Hey everybody, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. And do you remember if you were here yesterday, or maybe two days ago, you remember I was talking about a couple of different neighbors who I've had over the years. Yesterday I was talking about a neighbor I couldn't be reconciled with. That frustrates the heck out of me. And I would love someday to just tell you all of the stories on this podcast because we're talking crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. You would laugh, you would cry, you would find it so interesting, you'd be on the edge of your seat. And also, if I told you all those stories, it would destroy any possibility of me ever being reconciled with that guy, no matter how wild a long shot that is. I also told you, I don't remember, a few days ago or whatever, about another neighbor that I have who's wonderful. And we sit around and we speculate about the world and we think about things, and he's just ludicrously kind to me and my family. I'm constantly badgering him, though, about like, hey, your houses are kind of arranged in such a way that mine could really easily be a nuisance to you. You are sort of metaphorically downstream from all of the activities of my house. I try to be self-conscious, but if there's anything I'm not catching, like noise or light pollution, or if we're making a mess, or if we cook stinky food, if you get like if there's anything, anything I would want you to tell me. And he knows that I had a bad run of it with my previous neighbor. And so I think he's pretty tolerant of me trying to bend over backwards and be like, we love you and we want this to be awesome. We want to be your favorite neighbors ever. But also, he's said now a couple of times to me. He's been like, Hey, you worry about it too much, Matt. It's like, it's good. We're all just people. We're all just here. We have the social skills needed. If anything ever irritates you or irritates me, it won't be an issue. We'll just talk and we'll figure it out. You don't need to keep bringing it up. I'm like, okay, all right, all right. Yeah. What you're hearing is somebody with a little bit of, you know, LOL trauma here. I use trauma very tongue-in-cheekly. But yes, I'm I'm probably slightly overreacting to my last situation. But my intentions are good. I want to leave everything on the field. And metaphorically speaking, in my relationship with my new neighbors, to have them know we care about you, we have your back, we are here for you, we want to serve you, we want to be great neighbors with you for a very long time. And maybe I overdo it sometimes, just a little bit. Likewise, you know, it's probably good Philemon is only 25 verses long because I'm not sure how much more Paul could slather on or what this letter would be if it were 35 verses long. I mean, there's only so much self-effacing stuff you can say. There's only so much very gentle, delicate prodding and pleading that you can do. There's only so much heaping praise on someone else before it starts to flip from that place where it's like, man, that was really nice. Thank you for saying that, to that other place where it's like, oh, gross. Okay, it's just, I don't know why. That just got to be too much. Praise in that sense to me is like McDonald's food. Something goes wrong and you're like, I don't know why, but I'm I want McDonald's. This is gonna be my one time this semester. I'm gonna eat it. Let's, yeah, I want a quarter pounder, let's do it. But and then you get it and you're like, this smells good, this is amazing. And you eat several bites, but then there's a bite where maybe it's just it cools enough for something, it coagulates, and you go, This is disgusting. Get it out of my sight immediately. And McDonald's is the one food that I will not allow to linger in front of me when I'm done. Like that goes in the trash. Make it go away now. Okay, so I think if Paul goes on much longer, it's gonna feel like McDonald's food feels to me like, okay, that's just too much praise. It's cloying and it's weird. I heard your request, I'm good. Get this praise out of here. Paul, frankly, has written a masterpiece. My understanding from people who are way better at this stuff than I am is that Philemon is the absolutely prototypical first century Greek style letter, that it comes within about 5% of the exact average number of words that occur in such letters from the ancient world, you know, outside the Bible, that structurally it follows precisely the way such letters are built. And what that means, if true, and I haven't verified that for myself, but competent people tell me it's true. If true, what that means is that Paul here has mastered a craft, a genre, something as simple as what you learned in like fourth grade with proper letter writing structure. Dear someone to whom it may concern. But make sure the date is up there on top now. Get your salutations right. You know, stuff like that feels so not a big deal when you're learning it as a kid, but then you figure out like, hey, getting this right and mastering this, it would give you a big advantage. It would make you a master communicator of important ideas in a genre everybody understands, that is your standard issue letter. And it looks as though, by all accounts, Paul has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this thing, including threading that needle I was talking about yesterday or the day before, which involves this letter being scrutinized by Roman authorities who currently have Paul in custody. But also, it's probably going to be scrutinized by the larger church at Colossae and by a whole bunch of other communities where, like every other community in the Roman world, slavery was an institution. It was just part of the backdrop. Nice job, Paul. Great letter. Speaking of which, let's round out the letter today. Let me just give you the structure from beginning to end. It opens with Paul