Day 28 - Tuesday, March 12
Title: UNUSUAL TREATMENT FOR A RUNAWAY SLAVE 
Scripture: Philemon 1:8-16 (NKJV)
Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ—I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.  I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Poetry & Poet: 
“Bondage”
by Richard Aldington

I have been a spendthrift
Dropping from lazy fingers
Quiet coloured hours,
Fluttering away from me
Like oak and beech leaves in October.

I have lived keenly and wastefully,
Like a bush or a sun insect—
Lived sensually and thoughtfully,
Loving the flesh and the beauty of this world—
Green ivy about ruined towers,
The out-pouring of the grey sea,
And the ecstasy
Of a pale clear sky at sunset.

I have been prodigal of love
For cities and for lonely places;
I have tried not to hate mankind;
I have gathered sensations
Like ripe fruits in a rich orchard…
All this is gone;
There are no leaves, no sea,
No shade of a rich orchard,
Only a sterile, dusty waste,
Empty and threatening. 

I long vainly for solitude
And the lapse of silent hours;
I am frantic to throw off
My heavy cloth and leather garments,
To set free my feet and body;
And I am so far from beauty
That a yellow daisy seems to clutch my heart
With eager searching petals,
And I am grateful even to humility
For the taste of pure, clean bread.

UNUSUAL TREATMENT FOR A RUNAWAY SLAVE 

His reply wasn’t audible, yet for its impact, it could have been. As though the one speaking was standing before me, I heard, “You’re here to learn to love.”

It was a Sunday. After church and lunch together, my family happily scattered to their favorite things while I stretched out on the couch savoring the quiet moment. It was one of those practically perfect days in which everything was going as it should. Even the Michigan weather!

Lying there, I let myself sink into rest while I gazed through the glass-paned door that opened onto the deck. Ah, the glory of the summer blue sky, cotton ball clouds, and leafy trees parading greens of every hue. Even the birds were tweeting sweetly! Yet the yearning in my heart to be with Him eclipsed the tranquility of the moment. I prayed, “Lord, even now when life is delivering near perfection, I would still rather be there with you. Why am I still here? Why don’t you bring me home?”

That’s when He spoke it, swift and clear to my heart, “You’re here to learn to love.”

As I lay there pondering it, His reply reoriented me to a whole new way of seeing. Soon nothing looked the same. I began to understand that everything––every situation, relationship, and encounter in my life––when viewed through the lens of “this is meant to teach me to love” transformed into something I could be grateful for. I didn’t need to fear people or control and manipulate them to be safe. It wasn’t about getting my way or a leg up or winning or proving anything. It was about learning to love them, whoever they were and whatever the situation.

Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment “to love one another” which wasn’t really new as we think of brand new, but rather new as in priority (John 13:34). And Paul is swinging this message home with Philemon, asking Philemon himself to tag all the bases and slide this new command into home plate.

In the artwork from the Robert De Bello Bible, all eyes are on Philemon, as Onesimus seeks his master’s, his brother’s, peaceful answer to Paul’s request. Paul is clothed in humble brown attire, and with a hint of hope we see Philemon has donned the brown cloak of humility amid the insult of a culturally unpardonable crime against class distinction. 

In Richard Aldington’s war poem, “a sterile, dusty waste, empty and threatening” has stripped away his former enjoyment of life’s lovely things. Perhaps a similar desolation settles into our own souls when we strive with one another, battling to win and dominate.

Paul’s appeal to Philemon is Christ’s appeal to us now and always: Receive one another in love. 

Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, may we be one as You and the Father are one, that the world may know that the Father has sent You, and has loved us as He has loved You.
  ––John 17 selected

Kay Vinci, M.Div. 
Writer and editor

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