Philemon 1

Philemon 1:1

The Epistle to PhilemonNotes.The epistle to Philemon is plainly an appendix to that to the Colossians, as before noticed. It was written at the same time, sent to the same place, and by the hands of one of those entrusted with the former one, with whom it has to do. As an address to a master, it naturally connects with Colossians and its kindred epistle Ephesians, the only two of Paul’s epistles in which masters, as such, are addressed. Here the case of Onesimus incidentally brings before us that of slavery as seen in the light of Christianity; and this seems the real subject of the epistle. That it is not openly treated as such has its evident reason. There is no legislation as to it; but the principles that are, in fact, maintained are only wider in application, declaring, as they do, the relation of Christianity and its disciples to the world-status, in a way which touches much more than a question which, for most of us now, has ceased to be of personal concern. The purport of the epistle is almost, one might say, to undo what the writer is doing, in returning a runaway slave, now converted, to the hands of his master, himself a Christian. What were these, then, now to one another? Brethren, as the apostle plainly says (ver. 16). He and the assembly which had received Onesimus had not waited for the expression of Philemon’s mind before acting in the matter. Manifestly it was for God alone to bring in among His people: the baptism of the Spirit alone could make a member of the Body of Christ. When that was done, it was too late for man’s interference.

Thus the apostle in the previous epistle introduces Onesimus to the whole assembly as a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you; and associates him with Tychicus as bearer of tidings to them. They could not but receive whom the Lord had received, and own the apostle’s messenger as one certified to them with the full weight of his authority. Of this assembly Philemon formed a part and thus stood committed to the reception of his slave, or to the rejection of those who had received him. There was, in fact, no thought of any dissent; there could be none without the overthrow of an order which was divine, not human; and it is with his place settled as to the assembly that Onesimus turns to meet his master, with the letter of Paul in his hand. Yet here, it is plain, it is not to meet him, as in the assembly, upon equal terms. Distinctly is it recognized by the apostle that, (although not in the assembly,) the relation of master and slave still remained. Yet this must, of course, be made to accept whatever modification the common Christianity imposed upon it. The eternal must give law to the earthly and the temporal. But how, then, could the badge of slavery abide at all? To answer this is to answer many other questions growing out of or connected with it, relating to the practical life, and with regard to the world side of a Christianity that is not of the world. But here it is well to point out once more a source of confusion in our common version in the frequent want of proper discrimination between two words which it alike translates “world,” but which are in different lines of thought really. Kosmos is the world physically, whether of people or things; while aion has to do with time, and means “age” -a certain defined and limited period of the world’s history. There are past ages, a present age and ages still to come; through all of which the kosmos passes; under whatever different phases, the same kosmos still. The present age has one terrible characteristic. The former ones were all defined by God’s various dealing with men and that for blessing to them. He had not then, even for the time (as for a time alone it could be) given up the world. Thus the age of promise and of law alike contemplated blessing on the earth, and therefore the blessing of the earth; but at the present time God is simply taking out from the earth a people designed for heavenly blessing. This is indeed on His part a more wonderful work of grace than ever was before, but for the world it is a diversion from the divine ways which were leading on to blessing. The throne of God which was on earth in Israel, and the more glorious presence which since greeted it, are alike gone; and the way and cause of this, from the human side, give character to this time of His departure, which is the time of His rejection. One may say, however, that this must not be so taken as to ignore the coming of the Spirit to represent Christ upon earth, and that the house of God in its spiritual reality is here also. This is true; and we may say again with regard to these things, that they express a more wonderful working of divine grace than ever was seen before. But notice that the world does not see this. Nothing is visible to human eyes any more; and “the world seeth Me no more” is Christ’s acceptance of rejection by it, and the seal, therefore, of its condemnation. The gospel goes out world-wide among men but that changes in no wise anything of this. And though it can be said that “God so loved the world as to give His Only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have eternal life,” yet, that we might be delivered from the aion -this “present evil world,” or “age” (Galatians 1:4) -Christ gave Himself according to the will of our God and Father. In the world therefore of this “age,” (an age whose end will only be when Christ appears in judgment upon what will then be in ripest, fullest rebellion against Him,) the Christian can be but a stranger; and thus Scripture ever contemplates him. This, of course, cannot alter his relation to God as the Creator, upon which Scripture equally insists; nor does it affect that moral government of things which God necessarily exercises, or He would not be God. It is this that makes us bow to the authority of those who, like the Nero of Paul’s day, may be wholly set against Him. We recognize the mercy which acts, even through such as these, to restrain worse evil, and by a government of man by man, which was God’s own institution after the flood. Spite of the disorder, therefore, we own God’s order, and submit ourselves to His government, which we are sure is a wise and holy one, though faith is needed to realize this. The character of the age has not been changed by the Christianity that is in it; and the apostle declares (none more conscious, surely, of the immensity of the blessing) that Satan is its god. “The god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) is a terrible indictment indeed, after Christ has come, His work accomplished, and the Spirit here upon earth; but there it stands, and cannot be erased: we cannot alter it, but are delivered from it. Slavery is the fruit of a world estranged from God. It is a sample of what sin has wrought, not to be imagined in a paradisaic earth, and in its whole spirit opposed to the free and equal spirit of Christianity. When these things meet, the antagonism might be expected to be sharply pronounced; and while it could not legislate for the world, or deliver its disciples from an oppressive yoke under which they might be born, yet one might expect the Church to purge itself absolutely from an incongruous practice such as this. Yet we have already seen, both in Ephesians and Colossians, masters addressed as such, without even a reproof for what they were. Simply they were to give unto their bondservants that which was just and equal; while their Christian bondmen were (as we read in the first epistle to Timothy,) not to despise their believing masters because they were brethren, but rather to do them service as faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit (1 Timothy 6:2). Such an admonition may well be thought to show that among Christians the severity of these bonds was greatly slackened; but it shows still more plainly that they were not annulled. Was this then all that Christianity had to say? It was a large and pressing question. The number of slaves in the empire was immense; the miseries resulting were excessive; in the judgment of the haughty Roman the new religion suited. well this class of the oppressed and downtrodden, who in fact soon largely sought to it. Here another Master was found, with truest liberty for the slave, even while the old service might continue. And under the heathen master it did continue, for the cross was the symbol of the world’s present sway, and the faithful unto death were they whom the crown waited. It was another matter, however, where Christianity had won master as well as slave; and here, where it was mistress of all the conditions, were the relations caused by sin, and embodying so different a spirit still to continue? To such questions Philemon, as a supplement to its connected epistles, yields the answer furnished by the New Testament. Philemon means “friendly, loving,” and it is in this character that Paul appeals to him. The Christian heart is what must decide in the matter before him; and Paul’s comfort is the assurance that Philemon, the “friendly,” or “kind-hearted,” answers to his name. It was faith that wrought in this love, and gave it its Christian verity, and found therefore in the saints its special objects. This naturally introduces what is on the writer’s heart; for the formerly unprofitable Onesimus is now one of these saints of God, who as such has a claim upon Philemon that will not be denied. Confident, therefore, in his readiness of heart, the apostle will not insist upon any apostolic authority, but pleads for Onesimus as for a child of his own, spiritually, begotten too in his bonds, a solace given to him of God, who was now Paul the aged, and the prisoner of Jesus Christ. How many motives here to compel a free heart’s obedience! Doubtless Onesimus had been an unprofitable servant, yet now he was profitable as a Christian, ready to do service to Philemon, as he had already done to the apostle, to whom he had endeared himself so much as to make him as his own bowels. Yet he was sending him away who might have performed the service for him that Philemon doubtless would have rendered had he been at Rome. He might well have been glad, therefore, to have such a representative in his place; and it would have been a thing most acceptable to the aged prisoner. He would indeed have retained him, but would not assume what was Philemon’s mind, nor appear to force what should be freest action.

