Philemon 1:12

12. whom I have sent back to thee in his own person, that is, my very heart:

a.

This sentence is choppy and ragged in wording. It evidently was written under strong emotion. The words blurted forth without regard to smooth poetic flow. A literal Greek rendering is: Whom I sent to you, him, that is my own heart.

Even though it is in the King James version, the command to Receive him is not in the best Greek manuscripts of this verse. It is, however, found in Philemon 1:17. And the idea is plainly implied.

b.

It was obviously Paul's own idea that Onesimus should go back from Rome to Philemon. Paul declares, I send him. It may have taken some persuading to get Onesimus to do this. Think of all the arguments that could have been advanced against Onesimus-' going back.

c.

If the case of Onesimus had occurred in the twentieth century, some churchmen would probably have put Onesimus at the head of a picket parade or protest march in front of the Rome Senate.

But never once did Christ or any of his apostles organize political and civil protests and disturbances in the name of the church. There were plenty of causes that needed rectifying in those times. Slaves outnumbered free citizens in Roman society. Gladiatorial games took hundreds of lives in cruel exhibitions. Children were occasionally exposed, that is, thrown out to perish as infants if their fathers so decreed.

The spread of the gospel guaranteed that the wicked social conditions would end. But the changes were brought about by the leavening influence of godliness in the lives of individual believers, not by the political lobbying of organized churchmen.