Receive him as me, Philemon p1 of 4

Q: What does the Bible say about grace and peace?

The Bible teaches that grace and peace come from God and are tied to the work of Jesus Christ for our salvation. In the New Testament, grace and peace are frequently mentioned as foundational elements of the Christian faith. Paul often opens his letters with the greeting 'grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,' as seen in Philemon 1:3. This underscores that grace is not a human project but a divine gift mediated through Christ's sacrifice, which reconciles us to God. Peace, as a result of this grace, signifies restored relationship with God, allowing believers to rest secure in their salvation.

Q: Why is the Letter to Philemon important for Christians?

The Letter to Philemon emphasizes the importance of forgiveness and treating others with the love of Christ. The Letter to Philemon is significant as it illustrates the principles of forgiveness, reconciliation, and Christian brotherhood. Paul writes to Philemon not only to intercede for Onesimus, a runaway slave, but also to highlight how the gospel transforms interpersonal relationships. By appealing to Philemon to receive Onesimus as he would receive Paul, the letter underscores the truth that all believers are equal in Christ, transcending societal statuses such as slave and master (Philemon 1:17). It serves as a model of how Christians should approach conflict and wrongdoings with grace and love, reflecting the character of Christ in our dealings with one another.

Q: How do we know that God loves us?

God's love for us is demonstrated through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him. The love of God is most clearly revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. In Romans 5:8, we learn that 'God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' This sacrificial love is the foundation of our relationship with God, ensuring that we are accepted not based on our merits, but solely through faith in Christ. Furthermore, as believers, we are called children of God, emphasizing the intimate relationship we have with our Creator, which is marked by His everlasting love and grace. Additionally, this love fosters a strong bond among believers, as we are called to love one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34-35).

I felt it appropriate that we, having concluded the book of Colossians, would look at this tiny epistle from Paul to Philemon. And so that's why we're here. But as I was studying this book again, not for the first time, but once again, I was reminded of how much I love it.

When I was a little kid, I remember we lived, my dad and mom moved to Reading and we didn't have a house and so there was a process of building the house. For some reason, we had these magnets that came from audio speakers and I don't know how we came by them, but we used to like to run them, I did, through the sand because they would pick up iron filings. And my little brother, Terry, and I, we would do that. And we would put the iron filings in baby jars, put lids on them, thinking that somehow we could get rich selling iron filings. That's what I see when I pass through this book of filings. is treasures, and I want to run the iron, the magnet, through this book and pick up those things that a needy sinner finds valuable, treasures.

And you can see them. I have an email address. I used to use it. And it was philemon17.18. And I still have that. But I don't use that one because it got so polluted with stuff from advertisers. But I like these two verses. And that's why I chose that email. If you count me a partner, receive him as myself. If he is wrong to you or owes you anything, put it on my account. That's the gospel.

That's what the magnet of a needy sinner finds when we read God's word. We're attracted to it and we glom on to it and we draw from it all that we can squeeze out of it. And so this book is clearly speaking of things that are most endearing and most needed by us But and that is certainly the purpose of this book is to hold forth Christ in his glories. And it does a good job of doing that. Could you up the AC and just turn it off for now as we are. Anyway, but when you look at this book, I want you to see it because it carries such a treasure.

It's the smallest, the shortest epistle that Paul the apostle wrote. When you read Paul's epistles, Paul spoke with economy of words. He was very succinct, so much so that you wish that he was a little more verbose, that he used more words to say things that seem obscure. Even Peter said, Paul said some things that are hard to be understood. I think that was due to Paul's intellectual ability and also because he didn't want to waste words. And that's a commendable quality, to not waste words. The Lord Jesus did that.

When he was on earth and he taught his disciples to pray, he gave them a very short prayer. So many things that he did were very short, spoken very short, but very impactfully. And they're easier to remember if they're short, like that phrase that Joe Terrell said, it's not that works don't matter, it's just that they don't count. And we understand what that means, that our works don't count in the matter of salvation.

And so in the book of Philemon, the apostle Paul of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ himself, is speaking under that inspiration with the greatest possible skill. And he's speaking the inspired word of God so that every word, every phrase, every, the way that it flows, the argument that is made is with the wisdom of God. And not only is it with the wisdom of God, but it is in the manner in which Christ himself would speak to his people. Now, this epistle opens in a way that no other epistle that Paul wrote ever opened. He says, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ. There's a reason why Paul opened this letter that way.

