Paul writes the letter to Philemon in order to appeal to Philemon concerning a run-away slave named Onesimus. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter. In it, Paul exhorts Philemon to forgive Onesimus and receive him back as a brother. How ought we to treat those who we feel have wronged us? This letter is loaded with practical application for today.
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Paul writes the letter to Philemon in order to appeal to Philemon concerning a run-away slave named Onesimus. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon with this letter. In it, Paul exhorts Philemon to forgive Onesimus and receive him back as a brother. How ought we to treat those who we feel have wronged us? This letter is loaded with practical application for today.
Stay engaged with new and up-to-date content, including newsletters, articles, podcasts, etc. Download the Teach Me the Bible App from any app store or Apple TV/Roku device.
Intro/Outro:
You're listening to Teach Me the Bible podcast, where we unpack the meaning of books, passages and themes from Scripture. Join us each week as Dr David Klingler walks us through God's Word and teaches the Bible. Each episode has a study guide available in the show notes. This is Teach Me the Bible podcast.
Alex Wolfe:
Hey everybody, welcome to Teach Me the Bible podcast. My name is Alex Wolfe. I'm here with Dr David Klingler. Our mission is helping the people of God understand the Word of God, and so we're really glad that you've joined us today, that you're entering into the discussion of understanding the biblical story. Now I want to point you to some other resources that we have on our website, teachmethebiblecom.
Alex Wolfe:
We have all kinds of different blog posts and different podcasts on different books of the Bible. We have a Teach Me the Bible in a Year series, so we went through the entire biblical story in a year, and so just kind of want to point you that direction and go check out what we have over there. Get oriented with that. In fact, if you go through that series, you'll find that we have done the Book of Philemon, which we're going to be in today. We kind of did an overview in that series, but we don't like to do anything halfway here, so we are going to do it again as a little bit of a deeper dive into the Book of Philemon, even though it's just one chapter.
Dr. David Klingler:
So it may not be a deeper dive, that's right.
Alex Wolfe:
But we're going to do it again, just for fun, and so I know I'm excited about it. Last time we talked about it just to see Paul's rhetoric and almost cheekiness I like that word, cheeky so in the way that he talks to, in the way that he talks to the recipient of this letter. So, doug, if you want to kind of carry us away and help us understand what Paul's saying, here.
Dr. David Klingler:
Yeah, so the letter that Paul writes to Philemon, which is the name of the letter, is Philemon. It's actually not addressed to just Philemon and there's some interesting things that start right away. A little bit of background. This is a we call this one of Paul's prison epistles, with Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians, and then here, philemon. Those are the four that usually are lumped together. There seems to be some common themes. Some of the same people are mentioned in some of these letters he written. Most people date this around 60, 61, somewhere like that, but it doesn't change. Whatever the situation is, it doesn't change what's being said. Apparently there is a runaway slave that has escaped from Philemon or left Philemon. His name is Anisimus and he has left Philemon and runs straight into Paul and Paul apparently chairs the gospel with him or something, and Anisimus now is, in Paul's estimation, useful to Paul and to his ministry. And so he sends Anisimus back, probably carrying this letter, and appeals to Philemon to allow Anisimus to serve Paul in prison on Philemon's behalf. It's basically the letter, and really Philemon has no choice. The apostles requested this of him and he's going to do it. The choice to be made is not what Philemon does, but why he does it, what's his motivation. And so in some ways Paul kind of boxes him in here with how he frames this situation. So let's walk through this. We'll go verse by verse. It's a short letter, it's only 25 verses in our English Bibles. And so Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker. That fellow worker, hold on to that, because Paul has just jumped right in with all of his addresses. We seem to fly right past the introduction. But Paul is very intentional about how he introduces his letters. He's going to ask Philemon to be a fellow worker as well, fellow worker, and how. Philemon is going to continue to be a fellow worker. And so he addresses it to Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker, and to Ephia, our sister, and to Archipelus, our brother, fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. All the way through this letter there's going to be the word you, singular and plural, and so we'll make a distinction because you can't see it in the English text. But this is singular. So this is to Philemon, to these people and to the church in your Philemon's house. Okay, grace to y'all. Now he y'all plural. Now he expands it out. Grace to y'all, in peace from God, our Father, our Lord, jesus Christ.