Had not God, moreover, overruled the temporary departure of a slave to bestow upon Philemon in his place the far greater gift of a brother beloved? Let him receive him then as such, nay, as if it were the apostle himself; who would take upon himself also all the responsibility of any loss that he had sustained. Yet to the apostle Philemon owed a larger debt, even himself as a Christian, -a self to which his former one was of no value. As a brother then to a brother, and with all brotherly confidence, Paul appeals to him to give him joy in the Lord, satisfying the longings of a heart taught and enlarged by divine love itself. This is the substance of the epistle; and at first sight it disappoints our expectations as the last word upon such a subject. There is no direct doctrine in it; there is no decree that Christians should set free their slaves; no appeal even to the heart of one who so clearly has a heart as Philemon has, to do so. The claim of the master is recognized, an escaped slave in the liberty of Christ is sent back to whence he had fled. It is clear that Christianity holds out no worldly inducements to its disciples, -is not to serve as a leverage to lift a believer above his position when called by divine grace. Ambition will not here be gratified, nor ease be served; but rather the scandal of the cross added to all other burdens: this, while the blessing of liberty is not denied; and if “thou mayst be made free, use it rather.” But no worldly motive is to take rank with or supplement the spiritual: the misery of which has been seen abundantly from even those early days till now. And yet it could be said, “Not now a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved;” and in the family of God, where none serve except the free-born children, none are bondmen but in the love of Christ. How such principles would work out in practice, we may easily conceive. Slave and brother must reveal themselves in inevitable contradiction; the Church, too, which knows only members of Christ’s body, being set in charge to maintain needed discipline, that these principles might be kept from violation. In the assembly the slave had equal right and voice; and it was likely that he would be at least as fully represented as the master. Thus though there might be no immediate change, or imperative proclamation of release to the bondman, a spirit had entered with Christianity which was really much more than this. A new life was swelling the buds of a spiritual growth which should snap every bond that would constrict it. The life of Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, might be safely trusted to do this.