Among all the weighty theological treatises the apostle Paul wrote to the churches he had established, among all the complex sentences and profound thoughts and ponderous pronouncements, there is one little gem from the hand of the great apostle that is quite different.
The little letter to Philemon stands alone among Paul's letters as the only one addressed simply to an individual. The letters to Timothy and to Titus, while they bear the names of individuals, are clearly written not only for the person to whom they are addressed, but for a wider audience as well. But Philemon is intimate, personal, a direct appeal from a Christian brother to another Christian brother about a matter involving a third Christian brother. I think it has a charm and an appeal and a message for us today.
We do not know a great deal about the man Philemon; from the text we can gather that he was a leader in an early Christian church, prominent enough in that church to host its meetings in his own home. That likely means that he was a man of some substance, to have had room enough to hold a group of believers … probably in the city of Colossae, by the way … and to have been able to own at least one slave or servant.
The slave is Onesimus, and he is the subject of this little letter. Somehow he had run away from his master and had made his way to Rome, where Paul was in prison. And, strange as it may seem, he had found Paul, visited Paul, and then had been led to faith in Christ by Paul.
Now when Onesimus became a Christian, some things had to be dealt with in his life. That always happens, by the way. You cannot claim to be Christian and leave untouched and unexamined all the relationships in your life. You cannot develop a relationship to God in Christ and then leave every other relationship as it was. We learned that last week from John, and now Paul in his own way is going to reinforce it for us. But Paul and Onesimus must have had some long and fascinating conversations. Onesimus ran away from Philemon, his Christian master, but now he had met a new master, Christ himself. And what would that do, what should that do, between him and Philemon? What would Philemon think now? What new dimensions could spring up between them? Could they just go back to the way things had been and pretend that nothing had happened? Could Onesimus just keep on running and wipe out his past experiences with Philemon? Clearly Paul felt that something radically life-transforming was now taking place. And so he penned this little letter to interpret it for both Philemon and Onesimus; he penned this little letter to teach all men and women in all ages something about the transformation in human relationships that occurs when Christ intervenes in your life.
I've said we do not know very much about either Onesimus or Philemon. But we surely can exercise creative imagination, under the spirit of God, using the Biblical material from not only this letter, but also from Acts and Colossians, and we can imagine together what it might have been like if instead of one letter only we had a whole file of correspondence. I am asking you this morning to turn on your imaginations with me and to open the Paul and Philemon correspondence file.
PAUL: My dear Philemon, it has been too long since I have seen you or any others of the church in Colossae. But I want you to understand that that is not by choice. I am now a prisoner in Rome. You remember that I have wanted for so long to go to Rome and to meet with the Christians here; and you remember that I want, too, to go on to Spain and begin some churches there. And so when Governor Festus and King Agrippa imprisoned me and kept on questioning me, I saw my opportunity and claimed my right as a Roman citizen. I demanded to be sent to Rome for trial; you see, better to go to Rome a prisoner than to stay in Asia a free man, but with no way to move ahead with what God has called me to do. Philemon, one of the things I will be sharing with you is that there is sometimes a very thin line, a very thin line, between freedom and captivity.
Here is what I am really getting at. I've just had a visitor, one you will know very well. Onesimus, your servant, has made his way to Rome and has been to see me. And I want to ask you to do something for him and for me. I want to ask you to forgive him for running away. I want you to receive him not as a slave but as a brother. Will you do that for me, Philemon? Your friend, Paul.
PHlLEMON: Dear friend Paul, Your letter was most disturbing to me, and I have read it over and over, trying to determine what to do and what I feel. First of all, I am disturbed to learn that you are still in prison. I thought that by now Caesar would have heard your case and would have let you go – surely there cannot be any reason to hold you in prison. Unless, Paul, he is trying to extort some money from you like our old governor, Felix, did.
Have they put pressure on you to pay any bribes? Some of us would be in a position to help contribute, if that would get you out more quickly.
But that's not all that disturbs me. I have been upset for weeks now about losing Onesimus. That ungrateful wretch! He doesn't seem to remember that I took him on when he had no future; he doesn't seem to remember that he was in fact on his way to the auction block, and he probably would have had to row a galley ship if I hadn’t picked him up, at a pretty steep price, too, I might say. And now he treats me like this; just a plain runaway, that’s what. No gratitude in his bones at all.
So what do you mean, that you want me to receive him as if he were a brother? I'll receive him, all right; if you can arrange for the authorities to chain him and put him on the first ship headed back this way, I will receive him. I will receive him and punish him and put him right back to work. He will learn what it means to mess with Philemon!
So can you do that for me, Paul? Alert your guards, and the next time he comes around to see you, have them seize him and get him on his way back to Colossae. By the way, why did he look you up? He knows that you and I are friends, and I can't imagine that he thinks you would be in sympathy with what he has done.
By the way, Paul, the church here is growing and doing well. They don't fit in my atrium too well any more. We may need to ask Archippus to find another larger space soon.
Your fellow Christian, Philemon
PAUL: I am always glad to hear from you and from the church in Colossae. Remember to have them read the letter I sent during the next Lord's Day worship. I have written to reaffirm that Christ is Lord of all things, of the whole creation; I have tried to get them to be more caring and more understanding of one another about how to treat folks who have dropped out or who have continued to worship idols. Philemon, you tell me that the church is growing, and I am glad; but remember, numbers are not the only criterion. Quality is important too. Far better that you make good Christians, even though there may only be a few of them, than that you make lots of half-Christians. So be sure to tell Archippus I do want the letter to the Colossian church read, maybe more than once.