Dr. David Klingler:
The first thing is, if this is to Philemon, why is he having it read in front of the church? Well, that's going to become pretty obvious pretty quickly, right? I think my God always making mention of you, that singular you, philemon, in my prayers, because I hear of your, philemon, of your love and of the faith which you, philemon, have towards all the saints, towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints, that the fellowship of your faith, or the maybe participation of your faith, may be effective through the true knowledge of every good work which is in you, philemon, for Christ's sake, now let's stop there. What Paul's going to ask Philemon to do is to send Onesimus back, but not just send him back. Send him back as a fellow worker, a brother in Christ, not a slave right, regard him as a brother.
Dr. David Klingler:
In doing so, philemon feels like he may feel like he was wrong that Onesimus ran off, and so the question is is Philemon going to hold a grudge, or is he not? Or is he going to treat, forgive and treat him as brother? And so I hear of your love. Back to verse five. I hear of your, philemon, your love and your faith which you have toward the Lord and towards all the saints. Remind you of that.
Alex Wolfe:
Yeah, just right. Yeah, let's just set that.
Dr. David Klingler:
And the fellowship, the participation, probably is better. The participation of your faith may become effectual, effective, through the true knowledge of every good thing which is in you. For Christ's sake and he's going to pile on this You've been doing great. Let me add one more to the list, and this is a big one, don't mess it up. Yeah, for I have come to have much joy. This is verse seven. Much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother, through you, philemon, again building up this, all that he's doing for Christ, for the sake of Christ, and through his commitment for the sake of Christ, the church in his house, how he's apparently caring for people and participating in the gospel. The brethren are encouraged. Therefore, right, verse eight, because of all that you're doing for Christ.
Dr. David Klingler:
Therefore, though, I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, yet, for love's sake, rather, I appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the age, the old apostle Paul, and now a prisoner for Christ Jesus, right, a prisoner. So you're a fellow worker, you're there with a fellow soldier and here I am in prison, a prisoner, that old aged Paul, prisoner that I am Right. He's laying it on thick, I think. Here I appeal to you for my child, anesimus, my child, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, and so Anesimus has apparently left, flee from Philemon, run straight into Paul, been converted, and so Paul calls him a child. I appeal to you, philemon, for my child Anesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was worthless to you, was useless to you, but now is useful to both you and to me, and I've sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, whom I wish to keep with me so that, on your behalf, he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel, but without your consent I didn't wanna do anything so that your goodness and here's why he's sending him back, so that your goodness would be in effect, not by compulsion but out of your own free will, for perhaps he was separated for this reason for a little while that you should have him back forever, no longer as a slave but much more than a slave, a beloved brother. Hold on to that. A beloved brother. Paul calls him a child, onesimus, a child earlier, a beloved brother, especially to me.
Dr. David Klingler:
But how much more do you, both in the flesh and in the Lord, if you then regard me as a partner in that word there, that partner, that's the same word that was back in verse six, that your fellowship, your partnership, your participation of your faith. It's the same root word, right that? If you regard me as your fellow participant in the gospel, accept him as you would me. But if he's wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account. I, paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will repay it. Not to mention that you owe to me even your own self as well. That's good, I like that. So if he owes you anything, charge it to my account. I would remind you that you owe me everything. Let's just consider it.
Alex Wolfe:
Yeah, yeah, let's call it even Stephen. Yeah, right.
Dr. David Klingler:
You owe me your own salvation as well. You owe me even your own self as well. Yes, brother, let me benefit from you and the Lord refresh my heart in Christ, having confidence in your obedience. I write to you since I know that you will do even more than what I say. That's a compliment sandwich.
Alex Wolfe:
Yeah, that's right. He compliments before, tells me what to do. Compliments at the end that's smart. Yeah, that's yeah.
Dr. David Klingler:
At the same time, verse 22,. At the same time, also prepare a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you Now this in verse 22,. This goes back to the plural. Now, why is he doing that? Okay, At the same time, also prepare lodging, for I hope that through YAHL's prayers I may be given to YAHL. Now he introduces this letter with these plural folks to Ephia and Archipas and the whole church, and so this is being read in front of the whole church.
Dr. David Klingler:
Right, yeah, you could just, you gotta envision this, right? So Philemon's reading this thing out to the church and the whole church is just kind of looking at each other, giving each other the side eye, like, oh man, what's he gonna do? That's right. And every eye in the church is on Philemon to see how he's gonna respond. You can imagine him reading this out loud to the church for the first time. Or maybe he wasn't reading, maybe someone else was reading it. Whatever, whoever's reading is irrelevant. All eyes were on Philemon to see what his response would be. You probably could see when Onesimus's name, of course Onesimus comes in, probably hands in the letter, and his face turns probably red with anger. You know they don't read in too much here, but you just imagine At least Paul's very strategic in having this thing read in front of everyone.
