text: Themes Paul uses slavery vs. freedom language more often in his writings as a metaphor.
  This letter may have provided some comfort to some slaves of the time.
  Though its practice appears centrally, Paul does not share value judgements about the institution of slavery. Its influence could create pressures, as an “abolitionist would have been at the same time an insurrectionist, and the political effects of such a movement would have been unthinkable."  Paul saw human institutions like slavery among many that in his apocalyptic view would soon go.
  When it comes to Onesimus and his circumstance as a slave, Paul felt that Onesimus should return to Philemon but not as a slave; rather, under a bond of familial love. Paul also was not suggesting that Onesimus be punished, in spite of the fact that Roman law allowed the owner of a runaway slave nearly unlimited privileges of punishment, even execution. This is a concern of Paul and a reason he is writing to Philemon, asking that Philemon accept Onesimus back in a bond of friendship, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Paul is undermining this example of a human institution which dehumanizes people. Onesimus, like Philemon, belongs to Christ, and so "Christ, and not Philemon, has a claim on Onesimus' honor and obedience."