INTRODUCTION
The Epistle of Paul to Philemon is unique in that it is addressed to a personal friend regarding a private matter. No doubt Paul wrote many such personal letters but this one alone has been preserved.
Philemon seems to have been a wealthy citizen of Colosse. He was a personal convert of the Apostle’s and there were strong bonds of friendship between them.
Paul writes on behalf of a thief and a runaway. Philemon had suffered serious loss through the irregular conduct of his servant Onesimus, and might well be hesitant about trusting him again. Paul sees that it is the duty of the slave to return and of his master to receive him. By personal persuasion he had won over Onesimus to return, and by this letter he seeks to insure for him a welcome in his master’s house. Onesimus goes back, not merely as a penitent but as a Christian. Paul pleads that he be received as a brother.
The Epistle was written from Rome, the natural center of attraction for all fugitives, and is associated with the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians.
OUTLINE OF THE EPISTLE TO PHILEMON
A PLEA FOR A RUNAWAY SLAVE
Paul’s Prayer for His Friend
The Return of Onesimus
GREETING
Paul, a prisoner [for the sake] of Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed), and our brother Timothy, To Philemon our dearly beloved friend and fellow worker,
and to [your wife] Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier [in ministry], and to the church that meets in your house:
Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
PHILEMON’S LOVE AND FAITH
I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
because I hear of your love and of your faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints (God’s people).
I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective and powerful because of your accurate knowledge of every good thing which is ours in Christ.
For I have had great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints (God’s people) have been refreshed through you, my brother.
PAUL’S PLEA FOR ONESIMUS
Therefore [on the basis of these facts], though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is appropriate,
yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you–since I am such a person as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner [for the sake] of Christ Jesus–
I appeal to you for my [own spiritual] child Onesimus, whom I have fathered [in the faith] while a captive in these chains.
Once he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you as well as to me.
I have sent him back to you in person, that is, like sending my very heart.
I would have chosen to keep him with me, so that he might minister to me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel;
but I did not want to do anything without first getting your consent, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will.
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
on
Philemon 1:1-14
A PLEA FOR THE RETURNING SLAVE
Onesimus had known the Apostle well in the old days when Paul visited at the house of his master Philemon, who seems to have been a man of importance. His house was large enough to admit of a church assembling in it, and to accommodate the Apostle and his traveling companions when they came to the city. Apphia, his wife, was also a Christian, and Archippus, their son, was engaged in some kind of Christian work in connection with the infant Christian community which they were nursing. Compare Phm_1:1-2 with Col_4:17. It is beautiful to observe the Apostle’s humility in associating these obscure people with himself as fellow-workers.
Onesimus had been a runaway slave, and fleeing to Rome, had been converted by the ministry of Paul-whom I have begotten in my bonds. The converted slave had become very dear and useful to his benefactor, Phm_1:12-13. The Apostle now sends him back to his former owner with this letter, pleading that he be once more received into the household of Philemon.
Choose a Sermon on
Philemon
by
Pastor Jeff Arthur.
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