Philemon 1

Philemon 1:1-25

EPISTLE TO Philemon 1:1-25. THE Epistle to Philemon is the briefest emanating from Paul’s pen. That fact has discredited it in the minds of some, so that they have doubted whether it was ever intended to be a part of the Sacred Canon. And yet Origen names it as such; Jerome defended its canonicity against the critics of his day; Ignatius alluded to it; while Paley has presented the coincidents between it and the Epistle to the Colossians as striking proofs that it emanated from Paul’s pen, and that it was written at the same place, and at the same time, with the Epistle to the Colossians, and even sent by the same hand, that of Onesimus.The same persons are named in each of these Epistles as sending salutation, and each of them addresses Archippus (Philemon 1:2; Colossians 4:17). In each of them Paul also names “Timothy” as his associate, and names himself as “a prisoner” (Philemon 1:9; Colossians 4:18). It was about 61 or 62, therefore, that this Epistle was penned, in the time of his first imprisonment at Rome.The purpose of the Epistle is plain to even the most casual reader; and the lessons to be learned from it are almost as multitudinous as the sentences employed in it. It will be my purpose this morning to lay emphasis upon two: Fraternity in Suffering; Fraternity in Salvation.

IN The opening sentence is significant! “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ”.But this unhappy plight was not endured by the Apostle alone. In verse twenty-three, he says, “There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus”; while in his Epistle to the Colossians, written at the same time, he names: “Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you”. And in his Epistle to the Romans (Romans 16:7) the salutation is: “Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsman, and my fellow prisoner’s”.There are three things suggested by the Apostle’s imprisonment, and the language of this Epistle: Paul and his fellows are prisoners of Jesus Christ; Paul and his fellows are prisoners for Jesus Christ, and Paul and his fellows are prisoners with Jesus Christ.Paul and his fellows are prisoners of Jesus Christ.“Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer, “And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the Church in thy house: “Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. There can scarcely be a question that the Apostle has at least a twofold meaning in this phrase—“A prisoner of Jesus Christ”! The first is a physical fact; the second, a spiritual experience. As a follower of Jesus he was imprisoned at Rome; as a convert to Jesus he was the captive of His power and grace. This latter fact takes on a peculiar significance in view of the civilization to which Paul belonged. It was the day when the Roman general went forth conquering and to conquer. It was not his delight to destroy his enemies, but to capture them instead, and trail them at his chariot wheels, in proof of his success in war, to become the slaves of his government and the servants of his will at home.

Paul was a Christ-captive! As Saul, he had deliberately gone to war against Jesus; but at the point of the Nazarene’s spear, as he himself expressed it, he found out the folly of his undertaking.

