Philemon I

MINISTER, Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.

Paul's Epistle to Philemon. Philemon Verses 1-2.

We still have a few weeks till Christmas, so I have decided to get started on another book of the Bible. A few weeks ago, we completed the book of Genesis -- and since that is in the Old Testament, I am starting again in the New Testament.

This morning I shall begin to look at Paul's Letter to Philemon -- one of the shortest books of the Bible -- but a very interesting book that is packed with important truths.

Philemon -- who received this letter from Paul -- was a prominent Christian, whose home was used as a home Church -- a place where many Christians would worship and fellowship together.

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Philemon was also a slave-owner -- and the story that lies behind this letter is that one of Philemon's slaves ran away -- and while that slave was on the run, he was saved -- and the apostle Paul sent him back to Philemon -- not as a slave, says Paul, but as a brother in the Lord.

It is interesting that although Philemon was a prominent Christian, he still held slaves. Slavery was deeply ingrained in Roman society, and if you live in a society like that -- and all your friends live in a society like that, it may take a while for your Christian faith to change every part of your social heritage.

We should take note of that. How many habits and thought patterns have we adopted from our own society, without so much as giving them a second thought?

This morning I am going to follow this letter of Paul's verse by verse. We shall follow the letter simply as it stands.

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This letter was written when Paul was an old man. In verse 9 he describes himself as "Paul an old man". Paul was also in jail in Rome. And not only was he in jail, but he was chained to the wall of his cell. In verse 13 he says, "I am in chains."

Let’s begin at verse 1. In verse 1, Paul begins with the words: "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus."

I wonder whether we notice anything unusual about these opening words. If you look at them carefully, you will see that they are in fact very unusual. “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus." And Paul repeats those words in verse 9 as well.

Some Bibles translate this: "Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus" -- but that is not correct. The exact translation is: "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus." Not of the Roman authorities -- not of the Roman emperor -- but of Christ Jesus.

This is something very important, and it gives us a very important clue as to how Paul is thinking about his circumstances here in this prison.

I wonder how you and I might have thought about such a prison situation. I wonder if, like Paul, we had been unjustly persecuted for our faith, and arrested, and chained to a wall in a cell, without a fair trial. How would you and I have considered the situation?

There are three ways one could react.

Firstly, one could take the completely negative view. One could say: "This is a really bad deal. I am in prison unjustly. I’m in prison for nothing. My life is destroyed. There can't be any good in something like this."

And aren't there so many many people in life who react to bad situations like this. Let anything go wrong in life, and they suffer a serious loss of humour, and life's happiness and meaningfulness is undone. And when they cannot change the situation, they either become resigned or depressed, or on the other hand, they become enraged or enormously frustrated. Perhaps this speaks of you this morning.

But there has to be a better way -- and that better way is offered to us in Jesus Christ -- as we shall see.

Secondly -- a second way in which one may react -- is to say, "I am here in this prison cell, and chained to this wall, for the Lord -- as some Bibles translate it. I am doing this for the Lord. I am going to make the best of a bad situation for Him."

Now this is a far better attitude than the first -- but it is not yet the same as the attitude of Paul, as we shall see.

It's hard to express this -- but something one does for the Lord is still something that I am doing, and something that in a way is still about me. In a way, it still focuses on me and my circumstances and my response in this situation.

It’s a good motive -- but it is not the same as the attitude of Paul in this verse. We’ll see this in the third possible way one can respond to such a situation.

The third possible reaction is the reaction of Paul: "I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” And what Paul is saying is: “It is Christ Jesus who put me here and set these chains upon me. He has the sovereign authority here. He has the plan. All these people and these circumstances are not what is driving this situation.”

And this is what makes a situation totally different. And it is only such an attitude that can transform a situation completely. Only then can you really say, in such a dismal situation: "Thank you, Lord -- I am Your prisoner. I have the best Jailer in the world. I am surrounded by His love every moment of every day."

You might have experienced some unhappy situation that you could not immediately change -- that was frustrating you and getting you down. You were imprisoned in it. And perhaps you are experiencing such a situation in your life today.

What would the apostle Paul have said? He would have said: "I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that I am Your prisoner here.” When Peter and John were put in jail, they said something very similar. They said that Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the Jews “did what God’s power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” Acts 4:28).

And just as Paul essentially said: "Christ Jesus is my Jailer," so should we say, when we are imprisoned in a situation: "Christ Jesus is my employer here," or "Christ Jesus is my bank manager today," or "Christ Jesus is my landlord in this place." "I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” And only such a faith -- which is based on a living relationship with Christ -- can truly transform a situation and make it different.

If you’re in the hands of unstable and selfish people, then you have something to worry about. If you think that their evil schemes are in control, then you have something to be distressed about. If you don’t know what people are going to do -- if they are going to harm you, or hurt you -- then you have reason to have sleepless nights.

But the message we have from Paul, in the very first verse of Philemon is: “I am a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s was the worst situation -- but He could see what every Christian should be able to see. Jesus Christ is Lord over my situation.

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Let us move on, then.

In verses 1 and 2, we come across a number of names. Besides Timothy, who is writing this letter with Paul, they are the names of three people whom Paul is writing to. And what I would like to look at in particular is the way in which these names -- these persons -- are described by the apostle Paul.

He uses four words to describe the people he is writing to. And all of these words are words that apply very much to every Christian today. Paul describes these recipients of his letter as "friend" -- "fellow worker" -- "sister" -- and "fellow soldier".

The first term -- in verse 1 -- is "friend". Philemon, says Paul, is a dear friend. The original Greek word says "one who is loved", or a loved one. It comes from that very well known Christian word, "agape".

What is a friend?

Well a friend is someone who is close to you -- a friend is someone who really cares about you, and loves you, and really has time for you as a person. The word “friend” appears in nearly every book in the New Testament -- and it shows us what kinds of relationships there were in the early Church.

Something one often hears from ministers is that they have lots of members -- or lots of colleagues in the ministry -- but few friends. They are the Chairman or the Counsellor or the Administrator or the Preacher, but seldom the friend. I feel as though I have many friends here. I don’t feel isolated and put up against a wall as I know that many ministers do.

But this applies not only to ministers. It applies to employers and domestic workers and Bible study leaders, or to the person next to you in your pew this morning. As Christians we should be friends. We should really care about each other, and love each other, and really have time for each other as persons -- and not allow anything to make us less than friends.

Secondly, we come across the term "fellow worker" in verse 1. This term also applies in some way to every Christian. We are workers -- and we are fellow workers.

And that means we are working together for the Church of Christ. We are not just spectators, or idlers, but we are committed to making the whole thing work.

Elsewhere in the New Testament Paul says that we are "fellow workers for the kingdom of God." (Colossians 4:11). And this explains more precisely what we are workers for. We are working for God's kingdom -- to save souls, to teach the Word, and to deepen each other's love and usefulness to the Lord.

Do you fit this Biblical description? Are you a worker for the kingdom of God?

Many Christians do not fit this description at all. They come to Church to worship on a Sunday, and perhaps they keep their daily devotions, but they are not real workers for the kingdom of God.

Someone once said: "What would your boss say, at work, if you talked to him all day and sang him love songs -- but did no real work?"

We should all be "fellow workers" for the Lord and for His Church.

Thirdly, we come across the term "sister" -- in verse 2. The apostle Paul also uses the term "brother" in this letter, which he uses three times.

What is a sister? What is a brother?

Of course, a sister or a brother is someone who belongs to the same family. And because they belong to the same family -- because they have grown up in the same home, with the same experiences, and the same environment -- if it’s a normal situation, there are certain things that are true of all brothers and sisters. They have come to understand things the same way, they feel equal to each other, and close to each other.

Not all people are brothers and sisters. Not all people are capable of being brothers and sisters as the Bible means it here.

In the world out there, people are divided from each other -- because of their sins. They have a different social status -- they have different goals in life -- they don’t have time for each other’s ways -- and so on. There are all sorts of things that divide people from each other. The only reason why some of them treat each other as brothers or sisters is because God in His goodness allows some goodness to remain in a sinful world -- the theological term for that is God's "common grace".

You might have heard people speak about "the brotherhood of man". According to the Bible, there is no brotherhood of man. That brotherhood has been broken very seriously through sin.

However, once we become Christians, all the things that once divided us should fade away into insignificance -- and we should become one family -- hence those words "sister" and "brother".

In this epistle to Philemon, Paul urges a master and a slave -- Philemon and Onesimus -- two people who seem far apart -- to accept each other as brothers -- brothers in the Lord -- as children of the same family.

And fourthly, we come across the term "fellow soldier", in verse 2. This also applies to every one of us this morning.

What is a soldier?

A soldier is a person who wages war -- and if he is not at war, he is training for war, or is on the alert for war. Obviously, in the case of the Christian, we do not wage physical war. So what Paul is talking about is spiritual war. Christian believers are engaged in spiritual warfare.

Now a lot of Christians go through life just seeing the things one sees in front of one every day. Even in the Church, Christians so often see the buildings or the flowers or the people -- but they do not have a clear vision for the things that are far more important that this, which is the spiritual realities in this world.

As Christian believers, we should be acutely aware of the spiritual battle that we face every day.

The Bible reminds us: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against ... the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12).

Some people only have an eye for worldly things -- the television, the newspapers and magazines, the shopping malls, the cinemas, the sports fields and attractions, and their money and their career. The list is almost endless.

But Paul reminds us that as Christians, we are soldiers, who are fighting "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms". We are seeking to gain spiritual victories, all the time. That is what matters to us. We are fighting to overcome temptation, we are fighting to keep faith against difficult circumstances, we are fighting to be patient, to be generous -- we are fighting against pettiness and selfishness -- and so on.

We don’t know exactly how Archippus, in verse 2, was a fellow soldier of Paul -- but Archippus was surely someone who was fighting a spiritual battle, and won.

A Christian, therefore, is also a person who has a keen spiritual sight -- and is involved in spiritual warfare -- through prayer, through fellowship, through witness, through struggle.

These four points are standards that we should measure ourselves up against as Christians.

Do you try to be a friend to everyone in your Christian family?

Are you a worker for the Lord -- are you really helping to make the Church or Christ work?

Do you treat every Christian believer as your brother or your sister -- as though you grew up with them in the same home?

And are you a soldier for the Lord, who understands what the spiritual fight is about?

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I’d like to add just one word before we close. It’s something from the history books.

In these words that Paul addresses to Philemon and Apphia and Archippus in verses 1 and 2, we see something about this Church that Paul is writing to -- we see something about who the people were who were in this Church. And we know from history that what came out of this Church was one of the most important things in the history of the Church.

About fifty years later, when the great Bishop Ignatius was being led to his execution, he hastily wrote some letters on the way, to some important Christian leaders -- and we still have those letters today. One letter was to a past member of this Church, which met in the house of Philemon. It was a letter to the runaway slave Onesimus.

And Onesimus became a very important bishop in the Church. He was the bishop of Ephesus -- and he was the Christian bishop who decided to gather together all the most important writings of the Christian Church -- to put together the first complete New Testament. And he put into that New Testament this letter to Philemon -- his old slave-owner, who by this time -- fifty years later -- was surely dead.

So these things that we read about the people in this Church -- friendship, and work for God’s kingdom, and their being sisters and brothers, and their spiritual warfare -- in fact led to some of the most important things that happened in the Christian Church.

Imagine if we had a runaway slave among us -- and he was a thief -- Onesimus had stolen from his master -- and he was saved. But still -- who was this young man, who had just been a slave all his life -- a servant, and less than a servant.

That young man could be one of the greatest things that happened to the Church of tomorrow -- if we are a Church today who show the same characteristics as this Church we find meeting here -- in this letter to Philemon.

AMEN.