Now as for you and as for the request I made, I guess I left out something important in my first letter. I neglected to tell you that something very significant happened with Onesimus while he was visiting with me. He received Christ as his savior. You see, Onesimus came to me because he was not sure what he was going to do with his life; he had jumped on the earliest ship he could find … didn't care where it was going … and found himself in Rome. He was hungry, he was without shelter, he had nothing except his freedom, and even that he was not sure he could keep. So he came to the only person in Rome he knew – to me.
But, Philemon, here I am in chains, and there is no way that I could feed him or give him a bed. But I did have a gift I could give him, something more precious than gold and more valuable and more comforting than the finest palace. I shared with him the immeasurable riches of Christ, as you and I both have experienced, and this he received. Onesimus is now a believer.
Now don't you see what that means? It means that everything is changed. It means that the relationship of master and servant is transformed. It means that you must now see him as your brother: not as beneath you, but beside you. It means that you must receive him and forgive him for what he has done. Take him to your heart, Philemon. Take him to your heart, not to your household chores.
Your friend and fellow servant, Paul
PHILEMON: Dear Paul, I am sure that I should be happy about your news concerning Onesimus, but I am not fully satisfied. It's fine that he has become a believer, but I do not see what that has to do with his condition of servitude. He ran away, and that's that; he should be punished. You know, Paul, that I have the right, under law, to have him branded on the forehead. They can put a big red F, standing for Fugitive, above his long nose, so that the whole world will know what a shameful thing he has done.
Well, I can at least promise that I won't have that done, but I do not see how you can even ask me to see him as an equal. I expect performance, not partnership. I think of him as flesh that is supposed to be mine to order, not as flesh-and-blood, family. Send him back, Paul; it's the law. It's justice.
What an irony, by the way, that his name, Onesimus, means useful. He’s not very useful to me while he runs around Rome and sails across half the world. I want him back, and right now.
With fraternal concern, Philemon.
PAUL: My dear Philemon, I am disappointed in the tone and lack of understanding I find in your letters. I had hoped that you saw and understood the gospel better than this. I had hoped that you could see that when Christ enters anyone's heart – Onesimus' heart, yes, but your heart too – that when Christ enters anyone's heart, he or she begins to see others in a new light. I had hoped that forgiveness was somewhere to be found in you, Philemon.
And so now I shall have to insist rather than ask. I shall have to appeal to you as an apostle of the church of God. You see, Philemon, you owe me something, and I am now going to collect. I was the one by whom you came to Christ, I was the one through whom you learned of the gift of life eternal, and so you owe me at least this much.
Let me tell you what I am going to do. I will send Onesimus back to you, as you have asked. He is in fear and trembling about this, but I have given him my personal assurance that you will take him back and that you will not punish him. In fact, I have already prayed and have already assured him that not only will you not punish him, but that in fact you will receive him as your brother.
You see, Philemon, what I am doing is for your own good as well as for Onesimus' good. Think of it this way: while Onesimus was your slave, he was, in fact, useless to you, as you have said. You cannot compel anyone's heart, though you may have compelled his body. But if you transform that relationship, if you employ the discipline of forgiveness, he will serve you out of love instead of out of fear.
Please, Philemon, do not forget what I have said, and please allow it to happen in your own life and heart: when Christ enters your heart, not only does he give you a new relationship with God, but also he gives you a new relationship with others. You begin to see others as brothers and as sisters, as real persons for whom Christ died. And you cannot any longer put anybody down when that happens.
I beg you, I appeal to you, Philemon -- refresh my heart. I am sending you not only the man Onesimus, I am sending my very heart to you. Refresh my heart. In apostolic concern, Paul.
PHILEMON: To Paul, a prisoner for Christ, from Philemon, who has just discovered his own captivity; Dear Paul: Onesimus has this day returned to my household. You do not need to be afraid for him. Strangely, beautifully, there has opened up between us a new and stronger bond than ever I would have thought possible. And it is not only that Onesimus is a changed man; so am I. It is not only that a former servant has understood that he is somebody of value in Christ; it is also that a former slave-master has seen that in Christ there is no longer bond versus free, there is no longer over versus under, there is no longer any room to be proud of what you own or what you have done or what you possess.
No, Paul, I lost Onesimus for a little while, but now he and I will spend eternity together. And until we die, we are going to be friends, fellow-workers in the Gospel. I have forgiven him, yes; but, more important, he has forgiven me. You can imagine how difficult it was at first for me to ask his forgiveness; there is something deep down inside that is too proud for that. But when I did, when I took Onesimus by the hand and looked him in his eyes and asked him to forgive not only what I had done as his master, but also what I had thought about him, why then a flood of peace refreshed my heart.
What a gift Christ gives us in allowing us to see others as brothers and sisters in spirit! And to think I almost missed it, Paul! To think that because of the hardness and coldness of my heart I almost missed it! Thank you, dear friend, and if you ever get out of prison, please come and stay in my house. Gratefully, Philemon.
PAUL: Dear brothers, two in number, Philemon and Onesimus, I can now say that whatever happens to me here, my heart will be at peace, my heart is refreshed. The gospel has worked its marvelous work, as I knew it would. And it is working here also, for with me here in Rome are such a team of diverse and different workers as you would hardly believe. There is Epaphras, whom you know from Colossae; and Mark, whom I once had to receive back, much as you received Onesimus and made “useless” “useful" again; and the Greeks Aristarchus and Demas; and dear Luke, who is busily recording all that takes place. We are all so different, and yet in each of us Christ is working according to our needs, and we are finding things in common, we are finding ways to love each other we had never dreamed before.
Luke, as you know, is a physician, and he has taught each of us how to revive persons who are fainting; he calls it CPR. It’s a very good skill to have. But the Lord Jesus has used a heavenly CPR on me and has refreshed my heart through you. Let's be grateful to him, Philemon. The grace of .the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Gratefully, Paul.
