Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 1 CEB

Distinguished Producer

Anonymous

Associate Producer

Sister Ann, Michael Haner

Podcast Introduction

It’s Epistles Sunday, and we’ll read the book of Philemon. And we’ll have a time of Praise and Prayer Requests. I’m calling this episode “Slavery in Biblical Times.“

Summary

Paul urges Philemon to forgive his runaway slave, Onesimus, and accept him as a fellow believer. The passage emphasizes the importance of forgiveness and highlights Paul’s own transformation and the parallel to Jesus’ forgiveness.

Photos from Our Vacation

Support

This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising equals censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and donate here: SUPPORT.

The Team

Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Denise: Transcript Correction
Michael Haner: Podcasting 2.0 Chapters
Scott Snider: Show Art
Jason Paschall: Show Art
Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Brittaney: Newsletter Publisher

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Transcript corrected by Sister Denise

Steve Webb 0:00
There it is.

Steve Webb 0:08
Coming to you from Riverside, California, this is the Lifespring! One Year Bible and podcasting since 2004 – and back in the saddle again – I’m your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. It’s Epistle Sunday and we’ll read the book of Philemon. Happy Father’s Day to the Lifespring family dads, whether or not you’re in the US. And we’ll have a time of praise and prayer requests. The website is lifespringmedia.com, and I’ll have contact information at the end of today’s show. This is my first day back behind the microphone in over a week. Feels good. I’ll have a brief report on our week in Florida just a bit later on in the show. Before we read, let’s pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, how we thank you for our time together around your Word. We ask that you would bless our time of reading today and that you would touch our hearts and teach us today. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. Are you ready? Let’s begin.

Steve Webb 1:01
In this letter, Paul is writing to a man named Philemon whom he had previously brought to the Lord. Paul’s writing about an escaped slave named Onesimus. Onesimus had been a slave of Philemon’s and had apparently taken some of Philemon’s belongings when he ran away.

