AUTHOR:Ryan Hembree PUBLISHED ON:December 13, 2019
The title of the blog's website, The Philemon Chaplain, represents the relationship found in Philemon between the Apostle Paul and the runaway servant, Onesimus. As you may have just viewed, the video summary provides a great summary of the Epistle, the ministry of Paul, and the providential acts of God.
PHILEMON : THE HEART OF GOD
Introduction
“Philemon it is a bright and beautiful gem in the volume of inspiration.” Philemon’s letter is both personal and passionate. The plea is from a seasoned apostle to a new era of house church plants. Paul has learned much about working with the saints of the new Kingdom of God. It is evident in the letter how poised, considerate, wise, and benevolent he had grown over the years now nearing death at heaven’s gates. This marvel of inspiration opens the heart of God for all to see and to experience. Barnes writes,
This letter is almost wholly of a private character, and yet there is scarcely any portion of the New Testament of equal length which is of more value. It is exquisitely beautiful and delicate. It is a model of courtesy and politeness. It presents the character of the author in a most amiable light, and shows what true religion will produce in causing genuine refinement of thought and language. It is gentle and persuasive, and yet the argument is one that we should suppose would have been, and probably was, irresistible. It is very easy to conceive that the task which the apostle undertook to perform was one which it would be difficult to accomplish - that of reconciling an offended master to a runaway servant. And yet it is done with so much kindness, persuasiveness, gentleness, and true affection, that, as the letter was read, it is easy to imagine that all the hostility of the master was disarmed, and we can almost see him desiring to embrace him who bore it, not now as a servant, but as a Christian brother; Philemon 1:16 "It is impossible," says Doddridge, "to read over this admirable Epistle without being touched with the delicacy of sentiment, and the masterly address, that appear in every part of it. We see here, in a most striking light, how perfectly consistent true politeness is, - not only with all the warmth and sincerity of a friend, but even with the dignity of the Christian and the Apostle. And if this letter were to be considered in no other view than as a mere human composition, it must be allowed to be a master-piece in its kind.—Barnes Commentary
Why Onesimus came to or found the apostle, is not clearly known. It may have been because he was in want, and Paul was the only one in Rome whom he trusted; or it may have been because his mind had become distressed on account of sin, and he sought him out to obtain spiritual counsel. Conjecture on these points could be frustrating and lose sight of the intent and value of the Epistle. Good hermeneutics and solid exegesis will ultimately bring us closest to the motive and intent for the letter.
It is my conclusion after years of study and personal ministry with thousands of inmates like Onesimus, that this man saw what redemption did to those in Philemon’s home and those attending the services. He perhaps as a house hand was not able to fully participate with those who attended the meetings. Like most inmates Onesimus sought the truth from one who he could trust to help him fully understand. Perhaps Onesimus steals supplies or valuables and leaves without notice while searching for the truth not knowing that it would land him in prison with the great Apostle. The one man he had heard so much about and had witnessed the impact of his Gospel message on his owner and his family was destined to be his mentor.
How curious Onesimus found it to be that this great Apostle was under house arrest in Rome. The one who led his owner Philemon to a new life in Christ, the one who circulated epistles that changed the world, and the one who had Christians killed was now being persecuted. If Onesimus was not seeking Paul for answers to this new covenant he would have found evidence of it in the life of Paul, even in priso
As for Paul, years of ministry with persecution, personal assault of character and abandonment in his most desperate times seasoned his penmanship so that with the Holy Spirit his writings became jewels of theology. But now his personal heart-felt emotions imitated that of Christ when responding to a lost soul, rejected by many, and desperate to find his place in mankind’s search for meaning.
H. Drysdale writes of the letter,
We dwell on the circumstances of his imprisonment — we fondly recall his vexatious position — because the whole ‘surroundings’ of this letter lend additional effect to its inherent grace. It is when the fragrant herb is pressed that it gives forth the richest odour; and it is when Paul’s heart is being tried that it breathes out the tenderest sympathy. Himself a bondman, ‘with gyves upon his wrist,’ he pleads the cause of that other bondman, whose story is the burden of the letter. It is when he is a much-wronged captive that he begs forgiveness for a wrongdoer, and when society is making war upon himself he plays the part of peacemaker with others. As dewdrops are seen to best advantage on the blades of grass from which they hang, or gems sparkle brightest in their appropriate settings, so may we regard Paul's imprisonment as the best foil to the design of this letter. Wrongs and oppressive suffering may drive even wise men mad; but here it only seems to evoke Paul's tenderest feelings, and open wide the sluices of his affectionate sympathies.
