Head Scratcher — Philemon - Tuesday
Today’s Verse
Philemon 1:15–16a
For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother… (ESV)
There’s a house a few miles outside of town that always caught my eye. Old stone walls, ivy creeping up the sides, a large oak tree in the front yard with limbs that stretched wide like arms offering a blessing. Years ago, it had been the center of a bitter family feud. Two brothers inherited the land after their father passed. Disagreements over the will turned into silence, and silence hardened into resentment. One brother built a fence between their adjoining properties. Over time, they stopped acknowledging one another at the mailbox. The house was divided in spirit, even if the roof was shared.
But something changed. One spring, the fence came down. I remember driving past and noticing it. The posts had been removed, the boards stacked neatly by the shed. Where there had once been a wall, there was now open ground. A few weeks later, I saw the two brothers working together—side by side—repairing the front porch. No press release, no public apology. Just a quiet act of reconciliation. That image stayed with me.
In his letter to Philemon, Paul speaks into a fracture between two men—Philemon, a master, and Onesimus, a runaway slave. By every cultural standard, the relationship was over. But Paul saw something greater than justice: he saw the possibility of reconciliation. Not a reset, but a resurrection. Not a return to how things used to be, but the birth of something new—something holy. “You might have him back forever,” Paul writes, “as a beloved brother.”
Reconciliation doesn’t erase history, but it reclaims it.
It means looking at someone who hurt you and saying, “What Christ has done for me is greater than what you’ve done to me.” It means choosing humility over pride, peace over winning. Reconciliation takes two, but it often begins with one. One heart willing to move toward the other. One step of courage. One lowered fence.
Sometimes we wait for the other person to apologize first. To make the first move. But what if that move is ours to make? What if the offense wasn’t the end of the story, but the place where grace begins?
APPLICATION
Is there someone in your life you’ve written off? Someone who hurt you, failed you, or disappointed you? What if God is not asking you to erase the past, but to redeem it?
God’s reconciliation with us cost Him everything. Yet He pursued it anyway. And now He invites us to do the same—with our friends, our families, even our enemies.
PRAYER
Father, give me the courage to pursue reconciliation where there has been distance, hurt, or silence. Help me to lay down my pride, speak with love, and seek peace. May the relationships in my life reflect the unity and forgiveness You’ve given to me in Christ. Amen.