Gospel offers forgiveness, not cancel culture

Notice that Philemon's remaining sins and failures do not require him to be renounced as a Christian. Being a slave owner does not exactly commend Philemon to us any more than it would have the Apostle Paul. Now, we are living in a time when secular theories coming into the church, particularly theories of social justice, I think rightly called cultural Marxism, require that a person like Philemon be canceled, with no consideration of his virtue, assuming that he has nothing to offer, and nothing good could be said about him. He needs to be stripped of all power and status. If there was a statue of Philemon, and it must be taken down. If his name is on a wall, that plaque must be removed. Why? Because of his culturally disapproved sins, rightly disapproved sins. I just want to point out that in Christianity, that is pagan thinking. Christianity does not cancel us for our sins, thank the Lord. Christianity does not disappear us. Paul is able to treat a man gently with whom, in fact, he has a very serious beef, but there is something that he wants to address with Philemon. That does not keep him from being honest. Paul tells Philemon, You are a man of faith and love. You have encouraged me by your love. You have a reputation for generosity.

Here is a message our world needs today, the Christianity in which God offers, not cancel culture, by which we use power and hatred against those who have hurt us. It gives forgiveness of sins, the redemption of sinners through Christ’s blood. But by the way, that does not mean that there are no statues that do need to come down, particularly when they have been erected primarily for the sake of oppression, but whether in the past or present, the fact that people have sinned does not mean that they must be canceled in influence or value or humanity. The gospel does not look askance at Philemon as a moral monster, who must be squashed. He is a redeemed sinner, forgiven by the blood of Christ— and you know what: He needs to grow. He has some growing to do. We would not deny that some of the things he is doing are sin, and we would oppose them. This is a message we need to give to the world: that the Church does not need to be importing secular theories of hate and division, but rather exporting the gospel message of redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.¹

Richard D. Phillips