As a submissive prisoner of Christ Paul does not look for the inherent evil of crime, the social stereotypes of nefarious souls nor the impossibility of salvation for those he ministers to each day in prison. With Jesus as his beloved cell mate Paul can find no value in defaming those imprisoned for various crimes. In prison each inmate is seen as the same, no better, no worse. Those surrounding Paul in prison perhaps believed that he deserved confinement, earned the disrespect of society, and found no favor among the other men. But when Christ in him appeared and shone forth the glory of forgiveness and redemption he become the hope sought by all in a tragic life. And God provided this Onesimus a wayward soul the most sacred place of incarceration—chained to Paul.
Like Paul and Onesimus many of the redeemed in prison discovered that regardless of where God places you, He is present changing the very circumstances around you.
Samuel Rutherford, in prison, used to date his letters, "Christ's Palace, Aberdeen." He wrote to a friend:
"The Lord is with me; I care not what man can do. I burden no man. I want nothing. No king is better provided than I am. Sweet, sweet, and easy is the cross of my Lord. All men I look in the face, of whatsoever rank, nobles and poor. Acquaintance and strangers are friendly to me. My Well-beloved is kinder and more warm than ordinary, and cometh and visiteth my soul. My chains are over-gilded with gold. No pen, no words, no engine, can express to you the loveliness of my only Lord Jesus. Thus in haste I make for my palace at Aberdeen.
Over the years I have witnessed a bond of love in the prison church and the Christian community that so love the men with agape love. Each week a sweet scent of fellowship always prevailed regardless of the hurt, hate, and harm each inmate had suffered. We experience this bond in Pauls’ endearing letter as he has experienced what many church fathers overlook over the years, the joy of one so lost being found and saved. The wondrous effect of a homebound inmate to his future fellowship ignites a spark of spiritual life in the church only matched by the great revivals of history. And indeed, several of them found their beginnings in the hearts of men so wayward without hope. Paul once a murderer by law, now a great emancipator for the forgotten and abandoned in this world.
The love of the church does not stop at the front door, nor does it find itself confined and unable to reach outside the church doors. One noticeable change happened with the love for the brethren that occurs in prison fellowship that is seldom seen in the church. Love in prison levels the field of egos, self-righteousness, and ivory tower sermons. The one who enters the fellowship of faith and does not have a sincere and authentic love will be spotted instantly. And there is little place to hide.
Grace in the heart seeking and fostering its kindred grace in others is another key aspect of prison fellowship. Eyes must always be focused by one’s heart to see the best of their life lived in prison. It must be a love that burns with a passion about everything the inmate is doing for reconciliation in Christ. Not just the bible study certificates, the exegesis or memorization. It must be a love that is not only seen when the discipled meets man-made expectations. It must be a commitment, a confidence and a comforting love that does not hide and go away at first breakdown.
As I suggested Philemon observed this type of love Philemon and Paul had for each other. To be in a relationship with this well-known Apostle was a great honor to Philemon. It was still a greater honor to be labeled a dear friend.
“He could not doubt of the sincerity of St. Paul, when he made these large professions of love and kindness to him. It was not agreeable with the character of the apostle to use these expressions, as empty forms, words of course, and idle compliments; but they came from his heart as well as from his pen. Philemon had found real and undoubted proofs of St. Paul's love to him in the pains he had taken in his conversion to Christ. He had received from him the greatest instances of kindness that one man could receive from another. He had been turned by him from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God, and owed to him the means of grace and the hopes of glory.”—Bp. Smallridge
Think for a moment of being a house servant beholding such devoted sincere and true love. Would you not search despite penalty or persecution for the source? Onesimus wanted to seek the deeper, wider, and infinite understanding of a God whose love springs forth from His chosen children.