First of all, when the apostle wrote, he always signed his letters at the beginning. When I took English in school, they always had you sign your letters at the end, sincerely, or with regards, or whatever, and then your name. So if you want to know who wrote the letter, you either look on the letter, who sent it, or you look to the end of the letter. But in business letters, they always put the name of the business first. And this is a proper letter.

And Paul always wrote and put his name in his epistles. And he always put his name and identified himself in the beginning of his epistles. Usually, like in the book of Romans, he says, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle. He frequently did that in order to convey the weight of what he was about to say, that it was from Christ. The Lord gave these words to Paul. The Lord taught him. The Lord commanded him. The Lord revealed these things to him. And so he's writing with the wisdom of Christ and with the way in which Christ would write. But he doesn't sign the letter that way. He signs it as a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Paul had done nothing wrong that would justify being put in prison. He was not in prison for a crime. He was actually in prison for doing the right thing. He was in prison because he was obedient to his master, Christ. So the reason Paul was in prison was because he was loyal to his faithful master, And because in love to his master, he was doing his master's bidding. He was fulfilling his master's will.

And for that, he was put in prison by men. Men put him in prison unjustly. But even in prison, Paul understood that Jesus Christ ruled over those men who put him there. And so we see in this a relinquishing on Paul's part to the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He committed himself into the hands of his master.

And even though he was unwillingly a prisoner, and even though he was unjustly a prisoner, yet nevertheless, for Christ's sake, he was a prisoner. And so because he was imprisoned for doing the right thing, for serving Christ out of love, according to the commission that the Lord Jesus gave to Paul, Paul's imprisonment, therefore, was a badge of honor. But he didn't say it as a badge of honor here. He had another motive in view.

And so if we understand that motive, we see that this is part of the salutation, the greeting of Paul to Philemon. And in his greeting, he is already building up in the argument that he's about to make to Philemon in order to convince and persuade Philemon what he's trying to do here. And that's what I want to get to.

You see, the context here is that Philemon was a master who owned a slave. And the slave's name was Onesimus. And so the letter is to a slave owner regarding a slave, Onesimus. And so that when Paul writes to Philemon and he uses this phrase, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, he's already identifying himself as one who is held against his will in bonds for the right reason, for Christ's sake. And so it was also an unlawful imprisonment. And so in mentioning this, what he does is he identifies himself as one who was under bonds, a prisoner held against his will unjustly. And that is the first part of the letter that presents to Philemon a motive, a motive that is going to be used in his argument to treat Onesimus, by the Roman law, lawful slave, to treat him now not as a slave, but to release him and set him free. And so what we see here is that even in the way that the Lord guided Paul in writing this letter, he appeals to Philemon's sympathy in his own case, identifying himself as a prisoner under bonds for Christ's sake, and therefore held against his will, and yet, according to the Lord's sovereignty, so that Philemon would sympathize with Paul.

And he goes on in this way. He says, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer. Paul mentions Timothy. Timothy had parents who one was a Greek and one was a Jew. So this also adds to the weight. First of all, Timothy was well, highly regarded. He was a faithful minister of Christ. Paul is writing not just by himself to Philemon, but with Timothy. They had agreed upon the content of this letter. He speaks not only as Paul, but as Paul and Timothy.

That adds weight, doesn't it? If my brother, Brad, were to write a letter to me, that would be weighty. He had a good reason for writing. But if he said, now this is from me and your wife, that would be even more weighty, right? Or him and his wife. So you can see that this adds weight to what he's about to say.

But he addresses Philemon in the most tender terms. Notice. unto our brother, Timothy, unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer." Philemon, you are well loved. You are well loved. That disarms him, doesn't it? It introduces the letter to him in a way that completely removes any bristling, anything that would offend him, because he tells him, you are greatly loved.

This is a model of how we should approach a brother who is disobedient. Because Philemon was disobedient, and Paul is correcting him in this letter. It doesn't appear that way because it's so tender, but he's actually correcting Philemon. Philemon was holding Onesimus as his slave, his property. And we'll see why that's not right. But because he was doing what was not right in God's eyes, Paul is correcting him. But he addresses him as beloved and a fellow laborer. Now, in the Roman world, and often case in other cultures where slavery is practiced, or historically at least it was practiced, The work that slaves did was considered below.