giving kind greetings to Philemon and everybody in his house. Then he says a bunch of nice stuff about Philemon, but not so much that it makes your stomach turn, like when you get sick of the McDonald's. Then he lays out an artfully crafted plea for Philemon to receive Onesimus back the right way, but he does a wonderful job of stopping short of ordering Philemon in a way that would short circuit the process of reconciliation between him and Onesimus, or ordering Philemon in a way that would cause the Roman authorities' eyebrows to go up and say, wait a minute, what is this? It's like a whole other government working underneath our own government and they undermine our institutions. What is this? Now, Paul threads the needle beautifully. And then in the end, as we discussed yesterday, Paul puts his money where his mouth is, offering to do his part to facilitate, even pay money to buy peace between these two men for the greater cause of Christ. And then in his final remarks, he greets a few people and lands the plane with elegance and grace. Here's how the letter rounds out from verse 18 to verse 25. If he, Onesimus, has done you, Philemon, any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back. Not to mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I ask. Okay, I'm gonna read the personal remarks at the end in just a second, but quickly, I mean, look at the way Paul's landing the plane there. He's saying, I I would like to get some benefit from you. Like I'm giving you money, I'm helping to solve your problem, I'm sending you back your slave. It'd be cool if you kick something back my way. What does Paul want kicked back? I think it's a freed Onesimus. That's what I think Paul wants in return. Or maybe Philemon. I think Paul wants help. That seems to be where his head is at on all of this. Paul knows he's gonna die soon. I mean, he doesn't die probably in the imprisonment that he's you're writing from here. This is probably the Roman imprisonment at the end of Acts. But he knows he can't keep this up. He knows his body has taken a beating. He knows that one of these times the rock is gonna catch him in the temple in just the right way instead of the sturdy part of his skull. He knows that at some point he can't take any more floggings, and he knows that if those things don't catch up with him, eventually the political breezes are gonna blow such that some crazy emperor is gonna have his head. And that's what ends up happening to him. So, what does Paul want more than anything else? Give me dudes, send me competent ladies who can serve and help in these churches. I need people, I need Christians, I need faithful people who want to give away what they have been given. I need faithful Christians who've seen the same stuff that I've seen, which is the inarguable working of the Holy Spirit miraculously breaking the laws of time and space. I need people who see that and are moved by that and who all they can do is want to give it away. I sense the slightest intonation that Philemon might not yet be one of those people in this letter. Remember verse six, 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, indicating that Philemon does not have that yet. I sense a little disappointment from Paul in that Philemon has not put his money where his mouth is, and that Paul would like to have Philemon's help, not for Paul's benefit, so Paul would get stuff or be rich or famous, but to help Paul with his project. I need help, I need people, I need you, Philemon. And I don't think I'm reading between the lines too much to say, and if not you, free onesimus and send him back, because he is a huge help. Paul, of course, is saying this all very nicely, and I think that Paul means all the kind things he's saying, but a careful eye in reading this letter tells me that Philemon has room to grow, or at least Paul perceives it that way. And Paul feels a little bit owed, not personally, but for the cause that has saved Philemon's life. You owe me your very self. And you know, Paul wraps it up with him saying, Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask. That's probably the most teeth I see in the whole letter. It's smiling teeth, it's justified teeth, but Paul is calling upon Philemon to live out the principles of the gospel that he stands for. He has a church that meets in his house. I think probably the Colossian church meets in his house. And Paul's like, Cool. Well, it's time to do more than that because the implications of the gospel are greater than that. The final lines of the letter, I've already read them to you a couple different times, so let's just round it out today. Verse 22. And one thing more prepare a guest room for me because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Nice letter, Paul. This is not the condescending slow clap. This is real applause, meaning, I actually I think you nailed it. I can't write letters better than that. I mean, a sense Paul is cheating, you know, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit, and probably the Holy Spirit's just clearly really, really good at writing. But this is a great letter. It does everything it sets out to do, it does it efficiently, it does it without breaking the social norms of how letters were to be written, nor does it break the societal norms with some sort of overt request that would cause a ripple effect of problems that would be greater in weight than the good that this letter could achieve if Philemon receives it the right way, if his heart is moved, and he responds by doing even more than what Paul is asking him to do in this letter. Great stuff. Tomorrow we got two questions left. And that is one, did it work? And two, what do I do with this? And I think we can get both of those done in our final day before we start our new season on the book of John this coming Monday. All right, that's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Do this again soon.