Philemon 1:15–16: “For perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated from you for a little while, so that you would have him back eternally, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a dear brother. He is especially so to me, and even more so to you now, both humanly speaking and in the Lord.”

So this is Paul's letter to Philemon. His slave ran away from Philemon, somehow met Paul, became a Christian, and Paul is trying to arrange a restoration between this runaway slave and Philemon.

This is my series on the impact of Christianity throughout history. I have talked about the impact of Christianity on leadership across the whole spectrum of leadership conceptions. I have talked about gender equality between men and women. Now I am talking about the societal stratification of “free” and “slave.”

We have all kinds of societal stratification. Some people will say: once you are born into this family, you are a perpetual slave, and this other family is the people who are not slaves. There’s a derogatory term they use for them; you can find this in different cultures. In some places, people from certain castes cannot even enter certain locations. Being born into a particular caste has a shame associated with it.

So you can see that this issue of free and slave can be a stand‑in for societal stratification: these are the people who are valuable; these are the people who are less valuable. These are the people who are owned; these are the owners of people.

You can accuse Paul and say, “Paul did not say slavery was bad.” And yes, Paul did not come out and say, “Slavery is bad.” He said that if you were called as a slave, remain in that state—“For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman” (1 Corinthians 7:21–22). Why? Because your societal situation does not define you as long as you have been defined in Christ, and that is the ultimate definition. That is the ultimate value you have: being in Christ, being with Christ, being of Christ. There is nothing higher.

But what has happened in history? What has happened in history is that we see movements—particularly Christian movements—talking about the abolition of slavery. Because what do you have? You have people in the leadership class who are the people who own slaves. They do not have any incentive to change the situation; this is what they were born into. And the people who are slaves have no power given to them, no say in anything, so they are paralyzed and cannot make any changes.

As I said, the people who have the power have no incentive to change the system of slavery, because that is what is powering their economics, powering their life in society. In a way, the slaves are the bedrock of the society. Why would you want to change it?

But when the gospel begins to come and begins to say there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28), that begins to be that stone Daniel saw—cut without hands—that hit the feet of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2:34–35, 44–45). It hits the feet, and that stone grows to take over the whole world. The stone of the equality of humanity. The stone of the abolition of slavery.

The point I am making is that the seed of the gospel is what has grown into a tree, a big tree, and has influenced us. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed planted; it grows into a big shrub and the birds of the air make their nests in its branches (Matthew 13:31–32). We are existing—much of the world system is existing—within a Christian frame of reference, whether people acknowledge it or not. And it is still going on. The seed is still sprouting; the fruit is still being borne from the gospel that was preached.

Some people will say, “God did not cancel slavery in the Old Testament. They still had slavery in the Old Testament.” But look at the power of the gospel and the patience of God—and how it did not happen in one moment.

Jesus said, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted” (Matthew 15:13). One of those “trees” is the tree of slavery. The Father did not plant that tree of slavery; it will be uprooted. Not just cut down so that another branch can grow, but uprooted.

You see the patience of God in history, allowing the seed of the gospel to permeate, so that now the concept of slavery is yanked out in many places and in many minds. It is not even on the table anymore in people’s thinking. That is the transformative power of the gospel in history.

God bless you. See you later.