Onesimus ran from the home where he lived
– a slave to a master whose good care he’d grieved.
The master had recently come to believe,
Onesimus absconded, deciding to leave.

But somehow, far off, he met Paul who was chained,
and then he accepted the gospel explained,
a comfort and helper to Paul he became,
but knew he should go face Philemon’s just claim.

Paul wrote to Philemon, commending this slave
come now as a brother for him to forgive.
Paul offered to pay if some money had gone,
though Paul had brought Christ’s Word of Life to their home.

The name of ‘Onesimus’ means ‘useful’, and Paul
reflects how Philemon can clearly recall
how useless a servant he’d been, but made new:
now useful, a ‘brother’, dependable true.
Tune: 11 11 11 11 eg Montgomery, tune of ‘How firm a foundation’

see Paul’s letter to Philemon in the Bible.

[We’re saddened by slavery, yet it existed
everywhere once, though often consisted
of kindly provision, with limits and end –
no other provision for poverty found,
though conquerors sometimes were harsh enslavers;
but when there developed an evil vile trade
with greed, degradation, and neighbours betrayed
and cruel conditions inhuman and bestial
some bravely exposed, fought and won
the end of forced slavery, and the cruelty done,
though still there are those who find unkind ways
to hide such bad treatment in our days.]