Philemon 1-25 (Wednesday Evening Bible Study)

Philemon 1-25

• Philemon 1-7
• 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother: To Philemon our dear friend and coworker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home. 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ. 7 For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
  • The letter to Philemon is remarkable, for in it we see the extraordinary sight of Paul asking for a favor. In this letter he is asking for a favor not so much for himself as for Onesimus, who had taken a wrong turn and whom Paul was helping to find the way back
  • The beginning of the letter is unusual. Pay usually identifies himself as Paul, an apostle; but on this occasion he is writing as a friend to a friend, and the official title is dropped. He is writing not as Paul the apostle but as Paul the prisoner of Christ. Here at the very beginning, Paul lays aside all appeal to authority and makes his appeal to sympathy and to love alone
  • We do not know who Apphia and Archippus were, but it has been suggested that Apphia was the wife and Archippus the son of Philemon—for they too would be very much interested in the return of Onesimus, the runaway slave
    • Certainly, Archippus had seen Christian service with Paul, for Paul speaks of him as his fellow soldier
  • Philemon was clearly a man from whom it was easy to ask a favor. He was a man whose faith in Christ and love toward the Christian community was well known, and the story of his faith and love had reached even Rome, where Paul was in prison
    • His house must have been like an oasis in a desert—as Paul put it, he had refreshed the hearts of God’s people. It is a lovely thing to go down in history as someone in whose house God’s people were rested and refreshed
  • In this passage, there is one verse which is very difficult to translate and about which much has been written
    • 6, “I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is  in us for the glory of Christ.”
    • The phrase “your participation in the faith” is very difficult. The Greek is koinōnia pisteōs. There are three possible meanings
      • Koinōnia can mean a sharing in; it can, for instance, mean a partnership in a business. So this may mean your share in the Christian faith; and it might be a prayer that the faith in which Philemon and Paul share may lead Philemon deeper and deeper into Christian truth
      • Koinōnia can mean fellowship; and this may be a prayer that Christian fellowship may lead Philemon ever more deeply into the truth
      • Koinōnia can mean the act of sharing; in that case, the vers would mean; “it is my prayer that your way of generously sharing all that you have will lead you more and more deeply into the knowledge of the good things which lead to Christ”
    • The third meaning seems to be the most likely. Christian generosity was a characteristic of Philemon; he had love for God’s people, and in his home they were rested and refreshed. And now Paul is going to ask the generous man to be even more generous
    • If this interpretation is correct, it means that we learn about Christ by giving to others. It means that by emptying ourselves we are filled with Christ. It means that to be open-handed and generous-hearted is the surest way to learn more and more of the wealth of Christ. The one who knows most of Christ is not he intellectual scholar, not even the saint who spends all day in prayer, but he one who moves among others in loving generosity 
• Philemon 8-17
• 8 For this reason, although I have great boldness in Christ to command you to do what is right, 9 I appeal to you, instead, on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus, 10 appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. I became his father while I was in chains. 11 Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me. 12 I am sending him back to you—I am sending my very own heart. 13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that in my imprisonment for the gospel he might serve me in your place. 14 But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will. 15 For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave—as a dearly loved brother. He is especially so to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me.
  • Being who Paul was, he could have demanded what he wanted from Philemon; but he will only humbly request it. A gift must be given freely and with goodwill; if it is forced, it is no gift at all. (This is also a picture of how God deals with us, and the idea of free will. We are free to love and worship Him or not, because forced love and worship is no love at all)
  • In verse 9, Paul describes himself. He calls himself an elderly man and a prisoner of Christ Jesus. There are a good number of scholars would wish to substitute another translation for elderly man
    • It is argued that Paul could not really be described as an elderly man. He was not sixty years old; he was somewhere between 55-60. But those who object to this translation on this basis are wrong
      • The word which Paul uses of himself is presbutēs; and Hippocrates, the great Greek medical writer, says that a man is presbutēs from the age of 49-56. Between these years, he is what we might call senior; only after that does he become a gerōn, the Greek for old man
    • But what is the other translation suggested? There are two words which are very like each other; their spelling is only one letter different, and their pronunciation exactly the same.
      • Presbutēs; Old
      • Presbeutēs; ambassador
        • It is the bar of this world which Paul uses in Ephesians 6:20 when he says: “I am an ambassador in chains.”
        • If we think that the world should be presbeutēs, Paul is saying; “I am an ambassador, although I am an ambassador in chains.” 
