Philemon 1:15-16

Philemon 1:15-16

[15] For  perhaps  departed  for  a season,  that  thou shouldest receive  him  for ever;  [16] Not now  as  a servant,  but  above  a servant,  a brother  beloved,  specially  but  how much  more  both  in  the flesh,  and  in  the Lord? 

What does Philemon 1:15-16 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

Paul suggested that God may have permitted the events that had taken place to result in greater good ( Romans 8:28), and he urged Philemon to view them in that light. The master should now regard his slave not as a slave but as a brother in Christ, which he was. [1] This does not mean that he would necessarily give Onesimus his freedom, though he might, but that he would treat him lovingly at least. There is evidence that long before Christianity a slave who became an initiate into a mystery religion ceased to be regarded as a slave but lived with his former owner as a free man. [2] In Onesimus, Philemon would receive one with whom he could share the fellowship of Christ and one who would render him more conscientious service than he could expect from a non-Christian.
"The supreme work of Christianity is to transform men, so that out of their transformed lives shall come the transformation of all social conditions, and the victories of righteousness and of love." [3]
"The principles of the gospel worked into the conscience of a nation destroy slavery." [4]
"Christianity is not out to help a man to escape his past and to run away from it; it is out to enable a man to face his past and to rise above it." [5]
"It is quite clear that in this letter Paul is not really dealing with the question of slavery as such or the resolution of a particular instance of slavery. In this verse, at least, he treats the question of brotherly love. Although Onesimus" earthly freedom may be of positive value, in the last analysis it is of no ultimate significance to him as a Christian as to whether he is slave or free. Finally what matters is to have accepted God"s call and to follow him ..." [6]