It was near to Damascus that the battle occurred, and the brilliant youth, member of the Jewish sanhedrin, went down in the crash of the same; and as his Conqueror stood over him, he knew that he had met more than his match, that further opposition was futile, that surrender was sensible, and so he gave himself over, captive to the Lord’s will, putting the question: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do”?It was the surrender of a soul to the very Son of God; it was the acceptance of a position of “a bond servant”; it was the admission that he had been made a prisoner of war. Truly, as Joseph Parker, the great London preacher, speaking of this very incident, remarked: “There is so little of this conquest experience now. Let me repeat it, there is far too much intellectual assent, and acceptance of propositions, and endorsement of orthodoxy; what we should desire is that we should be overwhelmed, overpowered, conquered; and one print of that spear should be the only order of dignity we ask for. Our captivity in Jesus Christ is attested by our scars and not by our opinions; by our wounds and not by our intellectual conceits.”The true prisoner of the Lord is never conceited; he is conscious of captivity; his pride has gone down before the spear point; his will has been humbled; without controversy, he is “a bond slave”. He could sing with the converted infidel Hone in the following lines:“The proudest heart that ever beat Has been subdued in me; The wildest will that ever rose To scorn Thy friends, to aid Thy foes, Is quelled, my God, by Thee. Thy will and not my will be done; I will be ever Thine, To sing Thy praise, Incarnate Word, My Saviour, Christ, my God, my Lord; Thy Cross shall be my sign.” Paul and his fellows are prisoners for Jesus Christ. They could say as truthfully as ever John wrote of his experience in the Isle of Patmos: “For the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus”— also Paul, in the prison at Rome: “For the Word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus”.How that consciousness helped him! A man who is in prison with a stain of crime upon his soul, the consciousness of it crying into his ears, cringes and cries and is cowed; but the man who is there knowing that he is persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and imprisoned for teaching and believing the most glorious Gospel the world ever heard, or will ever hear, is as content as a conqueror, and far more courageous than those who hold the key to his captivity.When the captain of the Temple, with officers, brought Peter and other Apostles before the council, and the High Priest said: “Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this Name”?Peter and the other Apostles answered, and said: “We ought to obey God rather than man”. The prospect of prison moved them in nothing. When Paul and Silas were cast into the inner prison, and their feet were made fast in the stocks, no shame mantled their cheeks, and no sorrow crushed their spirits. At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them. And when that old prison rocked until the doors were opened and they had a chance to escape, they refused to go, and when the next morning, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying,“Let those men go”, Paul replied:“They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. “And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans. “And they came and besought them, and brought them out, and desired them to depart out of the city”. We have wondered at times what it was that kept up the missionary, who, removed from the fellowship of his kith and kin, and the sight of the faces of special friends, and who, dwelling day by day in a multitude of dangers, and in the midst of daily opponents, and in lands of darkness and night, kept not only his content but the utmost good cheer? It is the same consciousness—“I am here for Christ’s sake!” There are some birds that can only sing in the day time; when the night falls they are silent! Not so with the nightingale; the deeper the night the sweeter his song. I have not ceased to regret, nor even been able to forgive myself for the indolence that sent me to bed at Stratford on Avon at eleven o’clock when by abiding up another hour I could, on that very night, have heard these sweet voiced birds make the cemetery, by the famous cathedral, melodious.The true prisoner for Jesus Christ is seldom called upon to ask the question of Elihu, Job’s comforter: “Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night”? He knows, for that God is with Him. He can say with the Psalmist: “The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me” (Psalms 42:8).There are people who are forever working at the problem of bettering and changing their environment, believing that contentment and joy are expressions of circumstance. It is the blunder of blunders. The nightingale’s song is not elicited by a rising sun, by the sight of the world dipped in dew and quivering as with billions of diamonds.

It is within his heart, and finds expression when the hush of night is over all the world, and all others have forgotten the praise of God. So with the prisoner of Jesus Christ, at midnight he has songs upon his lips; his neighbors do well to listen.Paul and his fellows were prisoners with Jesus Christ.

He had no notion that they were in their cells alone. There are people who when cast into prison would think of nothing but their direful estate, and see nothing but the blank, cold wall that barred them against an inviting world. There are others who, as a writer puts it: “Enlarged the gaol by taking Christ into it, and when they were both together, though in prison, they were in Heaven.”That would be true under any circumstances. The most fearful illustration of hell found in the Bible is “a consuming fire”; and yet, what would that be but Heaven if Christ were in it with you? We have not forgotten the Book of Daniel, nor the decree of Nebuchadnezzar, the king, nor yet, the flat refusal of Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego to regard the decree, or serve the false gods, or worship the golden image, nor the final issue of it all, that the furnace should be heated seven times more than it was wont to be, and the most mighty men of the king’s army should bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and cast them into that burning, fiery furnace; and when they fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, was astonished, and arose up in haste, and said to his counsellors, “Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? ** Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt: and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God”.Certainly they had no hurt! The danger is no danger.

Certainly the fire cannot kindle upon them; certainly fire will fail of its wonted effects; they are in it with Jesus. To be in the midst with Jesus would be to be in Heaven, and to be in prison with Jesus is to enjoy a liberty that the world knows not of!

The inspiration of daring apostles in all centuries has been in the promise: “Lo, I am with you”. Abraham Coles wrote:“What things shall happen on the morrow, Thou kindly hidest from our gaze; But tellest us, in joy or sorrow, ‘Lo! I am with you all the days”. “When round our head the tempest rages, And sink our feet in miry ways, Thy voice comes floating down the ages, “Lo! I am with you all the days”. “O Thou who art our life and meetness! Nor death shall daunt us or amaze, Hearing those words of power and sweetness Lo! I am with you all the days’.” That is what made the fellowship of suffering on the part of Paul and his fellow-prisoners sweet! Christ shared their cell; He was with them.The second suggestion from this Epistle to Philemon is: IN Here the object in writing it, and the majority of its sentences find their significance.Salvation disposes of social distinctions. Paul thanks God for Philemon’s fellowship, making mention also of him in his prayers, having a good report of his help and faith toward both the Lord Jesus and all saints, and sharing with others in the consolations of that help, and in the recognition of refreshment by such a brother, insisting that his right as an apostle would not be strained if he “enjoined” Philemon, yet preferring to exercise the spirit of a brother, and plead with him, and he makes his appeal more effective by reminding him of the fact that he is “Paul, the aged,” now also “a prisoner of Jesus Christ”. His intercession is in behalf of his child Onesimus, saved now by the Gospel preached at the prisoner’s lips, but who in times past was an unprofitable servant of Philemon’s. Onesimus the runaway slave, but now a convert to Christ, is sent back to him with the request that Philemon receive him as the very expression of the great Apostle’s own heart.And he is not now to be received as “a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved”.The day this runaway slave accepted Jesus, Paul claimed him as his child; the moment he was fully assured that that acceptance was genuine, Paul recommended him as a brother in Christ to Philemon, his Christian son. Caste has wrought a cruel role in the world. Arthur T.