    • But it is fare more likely that we should keep the translation elderly, for in hit letter Paul is appealing all the time, not to any office he holds or any authority he has, but only to love. It is not the ambassador who is speaking, but the man who has lived hard and is now lonely and tired
  • Paul makes his request in verse 10, and it is for Onesimus. We notice how he delays using the name of Onesimus, almost as if he hesitated to do so. He does not make any excuses for him; he freely admits he was a useless character; but he makes one claim—he is useful now
    • Christianity is the power which can make bad men good
  • It is significant to note that Paul claims that in Christ the useless person has been made useful. The last thing Christianity is designed to produce is vague, inefficient people; it produces people who are of use and can do a job better than they ever could if they did not know Christ
    • It was said of someone that “he was so heavenly-minded that he was no earthly use”. But it is true that Christianity makes people heavenly-minded and useful upon earth at one and the same time
  • Paul calls Onesimus the child to whom he has become a father in his imprisonment
    • A Rabbinic saying goes; “If one teaches the son of is neighbor the law, the Scripture reckons this the same as though he had begotten him.” To lead someone to Christ is as great a thing as to bring that person into the world. Happy are the parents who bring a child into life and who then lead that child into eternal life, for then the child will be theirs twice
  • As we have noted in the introduction to this letter, there is a double meaning in verse 12. “I am sending him back to you”
    • The verb anapempein does not mean only to send back, it also means to refer a case to; and Paul is saying to Philemon; “I am referring this was of Onesimus to you, that you may give a verdict on it that will match the love you ought to have.”
    • Onesimus must have become very dear to Paul in these months in prison, for he pays him the great tribute of saying that to send him to Philemon is like sending a bit of his own heart
  • Then comes the appeal. Paul would have liked to keep Onesimus; but he sends him back to Philemon, for he will do nothing without his consent
    • Here is another significant thing. Christianity is not trying to help people escape from their past and run away from it; it is aiming to enable them to face the past and rise above it
    • Onesimus had run away. Well, he must go back, face the consequences of what he did, accept them and rise above them
    • Christianity is never escape; it is always conquest. But Onesimus comes back changed. He went away as a slave who did not know Christ; he comes back as a brother in Christ. It is going to be hard for Philemon to regard a runaway slave as a brother, but that is exactly what Paul demands
      • “If you agree that I’m your partner in the work of Christ and that Onesimus is my son in the faith, you must receive him as you would receive me.”
  • Here again is something very significant. Christians must alway welcome back those who have made a mistake
    • Too often, we regard with suspicion people who have taken a wrong turn and show that we are never prepared to trust them again. We believe that God can forgive them; but we find it too difficult
    • It has been said that the most uplifting thing about Jesus is that He trusts us on the very field of our defeat. When someone has made a mistake, the way back can be very hard. Through our own self-righteousness or lack of sympathy, we cannot make it harder
• Philemon 18-25
• 18 And if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention to you that you owe me even your very self. 20 Yes, brother, may I benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. 21 Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 Meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, since I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you. 23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, and so do 24 Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my coworkers. 25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
  • It is one of the laws of life that someone has to pay the price of sin
    • God can and does forgive, but their are still consequences that we have to suffer from what we have done. It is the glory of the Christian faith that, just as Jesus took upon Himself the sins of all, so there are those who in love are prepared to help pay for the consequences of the sins of those who are dear to them
    • Christianity never entitled anyone to default on debts.
      • Onesimus must have stolen from Philemon, as well as run away from him. If he had not helped himself to Philemon’s more, it is difficult to see how he could ever have covered the long road to Rome (around 1,300 miles; modern day Turkey to Rome)
  • Paul writes with his own hand that he will be responsible and will repay in full
    • It is interesting to not that this is an exact instance of cheirographon, the kind of acknowledgement met it Colossians 2:14 “14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.” This is a handwriting against Paul, an obligation voluntarily accepted and signed
  • It is interesting also to note that Paul was able to pay Onesimus’ debt
    • Every now and again, we get glimpses which show that he was not without financial resources. Felix kept him prisoner, in hopes that Paul would bribe him to let him go (Acts 24:16); Paul was able to rent a house during his imprisonment in Rome (Acts 28:30)
    • It may well be that, if he had not chosen to live the life of a missionary of Christ, he might have lived a settled live of reasonable ease and comfort on his own resources. This may well have been another of the things which he gave up for Christ
  • In verses 19-20, we hear Paul speaking with a flash of humor.
    • “You owe me even your very self. Yes, brother, may I benefit from you in the Lord.” With an affectionate smile, Paul is saying; “Philemon, you got a lot from me, let me get something from you now.”
  • Verse 21 is typical of Paul’s dealings with people
    • It was his rule to always expect the best from others; he never really doubted that Philemon would grand his request. It is a good rule. To expect the best from others is often to be more than half-way to getting it; if we make it clear that we expect little, we will probably get just that
  • In verse 22, Paul’s optimism speaks
    • Even in prison, he believes it possible that, through the prayers of his friends, freedom may come again. He has changed his plans now. Before he was imprisoned, it had been his intention to go to Spain. Maybe after the years in prison, Paul felt that he must leave the distant places to younger men and that for him, as he drew near the end, old friends were best
  • In vers 23, there is a list of greetings from the same comrades whom we meet in Colossians; and so there comes the blessing, and both Philemon and Onesimus are commended to the grace of Christ