It was beneath the average person. That's work for slaves. Don't you do that. Leave it to the slaves to do that. And that was called labor. Now Paul is already, as I said, by identifying himself to Philemon as a prisoner held in bonds, he adds to that. He speaks of himself as a laborer. Well, that means he's doing work that should be done only by servants. That's correct. It should only be done by servants. Paul says, I'm a servant. I'm a laborer. There's nothing wrong with that.

God said in the law, in six days thou shalt work. On the seventh day, you rest. because God worked six days, and on the seventh day, he rested. Jesus said, my father worketh hitherto, in John 5, 17, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. Work is good. In I think it's 1 Thessalonians, it might be 2 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul says, if a man does not work, he should not eat. So work is not only good, but there's a connection between work and even the necessities of life. So laziness is bad. Work is good. Yet in society, people elevate themselves above the dignity of work. They think it's below them. But Paul brings it out, no, you're my fellow laborer. And what does that do?

Well, it identifies Philemon with Paul as also being a laborer, one who does work. That's what slaves do. So he puts, without really explicitly or overtly or with a heavy hand, he puts Philemon in the place of identifying with Paul with sympathy as a prisoner of Christ, and also with his own status as a laborer, a servant of Jesus Christ, because that's what Onesimus is to Philemon. He's a laborer, Onesimus is a servant of Philemon. And therefore, as a laborer then, Philemon could identify with Onesimus' status as a slave. And this was by intention. And then in verse two, Paul says, and to our beloved Apphia. Apphia is a female name, so she was a sister, sister to Paul, probably the wife of Philemon, but it doesn't say, so we're not sure. our beloved Apphia.

Notice how the apostle identifies believers with his addressing them as beloved ones. Saints have love for one another because of their relationship to one another through Jesus Christ. It comes at the highest possible price, the price of God's own Son, that we're made, we're put in the relation of children to God our Father and brethren, brothers and sisters, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of Christ's blood, we've been redeemed to God from our sins. We've been brought into a relation so that God Himself has sent His Spirit into our hearts, the Spirit of His Son. Now we're given the Spirit of God to cry to God as our Father, Abba, Father, my Father. This relationship was by the will of God the Father, but it was by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the spirit of God is given to birth us and to bring us into that relationship by joining us in spirit to Christ. And so you can see that this relationship comes at the highest cost. It comes with the highest degree of love, at the highest level of authority, and by the power of God to create us in Christ, to put us in Christ.

And so when the apostle speaks of beloved Apphia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, he's speaking to them with endearing terms, very endearing terms because of Jesus Christ. And this is also going to add to the persuasive argument that Paul is making to Philemon because when he speaks so endearingly of Christ's people, he's also speaking without mentioning it yet of Onesimus, who also is dear and should be dear to Philemon as a brother. All right, so he speaks to Philemon of Apphia as beloved and Archippus, our fellow soldier.

Now, Paul didn't have a spear or a knife or a gun. He didn't fight with men, but he was a soldier, a fellow soldier. Believers are in a war. We are soldiers. We are fellow soldiers, but we're soldiers of Jesus Christ. In 2 Timothy, in chapter Let's see, is it chapter 3? No, I thought it was chapter 2. But he says, yeah, it says in 2 Timothy chapter 2, he writes to Timothy, he says in the first verse, Be, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Be strong in grace, this grace that is in Christ Jesus. And he goes on, he says in verse three, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

No man that warreth, you see, there's the warring thing. You're warring, you're in a war. Entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. We didn't become soldiers of Jesus Christ by our choice. This is not a democracy. This is salvation. Salvation is not a democracy. It's God acting for our salvation to glorify himself. He put us into his family. He made us his servants by Jesus Christ. He made us his soldiers. But we don't fight with the weapons of this warfare. And we're not fighting a political battle either. This is the mistake that many Christians make, that the issues that we're fighting nowadays are political.

It is not. Jesus told Pilate in John chapter 18, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight. Meaning, take up arms to protect him against Rome, against the Jews. That wasn't the issue. He says, my kingdom is not from hence. And he goes on to say in John chapter 18, around verse 36 and 37, that he's the king of this kingdom, which is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, and he is the king of truth.

So the battle is the battle for the truth. The weapons of our warfare are not material, they're not carnal, but they are mighty. And they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and to cast down every imagination, that's warfare, that exalts itself against the truth, against Christ, and bring every thought unto the obedience of Christ. This is in 2 Corinthians 10, verse 3 and 4. So the warfare is the warfare of the truth. It's for men's souls commissioned by Christ so he can subdue our enemy and bring us out of captivity. Now, in this warfare, we overcome by faith.

