We often shortchange love. We think of it as sweet and sentimental, something that is good for children and family members. We think of love as sort of soft and cuddly, nice in its place, but not very useful in the things that really matter. Do we think of love as tough, transforming, powerful? This little book of Philemon, tucked into the back of the New Testament at the tail end of Paul's letters, teaches us about the potential of love.

           

Thomas Long, who teaches preaching at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta, reminds us that when we read from Paul in the New Testament, we are reading someone else's mail. Paul never intended his letters to be read in the twenty-first century in the United States of America. If we went into our neighbor's mailbox and took out personal le…