This week, as part of my devotions, I found myself reading through the book of Philemon. It’s one of those little books in the New Testament that I haven’t spent a lot of time in, but there is actually a lot packed into it’s 25 verses.
This book revolves around three people: Paul, Philemon, and Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave who had apparently run away from Philemon, and somewhere along the way, he encountered Paul and became a follower of Jesus. So, Paul is writing to Philemon, asking him to receive Onesimus back—not simply as a servant, but as something more.
Listen to what Paul writes in Philemon 1:15-16 – “Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever—no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother.”
I love that phrase: “As a dear brother.” Think about what Paul is asking Philemon to do. He’s asking him to look at Onesimus in a new way: not as someone less than himself; not as someone who wronged him; not as someone who had abandoned his responsibilities—but as a brother in Christ.
And I think there’s an important reminder here for all of us. Because the Gospel doesn’t just change our relationship with God—it also changes how we see and treat other people.
It’s easy to put labels on people: to define them by their social status; their past; their mistakes; their failures; or even by the ways they’ve hurt us. And if we’re not careful, we can allow those things to become the only way we see them.
But the Gospel reminds us that we’re all recipients of grace. None of us comes to Jesus because we’ve earned it or because we’ve lived a perfect life. We come because of His love, His mercy, and His forgiveness. And if we’ve received that kind of grace, shouldn’t we extend that same grace to others?
Of course, doing this doesn’t mean we ignore past hurts or pretend that wrongs never happened. It just means we allow the Gospel to shape how we see people. We begin to see others not only for who they were, or who they are, but for who Jesus created them to be.
Are there people in our lives we’ve continued to define by their past or by outward appearances? Are there people we struggle to see with eyes of grace? May God help us to see people the way He sees us—not defined by our failures, but loved, forgiven, and offered a new life in and through Jesus.