“. . . the deeper lesson here is to be found by observing that ‘grace’ refers to the action of the Divine heart, and ‘peace’ to the result thereof in man’s experience. ‘Grace’ is free, undeserved, unmotivated, self-springing love. It is love which stoops, forgives, communicates. Hence it comes to mean, not only the deep fountain in the Divine nature, and that property in His love by which, like some strong spring, it leaps up and gushes forth by an inward impulse, in neglect of all motives drawn from the lovableness of its objects, such as determine our poor human loves, but also the results of that bestowing love in men's characters, or, as we say, the ‘graces’ of the Christian soul.” –Alexander McLaren
Perhaps one of the greatest values of this short epistle is the understanding of ministry to the incarcerated. The lesson Paul had learned over time was to deal with the kindness and gentleness with the churches and its leaders. He demonstrates the value of entreating and beseeching action from the church even when he duly had the authority to demand. At this point he realized it was also significantly more valuable to yield your right to authority than making demands. In return the church recognizing this act found their own response to be of equal value. The church of prison ministry must learn well this value of restraint and relinquish for the glory of Christ.
Found within the years of ministry was Paul’s elevation of the love of God for the brethren above all other virtues. The Chaplain will often find frustration with the expectations of the church for the imprisoned when they lose sight of Christ. A Chaplain who finds the focus of love and the submission of self before all else will accomplish far more than the one who is expecting more, seeking better, and using guilt to leverage response for ministry demands.
Paul uses the golden chords of the love of God that weave His children in loving goodness and care in pleading the cause of Onesimus. “In order to induce Philemon to take back Onesimus, he first calls him ‘his child’; and of course, Philemon would respect any one Paul called by so tender a name. He then calls him ‘his convert’; and of course, Philemon would treat with affection any convert of Paul. He then speaks of his conversion during his imprisonment; and then — last — comes his name, ‘Onesimus.’—The Homilist
How quickly Philemon must have reflected on his own conversion from Paul. Treating Philemon as his family, tenderly teaching him on the understanding of Jesus Christ and then displaying how to walk this new life, not just teach it for gain. So endearing to Philemon he must have been at the instant he read this letter it opened his heart, changed his mind, and tuned his view of Onesimus upward. It this not what redemption should do? Philemon from that point forward changed his view of a useless house servant to a well-trained man of God endorsed by the great Apostle, now in humble spirit returning to Philemon.
Paul understood the impact of redemption by his time in his life. He knew full well that this house church needed a spark of reality. They required an experience of true conversion of the least of these to see the true value of God’s redemption in this world. As Martin Luther penned, “To my way of thinking, we are all like poor Onesimus, and Christ has come down from heaven to restore us to our Divine Friend and Father.” Paul knew what was best for the church, make your own decision, seek the spiritual value of this redemption, let the Holy Spirit place a spark of the Gospel of Love and Life in your midst.
There is a current wave of civil unrest based on cultural clashes and deep seeded bigotry of the times. The following provides some insights for us today when in the prison and encountering inmates who see prejudice, discrimination and bigotry based on their skin color. It was never a problem for me to respond with Jesus Christ as the great emancipator of slavery of all kinds in His free offer of redemption from sin. Freedom in Christ comes to anyone anywhere they may be found. My only duty was to make sure that no volunteer, no prison official, or any social organization intentionally withheld the good news of the Gospel. This is the only true power to transform our nation. The life of the saved inmate makes a wonderful impact on the other prisoners, their family, their community, and the courts of our nation. This is the seed I nurtured and watched blossom. Stepping into civil unrest, injustice, and other social issues I found myself outside the heartbeat of God’s grace and mercy in His forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, and transformation of mankind. Let us absorb the following when one man of God commented on slavery and Philemon.
