Thursday 25th September
Read: Philemon 1:11-16
“Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
12 I am sending him – who is my very heart – back to you. 13 I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favour you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. 15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for ever – 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.” (NIVUK)
Paul echoes the words in Esther in this excerpt of the letter. Perhaps this was the reason. Paul knows it is impossible to know the will of God and guessing at how this came about. Perhaps Onesimus was meant to run away so that Philemon could put faith into action or maybe for some other reason. Paul would have known that Onesimus didn’t just happen to meet him, but maybe there was more, something that either of them could only guess at. There are times we ask ourselves why is this happening to me, maybe instead we should be asking what is God doing here?
Peter Clark