Pierson, that great man and marvelous writer, said: “The most formidable foe to human progress has been caste—the arbitrary elevation of an elect few above the many, the erection of barriers, more or less inflexible, to prevent the average man from advancing beyond the common mass or rising above the common level. He is a philanthropist, who in any department of life, helps to break down caste.”Then Jesus was the philanthropist of the centuries, and Christianity the advanced movement of the millenniums, for in Christ Jesus there is no master and slave, no bond or free; we are brethren.

The learned Paul is a brother to the ignorant Peter; and the rich Joseph of Arimathea, has an occasion and a pride that he can now claim a kinship of brotherhood with John, the sweet-souled fisherman.It was not, as some have mentioned, the crowning day for humanity when Caracalla conferred Roman citizenship upon the whole world. That crowning day is yet to come. When every knee shall bow to Christ, and every tongue shall call Him, Lord, and all nations, made to dwell together upon the face of the earth, come to brotherhood “in Christ”—that will be the Crowding Day for humanity! And in that day class distinctions will be dead. The salvation which is in the Son of God will slay them.Salvation predisposes to proper understanding and sympathy. I have little doubt that Philemon was a man of means.

Paul calls attention to the fact that his house was big enough to hold a Church, and his estate rich enough to own and employ slaves. But Paul, compelled to work with his hands, in tent building, for a living, had no fear of being misunderstood, or unsympathetically interpreted at his hands, since Philemon had accepted Christ.After the last word is spoken that may be truthfully said concerning the failures and short-comings of the Church of God, even of its individual members, the fact remains that they are the world’s most dependable men and women.

In exact proportion as they know Christ Christians are sympathetic; and in exact proportion as Christ dominates their lives they are capable of properly interpreting their fellows, and of kindly considering and treating them.I have been in the home of a poor man who was devoted to Jesus. The furnishing of that home was plain in the last degree and the fare was nigh scant, but I felt at ease in his fellowship. I have had the rich man play host, and the titled man. I have slept in his mansion and sat at his table, walked in his gardens, and had no more fear of being misunderstood or misinterpreted than if we had been born and bred under the same roof, for, after all, we were brothers, and knew it.Yes, Paul, you are right, Philemon will read into your Letter what you put there, and nothing that you did not intend; and he will read out from your Letter what you wanted, but did not say; and as you hope, he will do “even more” than you have demanded, or urged.Salvation gives promise of mutual admiration and assistance. Paul in this Epistle makes a number of requests of Philemon. He asks him to receive back again his runaway slave.He asks him to believe that the slave who was aforetime unprofitable will now prove profitable to him.He asks him to lift that slave to the position of a brother beloved.He says if he has been wronged by the slave to wipe the account from the slate, or charge it up to the Apostle.He tells him plainly that he expects him to do more than requested.

And then he concludes by saying: “Prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall he given unto you”. Get ready to be my host!I cannot help but admire the independent man, the man who never forces himself upon his friends, or makes any drafts upon their hoards or hospitality; and yet, on the contrary, I know, as do you, that oftentimes the greatest compliment you can pay some people, and the greatest joy you can give them, is to ask aid of them, and receive hospitality from them.

The favored of the earth, who know God, long to serve Him by assisting their fellows, and they look upon such opportunities, not as an imposition but as a Divine appointment.I wish I personally knew the poet who wrote:“There are hermit souls that live withdrawn In the place of their self-content, There are souls like stars that dwell alone In a fellowless firmament: There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths Where the highway never ran, But let me live in my house by the side of the road And be a friend to man. “Let me live in my house by the side of the road, Where the race of men goes by, The men that are good, the men that are bad, As good and as bad as I; For why should I sit in the scoffer’s chair, Or hurl the cynic’s ban; Let me live in my house by the side of the road, And be a friend to man.”