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Treat him not as a slave, but as more than your slave - treat him as a much-loved spiritual brother. 
If he is loved by me in this way, he should be loved all the more by you, both as a human being and as one who belongs to our Honored Chief.
Philemon 1:16 FNVNT 
Onesimus has moved to being associated with, connected to, both the Apostle Paul, and the Honored Chief, to our God.
In the eyes of the law, in the view of the culture, Onesimus is still Philemons slave. 
But while he has been with Paul something in the spiritual, in his fundamental identity, has shifted. Something that cannot be taken away by the law, the culture in which we live, or even by death itself.
Onesimus is now a child of God.
Whatever shame he held for being a slave is now held in two other relationships, with Paul, and with God Himself. 
Onesimus has been elevated. 
Elevated to brother with Paul, to child of God. And that changes everything, forever.
We've been elevated too, as followers of Jesus, now equal, as children of God, secure in Him, and all the things we bring with us are now covered by that Big Story, the Love that our God has for us.
#Philemon 
#elevated
#heldinaBiggerStory

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