Philemon
Refresh the Saints
Philemon 1-7

POINTS AND LINES FROM THE SERMON

• The focus of Philemon is on how the gospel impacts damaged, even broken, relationships between Christians.
• To be poised to navigate complex and contentious relationships, we need to have a ministry mindset for refreshing the saints. Philemon refreshed the saints. He didn’t live on an island, but he was with the saints, and he had a reputation of loving the saints.
• We too can be poised to diffuse the relational landmines we stumble upon by being on a mission of ministry for refreshing the saints instead of a mission of “me” for our own comfort and fulfillment.
• Forgiveness is possible through grace-enabled relationships, in which the saints are refreshed, reconciled, and restored.

Refresh the Saints (1-7)

• 1-3: Be with the saints
• 4-7: Love the saints

QUOTES FROM THE SERMON (EXTENDED)

Paul’s method is subtler. He of course knows (1 Cor. 7:21–23) that in principle it is better to be free than to be a slave. But, like Jesus, his way of changing the world is to plant a grain of mustard seed, which, inconspicuous at first, grows into a spreading tree. And in the meantime (see the commentary on Col. 3:22–4:1) he teaches slaves and masters to treat themselves, and each other, as human beings. Like the artist or poet, he does some of his finest work not by the obscure clarity of direct statement, but by veiled allusion and teasing suggestion.

______________________________

1 Mark Meynell, Colossians & Philemon for You, ed. Carl Laferton, God’s Word for You (The Good Book Company, 2018), 186–187.

2 N. T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 12, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 174.

It is significant that the New Testament nowhere attacks slavery directly. Had Jesus and the apostles done so, the result would have been chaos. Any slave insurrection would have been brutally crushed, and the slaves massacred. The gospel would have been swallowed up by the message of social reform. Further, right relations between slaves and masters made it a workable social institution, if not an ideal one.

Christianity, however, sowed the seeds of the destruction of slavery. It would be destroyed not by social upheaval, but by changed hearts. The book of Philemon illustrates that principle. Paul does not order Philemon to free Onesimus, or teach that slavery is evil. But by ordering Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother (Philem. 16; cf. Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1), Paul eliminated the abuses of slavery. Marvin Vincent comments, “The principles of the gospel not only curtailed [slavery’s] abuses, but destroyed the thing itself; for it could not exist without it abuses. To destroy its abuses was to destroy it” (Vincent, Philemon, p. 167).

One writer summed up the importance of Philemon in relation to slavery in these words:

The Epistle brings into vivid focus the whole problem of slavery in the Christian Church. There is no thought of denunciation even in principle. The apostle deals with the situation as it then exists. He takes it for granted that Philemon has a claim of ownership on Onesimus and leaves the position unchallenged. Yet in one significant phrase Paul transforms the character of the master-slave relationship. Onesimus is returning no longer as a slave but as a brother beloved (Verse 16). It is clearly incongruous for a Christian master to “own” a brother in Christ in the contemporary sense of the word, and although the existing order of society could not be immediately changed by Christianity without a political revolution (Which was clearly contrary to Christian principles), the Christian master-slave relationship was so transformed from within that it was bound to lead ultimately to the abolition of the system. (Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1970], p. 640)3

In Philemon, Paul built his case on the relationships that emerge in Christ. It is a Christian defense against the institution. While others argued for the brotherhood of man, Paul rooted his thoughts in the “in Christ” relationship. All “in Christ” were united, and they participated in a common task of knowing Christ. Right thinking people wish the best for their families, and right thinking Christians wish the best for their spiritual brothers and sisters as well. Thus, manumission of slaves logically proceeds from the message of the gospel. All persons are equal, and in Christ that equality can be freely expressed (Gal 3:28). “What this letter does is to bring us into an atmosphere in which the institution could only wilt and die.”

________________________

John F. MacArthur Jr., Philemon, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), 206.

Paul’s power was the power of the truth and faith in the Spirit of God. As he approached Philemon, he trusted Philemon to respond to the word of God in voluntary obedience. Paul did not speak against the institution; his theology spoke for him. Paul did not choose activism; he trusted the power of preaching. Paul refused coercion; he let God lead even his closest friends. Thus, this small epistle does not forbid slavery overtly. Slavery was not even the issue it was written to solve: It was the occasion which provided the opportunity to address another matter. The issue was Christian relationships. Nevertheless, genuinely Christian relationships bring an end to such evils as slavery.

On verse 5:

A tēn agapēn, “love”

      B tēn pistin, “faith”

      Bʹ pros ton kyrion Iēsoun, “toward the Lord Jesus”

Aʹ eis pantas tous hagious, “toward all the Lord’s people”

We think this interpretation is the more likely. As we have seen, it matches the usual way Paul speaks of faith and love, and there are parallels in Paul to the way he expresses the matter here.

___________________________

4 Richard R. Melick, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, vol. 32, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 344–345.

5 Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 2008), 388–389.