Philemon--A Runaway Slave Turned Brother In Christ and Fellow Minister of the Gospel

Philemon
English Standard Version

​Greeting
​
1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon's Love and Faith
4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. 7 For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Paul's Plea for Onesimus

8 Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9 yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus-- 10 I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11 (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12 I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13 I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14 but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15 For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

21 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Final Greetings

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

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Paul mentioned Philemon and Onesimus at the end of the book of Colossians what we just finished, so I figured now was as good a time as any for me to go through the book of Philemon.  It's a short book that doesn't even have chapter divisions, but does have verses--other books in the Bible like some of the Minor Prophets, as well as 2nd Joh, 3rd John and Jude also share this characteristic.   Since it's such a short book, I'm going to try to cover all of it in a single post.

​This letter probably accompanied the letter to the Colossian church where Philemon was likely a member, since Paul mentions both Philemon and Onesimus in Colossians and sends Onesimus along with the letter, likely to carry this letter back to Philemon.  Paul is writing from prison, but unlike most of his letters that we have in the New Testament, this is a very personal letter written only to Philemon, someone named Apphia, presumably Philemon's wife, and Archippus, presumably Philemon's daughter and someone who worked alongside Paul.  Paul then opens with his "standard" greeting of "Grace and peace" that we've seen so many other times, but I'm sure it was more than just routine for Paul as these were two realities that he wanted his readers to focus on in the difficult times that they lived in.  God would give them grace for each and every day and they could have peace in their hearts even though the world around them was raging and seemed to be "burning."

Paul starts off this letter to Philemon saying how often he thinks of him and how thankful he is to God for the love and faith of Philemon.  He prays that the seed that has been planted in Philemon's life will take root and bear much fruit and that Philemon will grow in knowledge and wisdom through Christ (a similar prayer to the one that Paul prayed for the entire Colossian church in Colossians 1 that I pointed out to everyone, just this one is a bit more personalized for Philemon).  Philemon must have been one who was willing to take in Paul and his team and to help other Christians who were in need even though he himself was still maybe a "baby" Christian and didn't know everything about Christianity, he knew it meant using his earthly resources to help out other believers for heavenly purposes.

Paul then gets to the main point of the letter--that is to plea for Onesimus that Philemon would take him back and recognize him as a brother in Christ.  Paul lets Philemon know that as his spiritual father and because of his apostolic authority, he could simply order Philemon what to do in this situation, but he instead wanted to plead with Philemon to do the right thing.  Paul tells of how Onesimus had become Paul's spiritual child.  Paul says that he is sending his own heart back to Philemon with Onesimus and that Paul hopes that Philemon knows how much more valuable Onesimus is to Philemon now that he has become a Christian.

Paul then says that he wishes that he could just keep Onesimus for himself because of how valuable he is and how much Paul loves him, but Paul knows it's the right thing to return him to Philemon and let Philemon make the decision of what to do and in so doing permit Philemon the choice to free Onesimus of his slavery to go work with Paul.  We don't know for sure this is what happened, but I imagine that it probably is what happened.  In this way such action would not be out of compulsion or without Philemon's consent, but with his full knowledge and participation which would bless the gift (Onesimus) the giver (Philemon) and the receiver (Paul).  Paul even goes so far as to suggest that maybe the whole reason it was necessary for Onesimus to run away (something usually punishable by the death penalty for the slave) was so that he would receive the gospel and become a Christian and come back to Philemon as a brother and not simply a slave.  In one way it is true to say that the old Onesimus did die during that time as he was born again and all things were made new through Christ and he became a new man.

Paul then asks Philemon a bold request, to receive Onesimus not as his slave and property, but as Paul's envoy or ambassador and to treat him just like Philemon would treat Paul himself.  Isn't this how we should treat every Christian though, as an official emissary of Christ?  Jesus said that when people do things to the "least of these" (probably all members of the body of Christ), they have done it unto Christ Himself, for we are all part of His Body, and in some way He experiences everything that we do, whether blessing or persecution.  I can't explain it, but I know that it's true.

