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Philemon, Part 4, Onesimus, the Voluntary Slave

It should be clear by now that Philemon is a New Covenant type and pattern of a godly slave owner who balanced his authority with an equal amount of responsibility. Likewise, as we will see shortly, Onesimus is a type and pattern of a slave who comes to love his master and to return to him as a voluntary slave.

In biblical law, debtors who could not pay their debts when due were sentenced by the court to be “sold” into slavery for whatever amount of time that correlated to the amount of debt owed (Exodus 22:3). This law applied to individuals as well as to the nation itself (Judges 2:4; 3:8; 4:2; 10:7, etc.).

Yet even slaves had some basic rights, because, in the end, God owned them by right of creation. Hence, God’s rights took precedence over men and their properties. Slave owners in this godly system did not have the right to abuse their slaves. Ungodly systems, of course, usually gave slave owners full rights over their slaves, allowing them to beat slaves unjustly or (more often) to sexually abuse them. In fact, much of the slave trade throughout history has been to obtain women and children for legalized sexual abuse.

When God gave each family and tribe a land inheritance in the Kingdom, He gave them a certain level of authority that was accompanied by an equal level of responsibility. The land was said to be theirs, but God still held eminent domain over all land that He created (Leviticus 25:23). God gives men authority, but He does not relinquish His sovereignty.

In the case of slavery, God gives men authority over debtors who cannot pay their debts, but He retains sovereignty over those same slaves. For this reason, if the court orders a debtor to be sold, the man who purchases the debtor is called a redeemer. A redeemer takes upon himself the full responsibility of the debt that the debtor owes in exchange for his services for a specified amount of time. Hence, the redeemer is given responsibility equal to his authority.

When a Slave Loves His Master

In the law of God, a slave ought to be grateful that a redeemer is willing to take responsibility for his unpaid debt. If a slave owner treats his slave in a just and godly manner, the slave may well come to love his master. So we read in Exodus 21:5,

⁵ But if the slave plainly says, “I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man”…

When the court-appointed time of his slavery has ended, and his full debt is paid, he is set free by law, yet he then has the right to remain a slave in that household—if he so chooses. He then becomes a voluntary slave by choice. This is what Onesimus chose to do by returning to Philemon, even before learning to love him.

We are not told in Scripture how long Onesimus had been on the run. The implication is that Onesimus had escaped many years earlier, before Philemon had become a believer. Philemon’s conversion to Christ changed his outlook on slavery and, I believe, this caused him to begin treating his slaves in a godly manner.

Then Onesimus himself became a believer. No doubt Paul learned the whole story, and he was able to assure Onesimus that Philemon was a changed man—one worthy of a slave’s love. So through Paul’s counsel and teaching, Onesimus understood that he could safely return to Philemon’s house without suffering further abuse. This emboldened him to return with Tychicus, carrying letters from Paul.

Philemon, by that time, would have been schooled in the laws of God and would have understood that his authority was limited. He would have recognized God’s right of eminent domain over all property, including slaves. He would have realized that his responsibility under God was to bring his slaves to spiritual maturity so that they could enjoy freedom in Christ and have equal status with all of God’s slaves. No doubt he recognized that he was to represent Christ to his slaves in all that he did in ruling his house and doing business with others.

Furthermore, a voluntary slave set the pattern for a change of relationship from being a servant/slave to being a friend/son. Under the Old Covenant, the law gave the procedure that made voluntary slavery official. We read in Exodus 21:6,

⁶ then his master shall bring him to God [Elohim, “God, gods, or judges who represented God by enforcing His laws”], then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

The actual procedure of piercing the earlobe was expressed in Old Covenant terms, which are no longer applicable under the New Covenant. Paul himself called himself “a bond servant of Christ Jesus” in Romans 1:1, showing that he himself had become a permanent voluntary slave after being set free from the dominion of sin (Romans 8:2). Yet we have no reason to believe that Paul, under the New Covenant, had subjected his earlobe to such piercing.

The spiritual principle taught by the Old Covenant method is that one’s ears are opened to hear and obey the word of Christ. So David foretells the New Covenant application of this law in Psalm 40:6-8,

⁶ Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. ⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me, ⁸ ‘I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart’.”

In other words, David understood that even though sacrifices and offerings were required under the Old Covenant, such actions are not really what God desires. Neither does a voluntary slave have to pierce his ear with an awl. Instead, God’s desire is for ears to be opened so that men hear and obey (shema) the word of God. When obedience is by compulsion, it affects one’s behavior but fails to write the law within the heart.

But Paul tells us in Romans 10:17,

¹⁷ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Paul had faith in Christ; therefore, he had heard His word. His obedience was the response to hearing. The Hebrew word shema has a dual meaning: to hear and to obey. The word is translated in both ways throughout the Old Testament. If there is no response, then one has not truly heard, even if a man’s ears technically hear the sounds coming from elsewhere.

When Jesus Sets Men Free

When Jesus paid the debt for the sin of the world, He did so as a Redeemer. The debtors (slaves) were purchased on the cross by His blood, and the world then changed masters. According to the laws of redemption, the redeemed slave was then responsible to serve his new master, as we read in Leviticus 25:53,

⁵³ Like a man hired year by year he [the slave] shall be with him [the redeemer]; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.

Paul affirms this in a New Covenant way in Romans 6:1, 2,

¹ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ² May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

Paul personifies sin as the old slave master who commands us to sin (violate the law). Yet because we now serve a new master, Paul says in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be master over you.” This word applied to Philemon as well as to all of us, and so Philemon became a godly master after believing the gospel of Christ.

After conversion, there is a season of training and schooling in the word of God, even as Jesus trained His disciples. During that time, we enjoy a master-servant relationship, for that is what characterizes discipleship. A servant is also a slave. But there comes a time when that relationship is upgraded. So Jesus told His disciples in John 15:14, 15,

¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

When a slave becomes a friend, it correlates with the freed slave who returns to his beloved master, desiring to join his household permanently. This is what Exodus 21:6 describes when speaking of the slave whose earlobe was opened with the awl. Under the Old Covenant, he was literally nailed to the door, but under the New Covenant, the door is Jesus Himself (John 10:9). By hearing and obeying His word, we become permanently attached to Christ and become part of His household. We are then no longer His slaves but His friends.

In another manner of speaking, we also become sons of God. Whichever way we express the relationship, the evidence of this is not to be measured by miracles but by the measure of truth. We are friends, Jesus says, because He confides in us, revealing “all things” that He has heard from the Father.