Steve Webb 1:22
Philemon, chapter 1. From Paul, who is a prisoner for the cause of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy. To Philemon our dearly loved coworker, Apphia our sister, Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church that meets in your house. May the grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Philemon, I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers because I’ve heard of your love and faithfulness, which you have both for the Lord Jesus and for all God’s people. I pray that your partnership in the faith might become effective by an understanding of all that is good among us in Christ. I have great joy and encouragement because of your love, since the hearts of God’s people are refreshed by your actions, my brother. Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to command you to do the right thing, I would rather appeal to you through love. I, Paul—an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus— appeal to you for my child Onesimus. I became his father in the faith during my time in prison. He was useless to you before, but now he is useful to both of us. I’m sending him back to you, which is like sending you my own heart. I considered keeping him with me so that he might serve me in your place during my time in prison because of the gospel. However, I didn’t want to do anything without your consent so that your act of kindness would occur willingly and not under pressure. Maybe this is the reason that Onesimus was separated from you for a while so that you might have him back forever— no longer as a slave but more than a slave—that is, as a dearly loved brother. He is especially a dearly loved brother to me. How much more can he become a brother to you, personally and spiritually in the Lord! So, if you really consider me a partner, welcome Onesimus as if you were welcoming me. If he has harmed you in any way or owes you money, charge it to my account. I, Paul, will pay it back to you (I’m writing this with my own hand). Of course, I won’t mention that you owe me your life. Yes, brother, I want this favor from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. I’m writing to you, confident of your obedience and knowing that you will do more than what I ask. Also, one more thing—prepare a guest room for me. I hope that I will be released from prison to be with you because of your prayers. Epaphras, who is in prison with me for the cause of Christ Jesus, greets you, as well as my coworkers Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Steve Webb 4:02
Onesimus was a slave, and I’ll address the issue of slavery in a moment. But first, let’s talk about Paul’s letter to Philemon. In addressing the letter, Paul says “To Philemon our dearly loved coworker,” and the entire letter is written within this framework. He doesn’t come from his position as an apostle as he did in many of his other letters. But he’s coming to Philemon as a close friend. Philemon lived in Colossae. And when Onesimus ran away from him, he made his way to Rome, where Paul was a prisoner of the Romans. And somehow Paul and Onesimus met, and Paul led Onesimus to the Lord. And after this, Onesimus became a great help to Paul. Well, running away was a crime punishable by death, but once he became a Christian, Onesimus and Paul agreed that Onesimus must return to Philemon as a way to make restitution. After all, legally Onesimus was the property of Philemon. However, Paul appeals to Philemon as a beloved friend asking that Philemon accept Onesimus back, not as a slave but as a fellow believer. The name Onesimus means “profitable” or “useful.” And in his appeal, Paul makes a play on words, saying that Onesimus had been useless or unprofitable to Philemon in the past because he’d run away. But now as a fellow believer, he could truly live up to his name and be useful to both Philemon and Paul. Paul said that if Onesimus owed Philemon any money he, Paul, would personally pay the debt. But he also gently reminded Philemon that he owed Paul his life since Paul is the one who brought him to Christ. Paul’s offer really is a parallel of what Christ has done for us, isn’t it? We owed a debt that we couldn’t pay. But Jesus took that debt upon himself. Paul’s love for both Philemon and Onesimus is evident in this short letter, isn’t it? If the message of the Gospel could be boiled down, it’s all about forgiveness. And Paul, who at one time persecuted Christians, even to the point of holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death could speak firsthand about being forgiven. At one point Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians again and Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And he said, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Well, I won’t tell the whole story here. But Paul, whose original name had been Saul was convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and he lived the rest of his life serving the God who forgave him. Asking Philemon to forgive Onesimus as Jesus forgave him was at once a big ask and completely in character with who Saul became once Jesus got a hold of his heart and changed his name to Paul. Now, if we who have been forgiven of so much can’t find it in our hearts to forgive those who do wrong to us, I think it’s time to reevaluate. All right, so let me talk a little bit about slavery. Whenever the topic of slavery comes up our minds generally think of the kind of slavery that existed in the 16th to 18th century when Africans were hunted by slave hunters, many of whom themselves were also African, and then sold them to slave traders, and then were sold to slave owners. Well, the Bible clearly condemns this. Exodus 21:16 says, “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.” And in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8 through 10, the people who steal men are in a long list of people that are condemned. Let me read it for you. “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers,” (There it is.) “for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine…” So as I said the Bible clearly condemns the kidnapping of men and women. Now, because slaves in the 16th to 18th century were predominantly African, slavery became associated with skin color and race. And some slave owners believed that black people were inferior human beings, but the Bible says, “God created man in his own image; in the image of God, he created him.” So why does the Bible not specifically condemn slavery? Well, in biblical times, slavery was a financial agreement between the slave and the slave owner. A person could sell himself as a slave when they couldn’t pay their debts or provide for their family. Or sometimes they just wanted to have their needs provided for by their owner. In New Testament times, even doctors, lawyers, and politicians could be slaves. So slavery in the Bible was not the same thing as the slavery we think of today. The Bible talks about how a slave should be treated and basically, he should be treated with dignity. But don’t ever let people say that because the Bible doesn’t specifically say slavery should not exist, that the Bible supported the kind of slavery that was present in the 16th to 18th century. Remember that the purpose of the Bible is to reveal God and lead men and women to Christ. It isn’t meant to be a social reform handbook. But as in the book of Philemon once a man’s heart is changed, his actions are changed. The recipient of grace will extend grace to others. What are your thoughts? Do you have comments or questions? I’d love to hear from you. Contact information will be at the end of today’s show. Tomorrow will be The Law Monday and our reading will be Numbers 21 through 24.