Paul asks for any debts that are owed by Onesimus to be charged to Paul's account (again, this sounds exactly like what Christ does for us).  Paul even brings up that Philemon should consider himself indebted to Paul for Paul sharing the gospel with Philemon and that being more valuable that any person or possession, but Paul refuses to use such calculus to his advantage here.  While Paul says that it is Philemon that show owe Paul even his own life, that Paul would just be happy if Philemon would do the right thing here and grant Paul this one request (that Onesimus be at a minimum welcomed back as a brother in Christ, but he definitely wants and is angling for Onesimus to be returned to him as his spiritual son and co-worker in the gospel).  How can I say this?  Look at the next paragraph where Paul essentially says, "I know you'll do the right thing (of taking him back as a brother in Christ) like I've asked, and I hope you do even more than I ask (return him to me)."  Paul then says that he hopes to get out of prison soon and desires to come spend some time with Philemon (probably as he comes to visit the Colossian church) and asks Philemon to keep a guest room ready for him.  Again, it seems like Philemon was a man of some means that was in the habit of providing room and board for Paul and those who worked with him as they went through the area, and Paul felt comfortable enough to not even really ask but to say "I'm making plans to come, and my plans are to stay with you."--that's pretty bold, but again, this is Paul we area talking about.

Finally, Paul wraps up in his traditional format of sending greetings from the others who are with him--this time form Epaphroditus who is in prison with Paul as well as Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, who were working with Paul, but not in prison with him at the time.

Once again he finishes by praying for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to be with them all, as these were days in which everyone needed to have a lot of grace with each other and experience the grace of God on a daily basis (but isn't that every day in all times?).

So, even though this is a very personal letter, there is still much we learn here, and we see Paul's words put into action that there is "no longer slave nor free" in Christ.  He treated Onesimus and Philemon the same--they were both his spiritual children whom he loved deeply and both were important to his gospel ministry--Philemon as a "base of operations" in the area and Onesimus to actually work alongside him as he had no other worldly connections to hold him back.  Philemon would have been in the right legally to take Onesimus back as a slave and punish him for running away, or to sell him to someone else, or even to kill him or throw him out on the street, but none of those things wouldn't have been right in the eyes of God because now Philemon needed to think about how he was treating a brother in Christ, how he'd be treating Paul's representative, and more importantly, how he would treat Christ Himself as Onesimus was now part of the Body of Christ.  Does this change the way that you think about Christians and slavery?  Onesimus may very well have come back and willingly served Philemon, but their relationship would be very different moving forward.  Just because we live in relationships where one person may submit to another's authority so that one is "master" and the other is "slave" doesn't mean that the "master" gets to mistreat the "slave," nor does it mean that the "slave" gets to be rebellious against the will of the master because he has freedom in Christ.  We should obey every earthly authority we are put under--even that of slavery--unless the person in authority commands us to violate God's law and then we should choose to stand fast to God's Word and His Law trusting God to work things out for His good whether that is by saving us from the punishment (maybe even through death) or using our punishment to further the gospel (again, possibly even through death).  Onesimus now shouldn't have to worry about Philemon giving him commands that would be contrary to God's Law because there was a Christian master and a Christian slave, and they could have an even better, more valuable relationship now that they were Christian brothers.  However, I imagine from the tone of the letter that Philemon probably had Onesimus stay for a while to tell him everything that was going on and to give comfort and aid to the church in Colosse before returning Onesimus to Paul.  I assume that it would be hard to let him go once they had just started this new friendship, but I also imagine that Paul didn't have that many more years left and that Onesimus probably did return to the Colossian church and to Philemon and did great gospel work--we don't know that for sure, but it's just what I might call some "sanctified speculation."

For this reason we should do our best to look past things like slave and free and rich and poor and the "haves" and "have nots" of society.  God is in the business of turning things upside down and having the older serve the younger and using the poor and week to accomplish His purposes.  Never write someone off.  It is many times that have not much to their name that are willing to give up all that they have for Christ, yet God is even able to save some people of means like Philemon for His good pleasure and purposes (even though it is easier for a came to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, thank God that nothing is impossible with God or many of us that are people of "privilege" and "means" would be without any hope.)  All blessings come from God, and we all owe everything to Him whether we have little or we have much, but we all owe everything including our very lives to Him.