Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 35 · February 4
Above a Servant
“Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?”
Rome, around the year 62. An old man under guard, describing himself in the letter as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, is dictating a note about a runaway slave who is standing somewhere in the same room.
The note is going to Colosse, and the address line does quiet work. Paul greets Philemon, then Apphia, then Archippus, then the church in thy house. This is no private word between two men. It will be read out loud, in Philemon's own front room, in front of everybody whose opinion he cares about.
Onesimus is a slave, which is what servant means here; the Greek is doulos and the KJV is being polite. His name means useful, and Paul cannot resist it: which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me. He has become a Christian in Rome, and Paul is sending him back, which is the fact everything else in the letter is weighed against.
Now read what is asked. Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord. Receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account.
And read what is not asked, because anyone who wants this letter to be an abolition tract has to be honest about it. Paul never uses the word freedom. He says he could give an order, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, then declines to give one, because he wants the thing done willingly. He leaves the specifics unnamed and closes with a line heavier than a command: knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.
What the letter does is make the arrangement unlivable. A man can be owned as property, or he can be received as a brother beloved in the flesh and in the Lord in front of the congregation that meets in the owner's house. Paul asked for the second in public and left the first to die of it.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 35 is Redemption (Ephesians 1:7).