Faith overcomes the world, and we overcome by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ because it's Christ's blood that overcame our enemies, our sin, Satan, and the world. Jesus told his disciples, I have overcome the world. He told them in John chapter 12, the prince of this world is judged. He overcame Satan and he certainly overthrew our sins because he put them to death in his own death. So Christ is the captain of our salvation and we are soldiers. We trust him, we look to him and we proclaim the truth of his salvation to subdue the imaginations that are opposed to the truth. to cast them down, and to overthrow them.

This is a war. This is a warfare. The helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, your loins girt about with the truth, the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, and praying always in the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians chapter 6, it tells us the nature of this warfare. We're soldiers. And so we are to expect hardness. In the battle of truth, it's not easy. We are to prepare ourselves with the truth. As we saw in Colossians chapter four, he says, be ready, speaking with grace, be ready to give an answer to every man. So this is being strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the nature of our, And so Archippus was not a sword-wielding soldier. He was a truth-wielding soldier. He was a teacher, a preacher.

And in Colossians, in chapter 4, if you remember, Paul told Archippus, he said, tell Archippus, see that you take heed to the ministry which you've received, that you fulfill it. So maybe Archippus had been lax or slack. in doing what he was commissioned to do. Or maybe he was doing it and Paul is speaking to him in Colossians 4 about the need to continue and to continue as a soldier. Here he calls him his fellow soldier.

And then he also writes in this letter in verse 2, Paul writing to Philemon, he says, and to the church in thy house, speaking of Philemon. So Philemon was sufficiently well-to-do that he had a servant, Onesimus, a slave. He had a wife. He had someone, a teacher or preacher, in his own household, and they were meeting in his house. Buildings are not churches. This is something that sometimes we slip into this vernacular that the world uses. Places are not churches. The church is made up of people, not things.

And the reason that we're part of the church is because the Spirit of God has taught us of Christ. He has birthed us and has given us faith in him. We're part of the church, his body. And that's what he's speaking about here. So he says, The church that is in your house, meaning the gathering of those who also hold the gospel of Christ as the truth. They have a common bond. It's the love of Christ to them. They have a common faith. It's the faith of God's elect, the truth of the gospel. It's objective, it's true, because it's the truth of Christ. And so they hold this together. In our church, it's the same thing. Believers believe the same things.

When we partake of the Lord's Supper together, that loaf represented by what we take part of here is broken into pieces. And in some sense, you could say, well, Art's taking part of that end of the loaf and I'm taking part of this end of the loaf. And so, yeah, it's kind of like we're taking part of the same loaf, but he has his part and I have my part. That's not the way it is with the gospel.

We all consume the same thing. And there's a unity in that, isn't there? One faith, one Lord, one baptism. And one God and Father above all, you see. And there's one body. So, because we share the same Lord, the same Savior, the same Spirit, the same truth, and the same faith, we believe the same things. There is unity between us. And yet, when a group of believers meet together, it's called the church in your house. The gathering of those called out, gathered ones of Christ that meet together and hold the same truth in faith and in love.

So then in the next verse here, so this is a private letter in that sense because it's written to Philemon, but it's also public. It's public because Timothy and Paul are writing to Philemon. And it's written to not only Philemon, but to Apphia and to Archippus, but also to the whole church. So this is an open letter addressed to Philemon. And it's correcting Philemon. So we can see that this is an open correction made because what Philemon was doing Holding, insisting on Onesimus as his slave was wrong and it needed to be publicly corrected because it was a public error.

If a brother sins against you, go to him privately. And this is the way that we're supposed to address one another. But here, Paul is addressing to correct a public offense publicly, but he does it in such a gracious manner that it teaches us that even when he's led by the Spirit of Christ, he speaks and addresses others in the same meekness, and humility with the same grace to persuade them by motives that reside in Christ's own mind, the way that the Lord deals with his people. And this is what is becomes brightly obvious in this epistle. So in verse 3, he says to Philemon, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is true of all the church. First of all, Paul doesn't give grace. Grace is not from a man. Grace is from God. And peace also is from God because our sin has created a separation, a rift, an offense to God. And that rift, that separation and offense can only be fixed by what God accepts to reconcile us to himself.

