Paul says this regarding how slaves are to relate to their Christian masters: let all who are under a yoke as bondservants or slaves, regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled (1 Timothy 6:1–2). And then he specifically says,
those who have believing masters, Christians, must not be disrespectful on the ground that they are brothers, rather they must serve all the better, since those who benefit by their good service are believers and beloved. Teach and urge these things. (1 Timothy 6:3)
No doubt, Paul taught and urged Onesimus these things when he sent him back. Imagine—Philemon takes Paul's instructions, Onesimus takes Paul's instructions— the situation would look like something completely different than the institution of Roman slavery had ever witnessed. So does Paul specifically require Philemon to release Onesimus from slavery? No, but when he fulfills what Paul does instruct and Onesimus fulfills his calling to serve Philemon, all the better, their relationship will be radically transformed. And when that relationship is seen and known in the context of the first-century Roman world, it will commend something beyond what they bring to the table. It will show that there is something more powerful going on, than just the normal provisions of a slave/master relationship.
Well, this has been the way the gospel has worked throughout history and around the world. Where the gospel has gone and been received, people are changed. And where people are changed by the gospel, social relationships are impacted, and social ills are overcome. Transformation does not always happen as rapidly or widely as we would like, but it does happen when people come to know Christ and start living like Christians. That is how slavery finally was brought to an end in England. William Wilberforce was a member of parliament and after his first or second year of service, through the witness and the reading of Philip Doddridge’s book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, he was converted, he became a Christian. And as he grew in his faith and studied the Bible, he began to think that he should not stay in Parliament, that he needed to do something different with his life, and he sought counsel from John Newton, a pastor, author of
Tom AscolAmazing Grace.Newton said,No, serve the Lord in Parliament; that is where he called you,and so Wilberforce stayed in Parliament. And the more he grew, the more he began to see how wicked it was to have a legislation in all of the United Kingdom that kept men in servitude through slavery. So he began to work for the release of slaves, to work for the overthrow of the laws permitting slavery. That was his life's work for 48 years, and he finally saw it come to pass just three days before he died, in 1833. How did slavery end in England? It was through the preaching of the gospel, through a Member of Parliament being converted to faith in Jesus Christ, and living like a Christian in his responsibilities as a member of that Parliament. In a similar way, but certainly taking much longer and not without a bloody civil war, we can say it was the preaching of the gospel that ultimately brought slavery to an end in America, as well. As people began to see more and more that their faith in Christ was incompatible with much that was going on in American slavery, the call for its ending would not be silenced. The message of the Bible changes society by changing people.1
15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,