, and so he gives him that choice by sending him back.

The second part of the answer, and the main part, is even more amazing, and is I think this: this letter is ultimately about reconciliation. Paul is not sending Onesimus back with the intent that he would be Philemon’s slave again. As we saw, he says to receive him “no longer as a bondservant” and “as you would me.” Rather, Paul is sending him back so that the relationship may be reconciled. Not the master-slave relationship, but the personal relationship.

Onesimus is now a Christian. It is right for the rift between him and Philemon to be reconciled and restored. Not the slavery, but the relationship. And so Paul sends him back, as a statement to the importance of reconciliation and to create the opportunity for it to happen.

That’s what Paul is doing here. I find that amazing. And it ultimately reflects something more than the heart of Paul (one of the greatest Christians to ever live, in my view) but of Jesus Christ, whom Paul followed. “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Thus, the book of Philemon stands as not only a massive anti-slavery text, but also as a striking testimony to the value and importance of Christian reconciliation. And, even more than that, the reconciling heart of Jesus Christ.

Scientific Management 2.0

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Here is a great post by Seth Godin on how scientific management, which created many efficiencies in manual work but also turned it into a grind by eliminating individual initiative, is now coming to white collar work.

That is, unless you focus on doing your work as art, with remarkability and excellence, rather than just doing what you do to get it done.

Then you can truly stand out and do work that cannot be treated as a commodity.

Read the whole thing.

Leadership Lessons from Nehemiah

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This looks like a great new book from Dave Kraft: Learning Leadership from Nehemiah. Here’s a summary:

A leader is a person who has a vision from God, firmly believes in that vision, and doesn’t move toward its fulfill­ment alone. Real leaders possess the ability to get others motivated about this new idea. They know the problem, but they also have a solution in mind. A leader is a per­son who is dissatisfied with the ways things are. He has a burden, a vision, and a call to see something different. He wants to see something change, to build a new fu­ture.

He then begins to communicate what he thinks, and where he wants to go. Nehemiah gives a “vision talk” to the troops. When he finishes they are ready for battle. He is able to motivate and enlist them by sharing that God’s fingerprints are all over this vision, evidenced by the great answers to prayer and the generous offer of the king.

GoFundMe Update

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Thank you to everyone who has given to the GoFundMe campaign so far! It is making a big difference.

The campaign is shttp://web.archive.org/web/20150914181305/http://www.gofundme.com/mattpermantill going on. If you would like to give to the vision, you can do so here. It would be a huge help, and I appreciate everyone’s support.

6 Lessons from What’s Best Next

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I really enjoyed this review of What’s Best Next by Luke Simmons over at Faithful and Fruitful, a blog dedicated to equipping ministry leaders to be more faithful and fruitful.

He so well captures six key lessons from the book, which I underscore:

  1. The gospel makes productivity about love
  2. Everyday life provides many opportunities for good works that honor God
  3. Know what’s important and put it first
  4. Systems trump intentions
  5. Weekly planning is crucial
  6. Plan your day

Being Gospel-Centered at Work

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More and more people are asking today the important question, “How does the gospel relate to my work?”

There is a lot that can be said on this, and for the best treatment out there I recommend Tim Keller’s excellent book Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. 

But for immediate application, if you are looking for a few simple ways to begin letting the gospel impact your work right now, here are two things that go to the heart of it:

  1. Do your work from acceptance with God, not for acceptance with God. Realize you are fully accepted in Christ apart from anything you do, through faith alone. Hence, you do not have to fall into the grueling race of working to prove yourself or validate your worth.
  2. Do your work for the good of others. Because God accepts us apart from our works, we are free to truly do it for others. This is a simple but radical shift. It means seeing your work as a way of serving and benefitting people, not just a way to make money or accomplish your goals. Do your work truly from love, from a good will toward others, just as everything in the Christian life is to be done from love (1 Corinthians 16:14). This is what it means to be “rendering service with a good will” (Ephesians 6:7).

Emailing with Empathy

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This is a great post at the 99U. It starts:

When speaking face-to-face, it’s the verbal and nonverbal social cues that allow us to gauge the best way to arrange our wording in order to get our point across clearly. In email, we don’t get such real-time feedback. Once our message is in the hand of the recipient, we’ve lost all control.

This, of course, often leads to miscommunications, guessed intentions, and a total unawareness of whether an email was typed in red-faced anger or while sipping a martini by a pool. What really leads to those miscommunications is a lack of empathy….

“The most important thing is understanding each other’s language,” founder Drew D’Agostino said. “It’s not me completely adapting the way I communicate with you, but being aware and considerate of how you communicate best. Everybody’s different, and if we can just learn to recognize the communication styles of each other we can create much clearer interactions and productive communications.”

So how do we write emails that enable empathy—especially with people we might have never met in person before? And how can we be more empathetic when reading the emails of others? We asked D’Agostino to share Crystal’s best tips on how to bring more empathy to emails; both in the ones we receive and in the ones we send.

Read the whole thing.