Here it is:

Although I have great boldness in Christ to command you to do what is right, I appeal to you, instead, on the basis of love. (Philemon 8-9, HCSB)

Before this passage hits you with all intensity, you have to think about what’s going on behind the scenes of Paul’s writing. This short, personal letter has a lot packed within twenty-five verses: betrayal, abandonment, injustice, crime, conflict, redemption, appeal, tears, prison–it’s like a drama series on NBC.

The list of characters is Philemon (a Christian slave-owner) and Onesimus (a Christian slave), with Paul writing an urgent appeal to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Roman slavery in the first-century was very different from the more horrific chattel slavery of America’s early years, yet it was still an injustice that the New Testament repeatedly undermines. In this case, Onesimus was a runaway slave, a crime punishable by death in the Roman empire. At some point in their friendship, Paul must have led Philemon to a saving knowledge of Christ, for he claims that Philemon owes him his entire self (19). It is the effect of this gospel that Paul uses to leverage the situation on behalf of his new friend, Onesimus, to spare his life.

Paul could have demanded Philemon to change his behavior. 

Think of all that was at stake! Onesimus was facing execution, or in the most merciful of circumstances, imprisonment with torture. Paul certainly could have used his Apostolic authority to manhandle the situation, as he has done elsewhere (2 Cor. 10-11). But in this case, he mentions that while he has authority to command right behavior, he instead, wishes to appeal “on the basis of love.”

Paul, in this case, attempts to break the chains of injustice, not by legislation, protesting, bullying, or picking up a sword, but through the power of the gospel. By winning Philemon to the gospel of Jesus, he is able, through that gospel, to make an appeal to Philemon’s changed heart for the freedom of Onesimus. What’s radical about the gospel is that Paul was able to use it to stretch Philemon even further than mercy–he calls him to treat Onesimus graciously, as a free man and brother.

Can you imagine the effectiveness of the church, if we put more weight on the transforming power of the gospel to save sinners?

Paul described the good news of Jesus as “the power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16), which not only results in declared righteousness, but crushes the ongoing desires behind our wicked behaviors! (Rom. 6:12-14).

Sometimes we seem to put more of our hope in our tactics of rhetoric, close-minded argument, and anger to change their behavior? Perhaps we are fighting for truth and justice, but to what end? With what effect? If our only method of treating a fallen world is to protest their actions from a distance, perhaps our trust in the power of the gospel has long faded. If that be the case… you better scream louder.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. – Jesus (Matthew 5:5, ESV)

I have the joy of teaching Scripture to a group of Millennials at Adorn who lend me their ear every Friday night. But I can’t just explain the meaning of Scripture passages, I got to unpack life as a young adult in Southern California, with all its baggage, drama, and delicate navigation. So while I study the first century context of the Bible, I also diagnose my culture and age group, and like a physician, get a bit more clarity on where to apply the salve of the Gospel. You know what I learned very quickly? Millennials don’t speak in three-point propositions. No one does.

People live out a narrative, a series of connected scenes and events, because life is a story. 

Apologetics can be problematic if we only want to regurgitate what we learned form a book or classroom, since they are little more than reasoned arguments to justify a belief in something; they make for as much excitement as a field-trip to the DMV. Likewise, if someone was struggling with the reliability of the New Testament, it will probably not be very effective for you to overwhelm them with a bunch of technical facts straight out of the pike about extant Greek manuscripts, Canon formulation, and the science behind Textual Criticism. They would shut down in thirty seconds, and perhaps, leave you for the DMV. You see, factoids are interesting when you are on a personal journey to find them. But if you must first be persuaded to care, you need more than dry propositions. Why?

We don’t process information in bullet points very well; we process in story form.

Think about this. We don’t sit around coffee shops browsing our car manuals. We watch movies, and YouTube videos, read novels and magazines; we get inspired at news blurbs portraying the heroic deed of some kid and her puppy: because we love narratives, and we live in one. That’s why I rarely stop a good sermon illustration just to bombard my listeners with twelve boring points on the transmission of the Masoretic text or the top ten evidences that demand a verdict….unless I can take them into the unfolding story of how the transmission of Scripture happened. But if I can draw them into a scene where the aroma of the Masoretic papyrus circles the room, and they can watch the ink dry, well…then we have a sermon.

How do you use apologetics in story form?

First, let’s change the terms a bit. Let’s exchange the word “story” for “worldview.” A worldview is the lens by which we all make sense of the individual scenes in our life. Some world-views are good, and some are bad, but most world-views are a combination of good and bad.

I want to introduce you to presuppositional apologetics.

This branch of apologetics gets its name because it presupposes that the Christian worldview is the only one that makes sense of everything, before it engages in conversation. The task of the faithful Christian is then to exegete the world-views of the culture, and interact with them, finding any common ground, and using that as a platform to start a conversation. You are no longer shouting out disconnected propositions, but engaging in their story.

Tim Keller once explained how he uses presuppositional apologetics to interact with people,

I find something that people have smuggled into their life, that they’re stealing from the biblical worldview, because down deep they know that there’s a God, and they’re living as if that’s true. So you show them the contradictions of the things that they’re doing with their commitments. You enter in, you find the things that you affirm, you show them why they need a Biblical worldview to inform the worldview they have with any integrity (Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World).

This is similar to what Jesus did. He certainly didn’t teach point-by-point!

Jesus communicated with the stuff of comedy and epic novels, and in a way that overlapped with the storyline of others, and not, remarked Fredrick Beuchner, “in the incendiary rhetoric of the prophet or the systematic abstractions of the theologian but in the language of images and metaphor, which is finally the only language you can use if you want not just to elucidate the hidden thing but to make it come alive.”

Millennials are story-tellers, plot-chasers. They are in to thoughtful conversation not barking monologue. When you engage a millennial’s worldview, with respect, seeking common ground, and offer critical insight, you engage the person themselves. Even if they don’t end up agreeing with you, they will feel honored that you entered their story, and the door to conversation will open even wider in the future.

Engage the world-view, the story of the person.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll follow up with a short example of “story-form” apologetics in a mock conversation.