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October 13, 2007
In leading and persuading others, one’s tone is essential. Kindness and gentleness go much further than pulling rank or making demands. Alistair Begg points out an inspired example of this principle in Paul’s appeal for Onesimus’s freedom in his epistle to Philemon. After running away from his master, Onesimus providentially found Paul and was converted. Paul then approached Philemon not on the basis of his apostleship but because of their shared brotherhood in God’s family. In this, he modeled how we ought to encourage one another.
8Accordingly, mthough I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do nwhat is required, 9yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now oa prisoner also for Christ Jesus— 10I appeal to you for pmy child, qOnesimus,2 rwhose father I became in my imprisonment. 11(Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me son your behalf tduring my imprisonment for the gospel, 14but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be uby compulsion but of your own accord. 15For this perhaps is why vhe was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16wno longer as a bondservant3 but more than a bondservant, as xa beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, yboth in the flesh and in the Lord.
Copyright © 2025, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
