[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (KD) as a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible]
PHILEMON
1:14
"But
without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be
by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary."
Paul,
being an Apostle and many others else, did not need to consult anything with
Philemon. He did not need to request anything, rather he could have commanded
him what to do. Yet he did the opposite. "Absolute power corrupts
absolutely" was not true for him. He modelled our honesty, equity, and
modesty.
Being
a leader, it's tempting to do what I think is right without consulting others
on the line of "What did he/she know? What right did they have?"
It's
imperative to consider the right, consent, (and even the wisdom of others) in a
decision-making process, as modelled by the Apostle Paul!