Steve Webb 10:06
We have a Distinguished Producer today. Anonymous sent in their weekly $33.33 donation via Zelle and this one came in before the Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I went to Florida, but the show had already been recorded, so I didn’t get to acknowledge that before we left. And then another $33.33 donation came in from Anonymous while we were still in Florida. So thank you, Anonymous. God bless you. And we have a couple of Associate Producers as well. Sister Ann sent in a $100 donation. And I thank you so much for that Sister Ann. God bless you. And Michael Haner sent in two $7.77 weekly donations while we were gone. So thank you for those, Michael. God bless you. Jason Paschall sent in $50, and Jason, thank you. God bless you. Some boostagrams also came in last week. Sister Denise sent in a 5000 sat Loaves and Fishes boost on the “1 Chronicles 20-24: David’s Plea for Mercy” episode. And she said, “It’s fascinating to see how God orchestrated all these important events in human history (Abraham offering Isaac, David’s altar, Jesus’ crucifixion) to occur in the same place.” Yes, isn’t that cool to see, Sister Denise? God bless you. Thank you for that. And Fountain user @2558 sent a 500 sat boost on the “Joel 1-3: A Call to Prayer and Confession” episode and they said, “Thank you.” Well, thank you @2558. And also from the Fountain app @bereanbitcoiner sent in 250 sats and said, “God bless your ministry.” Well, thank you @bereanbitcoiner, I appreciate it. And that’s a cool handle you’ve got there. Love it. Bereanbitcoiner. And Fountain user @2558 send in another 500 sat boost on the Numbers 17 through 20 episode and said, “Thank you.” Thanks again, @2558. You’re welcome. And Sister Denise sent in another 5000 sat Loaves and Fishes boost on the “Psalms 105-107: God’s Enduring Love” episode. And she said, “I always appreciate the Essentials series. Thanks.” Well, thank you, Sister Denise. I’m glad you like ’em. That means a lot to me, truly. God bless you. And Fountain user @2558 sent in another 500 sat boost on the Proverbs 23 through 24 episode, and they said, “Thank you.” And another 500 sat boost from Fountain user @2558 on the John 16 through 18 episode also saying “Thank you.” And once more, thank you @2558. And I see the sat streamers continued to listen during the week and stream those sats. I see you and I appreciate your consistent support, guys. God bless you. I have to say these value-for-value donations are just so encouraging to me. Thank you so much. May God richly bless each of you for supporting the show. You truly are helping me to bring God’s Word to people around the world. That truly is why this show exists and you are very real co-laborers with me. And, Beloved, if you have not yet supported the show with time, talent, or treasure, may I ask you to consider joining us in the work? Your donation will make a difference. whatever value you receive from the show, would you put a number on it and then send some back to me? Pray about it, would you? And then go to lifespringmedia.com/support. I will thank you and I believe that God will bless you.

Steve Webb 13:26
Well, so here’s a few highlights from the trip. The Lovely Lady LeeAnn and I flew out of Ontario last Sunday afternoon on time. We had a layover at Dallas-Fort Worth which lasted longer than anticipated because of weather. We were ninety minutes late taking off and most of that time was spent sitting on the tarmac waiting for the weather to clear and then waiting our plane’s turn to take off. By the time we landed in Orlando and picked up our rental car and got to the hotel, it was about two o’clock in the morning. Yikes, it was late. My granddaughter Penny’s birthday party was at about 11 am, so we were able to get some sleep before the party. In addition to LeeAnn and I, Penny’s other grandparents from Oklahoma were there, and about eight or ten friends from Tim and Val’s church. That was funny to watch Penny she didn’t quite know what to do with her birthday cake. And here’s the difference between boys and girls. All three of my sons completely destroyed their first birthday cakes. You know, they grabbed big fistfuls of cake and proceeded to get it all over their faces. But not Penny. She just sort of poked at it a little bit with her dainty little finger and then just barely ate any of it. So go figure. Girls really are different than boys. And then the next day the other grandparents went home to Oklahoma and we drove out to Daytona Beach with Tim and Val and Penny. LeeAnn and I walked on the beach while Mom and Daddy stayed on the boardwalk with Penny in her stroller. It was a hot sunny day so they wanted to keep her shaded from the sun. And there’s a restaurant there on the Daytona pier and we had lunch there and then the rest of the time we pretty much hung around their house. We did go to Disney Springs for a few hours to look at the shops. Disney Springs is like a big outdoor mall, if you don’t know. It’s got shops and restaurants and stuff like that. It’s outside the Disney Parks. But we’re not really Disney fans anymore, so we didn’t go into the park as we have in past years because I don’t like the idea of supporting Disney with my dollars. Which is sad to say as a Southern California native. I can’t begin to tell you how many times we took our boys to Disneyland when they were still young. Then my first trip to Disneyland was when I was about five years old. But the company is not at all what it used to be which is really a shame. Well, one of the birthday gifts we gave to Penny was a little sort of a tricycle type thing that she could sit on and kind of push herself with her legs. She’s just learning how to walk, so I think this will be good for her. Now, the trip home was a sort of a repeat of the trip out except in this case, our flight out of Ontario was not on time like it was out of Ontario when we left. The flight out of Orlando was delayed because of the weather with us sitting on the tarmac for nearly two hours. When the weather finally cleared enough to take off, there were seventeen planes in front of us. The thing was we were supposed to have about a two-hour layover in Charlotte. But with a late takeoff, we barely made the connection. When we got to the gate in Charlotte, our plane was already boarding with most people already on board. There were only about four people who got on after us. But there were others on the flight from Florida who completely missed their connecting flight. So we were thankful that we were able to get on our plane. And then by the time we got home, it was again about two o’clock in the morning. Thankfully, LeeAnn didn’t have to go in to work until about noon, so she was able to get some rest. During the week I posted a few pictures on my Instagram account if you’d like to see them. My username there is OG underscore Godcaster. And I’ll also put some pictures on the show notes page for this episode, which is lifespringmedia.com/s13e260. E260, that’s episode 260. You know what that means, right? There are 364 episodes in a season. So in a few days, we’ll be getting into having fewer than one hundred episodes left. Hardly seems possible. Anyway, thanks for listening to the show. While I was out of the studio. I want to thank Scott Snider and Jason Paschall for doing the art for the show ahead of time so that the episode art would continue to be different for each show as, as is usual. And a big thanks to Brother Paul of Seattle for logging into the website at 10 o’clock each night to publish the art. Brother Paul and I had a video call a couple of days before the trip so that I could show him how to do it. And he did a great job. So thank you, Brother Paul. Unfortunately, in my haste to get the episodes completed in time for my trip, I forgot to send the pertinent information to Sister Denise and Michael Haner for some of last week’s episodes. So the fact that chapters and corrected transcripts weren’t done is on me. And sorry about that. But I’m back and it’s good to be with ya.

