Paul Frankish read the book of Philemon
1/ The Facts.
2/ The Gospel.
3/ Lessons for Christians.
1/ It is a letter written to a master about his runaway slave and as such is unique in nature in the Scriptures. Paul is appealing to Philemon as a believer a friend and one who is in Paul's debt on behalf of a runaway slave Onesimus who at one time was of no use to him but has now been born again and has been of great value to Paul who is beseeching Philemon to receive him back as a brother and not insist on imposing the law which would have meant the death penalty for a runaway slave.
2/ We are slaves to sin and the wages of sin is death, as Paul was prepared to pay the price for Onesimus so Jesus paid the price for us to be free to be forgiven by dying on the cross. we don't just receive forgiveness but we become children of God and become heirs. As Paul mediated for Onesimus, so Christ is the one mediator between God and men.
Although Onesimus probably was fearful as he returned wondering what reception he would receive from Philemon we should have no fear in coming to God we have confidence in Jesus Christ that He has prepared the way for us we just need to accept Him by faith.
3/ We should care for others. We should always be thankful. We should be mutually identified with fellow believers and be encouraged and encourage by the demonstration of love. There should be no class system with believers all equal in Him.
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