Not many years ago the conscience of England was stirred because the Government of the day sent out a circular instructing captains of men-of-war, on the decks of which fugitive slaves sought asylum, to restore them to their "owners." Here an apostle does the same thing — seems to side with the oppressor, and to drive the oppressed from the sole refuge left him, the horns of the very altars. More extraordinary still, here is the fugitive voluntarily going back, travelling all the weary way from Rome to Colosse in order to put his neck once more beneath the yoke. Both men were acting from Christian motives, and thought they were doing a piece of plain Christian duty. Then does Christianity sanction slavery? Certainly not; its principles cut it up by the roots. Historically it is true that as Christianity has grown slavery has withered. But the New Testament never directly condemns it, and by regulating the conduct of Christian masters, and recognizing the obligations of Christian slaves, seems to contemplate its continuance, and to be deaf to the sighing of the captives. This attitude was probably not a piece of policy or a matter of calculated wisdom on the part of the apostle. He no doubt saw that the gospel brought a great unity in which all distinctions were merged, and rejoiced in thinking that "in Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free"; but whether he expected the distinction ever to disappear from actual life is less certain. The attitude of the New Testament to slavery is the same as to other unchristian institutions. It brings the leaven and lets it work. That attitude is determined by three great principles. First, the message of Christianity is primarily to individuals, and only secondarily to society. It leaves the units whom it has influenced to influence the mass. Second, it acts on spiritual and moral sentiment, and only afterwards, and consequently on deeds or institutions. Third, it hates violence, and trusts wholly to enlightened conscience. So it meddles directly with no political or social arrangements, but lays down principles which will profoundly affect these, and leaves them to soak into the general mind. If an evil needs force for its removal, it is not ready for removal. If it has to be pulled up by violence, a bit of the root will certainly be left, and will grow again. The only true way is by slow degrees to create a state of feeling which shall instinctively abhor and cast off the evil. There will be no hubbub and no waste, and the thing once done will be done forever. So has it been with slavery; so will it be with war, and intemperance, and impurity, and the miserable anomalies of our present civilization. Coming centuries will look back on the obtuseness of the moral perceptions of nineteenth-century Christians in regard to matters of Christian duty which, hidden from us, are sun clear to them, with the same half-amused, half-tragic wonder with which we look back to Jamaica planters or South Carolina rice growers who defended slavery as a missionary institution, and saw no contradiction between their religion and their practice.—A. Maclaren, D. D.
Make no mistake this brief epistle helped the reformers to see the value of abolished slavery. But it was not rooted in protests, radicalism or reverse racist vitriol. It was the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ imparted into the spirit of mankind enlightening them to see God’s heart for the lost. Trying to convince the unsaved of the goodness of God in eradicating social injustice never ends well. But being led by the Holy Ghost to those who need redemption and happen to be in the midst of social horrors will end well. Paul never told the warden to set Onesimus free as a new Christian.
Paul’s letter to Philemon shows how Onesimus paid the price for his crime in prison with the additional offer of Paul to resolve any debts. Onesimus was a new, born-again creature and demonstrated his sanctification and willingness to grow in the knowledge of this new Christian theology Paul played an extensive role in penning. Evidence of his transformation did not absolve him from fulfilling the law and paying back the debts incurred. But it did offer him to live his new life in the power of the Holy Spirit free from the control of sin and the fear of death.
It also enlightened him to the dogma of all created beings are equal in the sight of God, regardless of their circumstances. And in Him there can be peace, joy and love from the infinite glory of God. It was a fresh start for Onesimus and it was the heart of God that transformed sinful, useless humanity into righteous useful life for Christ.1 John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.”
Reason compels us to conclude that all the love in the universe is Divine in its origin, and that He who is the source of love must Himself possess it. We are forced to think that, as the sap in branch and leaf has all flowed up from the roots, so all those streams of beautiful affection which redeem human life from barrenness have gushed warm from the heart of God. As the sea is the source from which every blade of grass gets its own drop of dew, and the thirsty earth gets refreshment through gentle rains, so all kindliness, generous impulses, beneficent ministries that gladden the parched and weary hearts of men, have their origin in that "ocean of love without bottom or shore," which lies in the depths of the nature of God. As every ray of light that warms the atmosphere and makes the day beams from the face of the sun, so all the glow and beauty that are felt and seen in filial affection and the amenity of family life, in real-hearted friendship and goodwill amongst men, are the reflection of the light of love that streams from our God in the sky. Some may, however, object that it is profane to speak of God's love as a passion. But the text loses its charm if the word "love" does not mean in it what it means when applied to ourselves. Besides, let it be remembered that the passions are not in themselves sinful; it is the use they are put to, and the objects upon which they are expended, that determines whether or not they should be called sinful. Scripture shows that in God is a love which not only lives while it is reciprocated, but survives rebuffs, and it is not quenched by ingratitude. His is a love that "suffereth long and is kind, is not easily provoked, beareth all things, and never faileth." Experience unites with reason and Scripture to emphasize the text. We have had many proofs that God is interested in our welfare, and feels intensely for us. There have been times when we have felt the rapture of living, and there were lyric poems within us struggling for expression. In such seasons the truth has been borne in upon us that our creation was an act of pure benevolence — an expression of the Creator's love. And when the sunshine gave place to shade, and rapture to pain, our God caused us to nestle in His arms, and charmed our griefs to rest. (James T. East.)
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