February 9th, 2026, season 7 starts.

It's on the Gospel of John.

What's up, everybody? It's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour podcast, and this is the final bit on the book of Philemon.

Not today, but this week. We got today, and then we got two more on Philemon, and we've got some outstanding questions.

We have real work left to do here. We're not fully through the text. And one of the big questions that is

outstanding here is what are we supposed to take from this? I think we've made some progress on

this because for most of us, slavery isn't really a part of our lives. And that is the social

question or the social impetus that makes the whole book happen. I mean, going to run away slave,

and now he's going to go back to his former master. What's going to happen? What precedent does

that set for slavery in the ancient world, an institution that most people didn't ever even

think twice about? Yeah, that's all very, very interesting, and that's why we've spent a lot of

time on it. But for you and me,

for most of us, hopefully, slavery isn't a consideration. It's not a part of our lives. It's not like we're sort of debating whether or not, like, I don't know, it's probably not the best,

but maybe we'll do, like, some slavery. Nope, for most of us, it's pretty much just zero. We're not going to do any of that at all.

So then what is the outstanding point? Well, it has a whole lot to do with forgiveness and reconciliation.

And I think you and I have put in the effort to overcome the obvious analogous hurdle here, which is, well, the outrage we might feel over saying,

hold on a minute. Now, I learned from college that this is not an equitable relationship and that

there is an imbalance of power. And when that happens, because of the lenses through which I see all relationships,

which is power or lack thereof, oppressor and oppressed, Onesomus is the oppressed,

Philemon is the oppressor. Therefore, this isn't breaking up, this isn't a falling out,

this isn't relational damage. This is interpersonal. Like one party did all

the wronging. That being Phileman, the other party did not. If it happened today, I might be

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