Dr. David Klingler:
You know, this accountability that is playing out here is huge. And then Paul says so at the same time, prepare lodging for me, and I hope that through y'all's prayers I may be given to y'all a Paphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, says hello, he greets you. Is it too big a thing to ask for you to be a fellow participant since we're all over here in prison? Yeah, as do Mark and Aristarchus and Demis and Luke, my fellow workers. Do you wanna join in with the? You have been right, my fellow worker, that's back in verse one and archipelago. So are we all in this together, are we not? Are we going to forgive or are we not? And so the kind of the rhetorical strategy here for Paul is just really quite fascinating and kind of him's filamen in yeah, what choice do you have? And I don't think he's manipulating the situation. I think that what he's doing and we've all been in this situation where you know the right thing to do, you just don't wanna do it and someone says all right, look, we all know the right thing to do so. Just let it go. You go? All right, I'll let it go. I think that's really what's going on here.
Dr. David Klingler:
But this letter is really important for a couple reasons. I think just some real practical points of application could be pointed out here. Number one the actions of the leader living out. The leader living out what he says he believes affects all people. That the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the true knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. When we act in accordance with our faith, people around us are encouraged. If you're a parent and you have kids and you blow it boy, it's huge for them to see that you own up to it and you respond correctly. When you encourage others, people see it and we don't do it because people see it. Or when you do things even better, when you do things that people don't see, people are encouraged by. So there's so many just real practical, solid things to think about. The other thing is that individual accountability and corporate accountability go together.
Dr. David Klingler:
Yeah, so that, excuse me. So that you know, don't say that you are a Christian. I mean, you may be a Christian, but notice that the building up of the body of Christ and service to Christ are one and the same. That because of your love and your faith and your faith, what you have towards the Lord Jesus and towards all saints, right, those are interchangeable too. To love the Lord is to love his bride. To love the Lord is to love the church. If you've been forgiven, then you're gonna be called on to forgive for the building up of the body that people would see it and live in accordance with it. So there's so many really good things going on here in this letter to Philemon, but I think it's a letter for the most part we don't pay attention to. I've never heard it preached in a church. I've never heard it taught. I would be stunned if anyone has a Bible verse, a memory verse out of Philemon. Yeah, you know, if you had to choose one I think it'd probably be verse six.
Dr. David Klingler:
I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you, for Christ's sake. I've never heard it, but that'd be a decent one if you could keep it in the context. But our individual actions have corporate results, and I love how Paul writes to an individual, but I think he even says this right. Therefore, though, I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what's proper.
Alex Wolfe:
I know that I don't have to, but because I know that you do, you may not like it, but you'll do what's You'll live towards all the saints, now including.
Dr. David Klingler:
Onesimus, right, yeah, so he was formerly useful to you, but now he's useful to both you and me. Well, how is Onesimus useful to? I see how he's useful to Paul, how's he useful to Philemon in the building up of the gospel, in service to the apostle, in the building up of the body of Christ, and so now no longer regard him as a runaway servant or slave, but as a fellow worker and a brother in Christ. And so just a great letter here.
Alex Wolfe:
Yeah, like you said, it's very practical. And now just to think about this letter being read in the body in the gathering of this church, I mean, as a modern Christian, that's horrifying. We don't do things like that. Well, we don't call people to accountability in the assembly If we did, I think people just up and walk to the next one. But, like you said, it highlights that accountability to the church.
Dr. David Klingler:
If I had to guess, if I had to speculate and I hate doing this, but I would guess that in the reading of this letter the first one, philemon is reading this letter or it's being read his heart melted in the middle of this letter, right? I don't think he was too happy with Onesimus right.
Dr. David Klingler:
But as he read this, he just watched his whole temperament change. The church is encouraged. I'd like to think that Paul now we don't know how he responded, because he said no, I'm sending you back, but I don't have to like it but I think that at least what Paul's expectation is is that Philemon would follow through on it and there would be a real reconciliation of these two and then a commitment to serve the Lord together. And so just a really really neat letter. Yeah, that's great. I'd like to teach.
Alex Wolfe:
That's great. Well, thank you for walking us through that book yet again, and it becomes clear each time we walk through it, and that's the same with all of these books. You know, it doesn't matter if we do it one time or a hundred times. The more we do it, the better it gets, and so the more clear it gets for us and for you, and that's our hope really, like we said in the beginning, that you would come to understand the word of God, and so that's where we're committed to helping with. We love doing it, and so we just thank you for tuning in and for engaging in it with us. So, with that said, we'll see you next week for the next book.
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