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Sketches from the Life of Paul
faith, and any punishment inflicted on this new convert from pagan
darkness would be regarded by Paul as though inflicted on himself.
How fitting an illustration of the love of Christ toward the repenting
sinner! As the servant who had defrauded his master had nothing with
which to make restitution, so the sinner who has robbed God of years of
service has no means of canceling the debt; Jesus interposes between
the sinner and the just wrath of God, and says, I will pay the debt. Let
the sinner be spared the punishment of his guilt. I will suffer in his
stead.
After offering to assume the debt of Onesimus, Paul gently re-
minded Philemon how greatly he himself was indebted to the apostle;
he owed to him his own self in a special sense, since God had made
Paul the instrument of his conversion. He then, in a most tender,
earnest appeal, besought Philemon that as he had by his liberalities
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refreshed the saints, so he would refresh the spirit of the apostle by
granting him this cause of rejoicing. “Having confidence in thy obe-
dience,” he added, “I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do
more than I say.”
This epistle is of great value as a practical illustration of the in-
fluence of the gospel upon the relation of master and servant. Slave-
holding was an established institution throughout the Roman empire,
and both masters and slaves were found in most of the churches for
which Paul labored. In the cities, where slaves many times outnum-
bered the free population, laws of the most terrible severity were
considered necessary to keep them in subjection. A wealthy Roman
owned hundreds of slaves, of every rank, of every nation, and of every
accomplishment. The master had full control of the souls and bodies
of these helpless beings. He could inflict upon them any suffering
he chose; but if one of them in retaliation or self-defense ventured
to raise a hand against his owner, the whole family of the offender
would be inhumanly sacrificed, however innocent they might be. Even
the slightest mistake, accident, or carelessness was punished without
mercy.
Some masters, more humane than others, were more indulgent
toward their servants; but the vast majority of the wealthy and noble
gave themselves up without restraint, to the indulgence of lust, pas-
sion, and appetite, and they made their slaves the wretched victims of