Steve Webb 18:02
Prayer requests and praises. I’ve got a brief update on Kathi and Cassie. Del tells me that Kathi is slowly increasing her activity level, but she pays a price for it later. But that makes sense, doesn’t it? She was so weak from the cancer that she really couldn’t do anything and the MS certainly doesn’t help. She’s just not used to moving very much. He said also that she has an appointment on the twenty-ninth of this month to see her doctor to discuss other options to manage her pain. But she still has the problem in her bones. She’s got, you know, holes in her bones from the cancer that was there and so there’s pain from that and the MS. And you know, the bones are still he- still healing from the cancer. And then Bryan said that Cassie has had to stop taking any pain medications in these final days leading up to her Tuesday surgery for her trigeminal neuralgia. Each day leading up to the surgery is worse than the day before. So let’s pray for some relief there and that the surgery will be successful. And James in Norway sent in a quick update. He said his dad has had only just a couple of minor A-Fib episodes since the last update he sent in, so that’s great. That’s a praise. His dad had an appointment with his cardiologist a few days ago. And if I get any further updates, I will let you know. So let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we pray that you would help us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Paul’s letter to Philemon is a reminder that as we have received grace from you, we should, we must, give grace. And we thank you Lord for that. We thank you for the healing from cancer that you’re bringing to Kathi even now and the increased strength you’re giving her and we pray that you would bring relief to the pain, Lord. And we ask Lord that the MS would now also be healed or that it would at least go into remission, Father. And as Cassie’s surgery is just a few days away, we ask that you would be with her and that you would help her through this time without the pain medications. She needs you, Lord, and when she’s in surgery we ask you to be there with her. Guide the doctor’s hands. We ask that the procedure would be flawless and that there would be no complications. We ask that the surgery would be 100% successful, Lord. And we continue to thank you, Lord, for James in Norway’s dad’s A-Fib improvement since his procedure. We pray that these episodes will become increasingly rare or will just stop altogether, Lord. I ask, Father, that you would bless the Lifespring family today. I thank you for each one. May they feel your presence and know that you love them and help us all to show grace to those around us. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Beloved, our next time of prayer will be this coming Thursday. So if you have a praise report or a prayer request, be sure to listen at the end of the show for how to send that information to me.

Steve Webb 21:00
Thanks to Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall, and Sister Brittaney – the team. Today’s show art was done by Scott Snider. Thank you, Scott. God bless you, Scott, and the rest of the team. Thank you, Beloved, for inviting me into your day. Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Happy Father’s Day. Bye.

Announcer 21:22
The Lifespring! Media family of programs are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai