Philemon

Brother 4 times; Receive 3 times; Love 3 times Key Scipture: 1:15-16 Time of Writing: 61 A.D.

Verses 1-7: Greeting and Thanksgiving for Philemon Verses 8-25: Plea for Onesimus, Benediction

Purposes:

1. To persuade Philemon to receive Onesimus as a brother rather than as a runaway slave
2. To inform Philemon that Paul would soon be released from prison and would visit him

Messages:

1. We are to receive one another as Christ also has received us.
2. Regardless of our social position we are all brethren in the Lord.

TheosU

Unlike his other letters, Paul does not introduce himself to his readers as an apostle for Christ Jesus; rather, he appeals to Philemon as a dear friend. He expresses his love for him and the abundant love he’s received. After, he appeals to Philemon to accept his runaway slave, Onesimus, back as if he were accepting Paul back.

see also Galatians 3:28

v.1

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon, our dear friend and fellow worker,

Paul’s friendship with Philemon is shown by something significantly missing in his greeting. Of the 13 letters Paul wrote to churches or individuals, in 9 of them he called himself an apostle in the opening verse. In this letter (along with Philippians and 1&2 Thessalonians), Paul appealed to his reader more as a friend and less an apostle.

EnduringWord

v.6

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

v.7

Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

Hospitality was considered a paramount virtue in Greco-Roman antiquity, especially in Judaism. Well-to-do hosts often gathered those one rung below them on the economic ladder, sometimes members of their own religious group, to their home and provided a meal;

CraigKeener

“Refresh” is also in 2 Corinthians 7:13.

v.16

no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.

v.19

I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back - not to mention that you owe me your very self.

Here we see how Paul lays himself out for poor Onesimus, and with all his means pleads his cause with his master, and so sets himself as if he were Onesimus, and had himself done wrong to Philemon. Even as Christ did for us with God the Father, thus also does Paul for Onesimus with Philemon. We are all his Onesimi, to my thinking.

luther