We could never meet what God required, which was a full payment. And so the payment had to be made by God himself. But God couldn't pay it as God alone. He had to become man in order to bear the offense against himself. And as man received the punishment for that offense to reconcile us to God himself. And so he says that in Romans 5, 10, when we were enemies. We were not reconciled to God. God reconciled us to himself by the death of his son. That's the gospel. And that's the grace and the peace he's talking about here. Peace is because of grace. Grace is in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's no way to convey the measure, the unspeakable gift, as God says in 2 Corinthians 9, 15, that Christ is to reconcile his people to himself. It's unspeakable. It's incomprehensible. There's no way to measure it. It's the height, the depth, the breadth, the length of it is beyond. It passes knowledge. And yet we know something about it.

And this is God's grace to us to make peace with us in the blood of his son. These are words given to Paul from Christ to proclaim, to announce. to the church, to Apphia, and Archippus, and to Philemon, that God's grace is towards you, and that grace has established peace between you and God, and it's all from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God can do this. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ is God, and yet he is Christ, the appointed one, the one anointed to make peace by his own sacrifice. All right, peace is made in the propitiating blood of Christ.

Then in verse four, notice the way that Paul continues. I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers. And there's a comma, the next verse, hearing of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints. So Paul doesn't thank Philemon, first of all.

He thanks God. When we receive good, thank God for it. It came from him. We're to live thankfully to God, because God is the giver of every good gift. God made the world. God created us. God gave us breath. God upholds our life. He supplies our needs. He sustains our life. God did this.

And so he thanks God, not only for those physical things of life, but most especially for those things that have to do with our salvation. But he's thanking God, and he makes mention of Philemon always in his prayers. It wasn't that Paul thought, oh, yeah, I forgot to write to Philemon. Pen the letter. He had been thinking about Philemon a lot. And he had been praying for Philemon.

And this is also very important. We can tell, we can ask one another for prayers, and we should pray for us. But fundamentally, go to God through Jesus Christ. Ask God. for Christ's sake, to receive us and to give what He thinks is best to meet our need. And He knows our need, and our need is for salvation and life by His Spirit, through the Gospel, because of Christ. Faith and love and all the things that God gives through His Spirit, because of Christ. So He makes mention of Philemon in His prayers all the time. In verse five, he says, hearing of thy faith, of thy love and faith.

You see, it's probably that Paul never actually met Philemon, but he heard about him, and what he heard was he was a man who trusted Christ, and he loved the Lord, and it was seen in his love toward all the saints. Who told Paul about Philemon? Who told Paul that Philemon believed Christ and loved his people? Who told him?

Well, most likely, Onesimus. More than likely, it was his own slave, which means a lot. First of all, it means that Onesimus had probably heard of Christ, first, from his master Philemon. Secondly, it also means that Onesimus talked to Paul about Philemon. And third, it means that Onesimus was not dissing, as they say, his master. He wasn't speaking disparagingly of Philemon. He was talking about him as a believer. And Onesimus left Philemon.

He was a runaway slave. Now, as a runaway slave, when he ran away, he probably had hard feelings toward Philemon. You know how it is. I've been working for this guy for nothing. And he holds me as a slave according to the laws of the land. I can't get away. And so he bolted. Maybe he was young when he left. We don't know.

But whatever it was, he went a long way to meet Paul. Philemon lived in Colossae. Onesimus had to meet Paul in Rome, where he was held a prisoner. Hundreds of miles. It must have taken him months to get there. At least a month. Perhaps months. Whatever it was, it was a long time.

And when he came to Rome, where Paul was, through Paul, Onesimus actually heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he himself became a believer. And therefore, in his conversations with Paul, he would have spoke of his master, Philemon. He would have told Paul that he had run away as a slave from Philemon. He would have confided in Paul that he had been a slave and ran away, probably told him why. And he also had mentioned Philemon's love and faith, which he had toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. So all these things are implied by verse five.

But it also shows that Philemon's love was a love that was evident. It was a love that was out of faith. Love springs from faith. Love is produced by faith and faith is in Christ. And that faith springs from Christ himself. It's given to us. It's a gift of his grace. So that through the spirit of God, God gives us both faith in Christ and love for Christ. And these things are the result of God's grace because of the peace he made in the blood of his son and by his spirit sent to us. So he speaks of his love. But notice he says, you're loved toward all saints.

Now, saints are not people as the Catholic Church wants us to believe. The Catholic Church is superstitious and full of idolatry. They are not Christian. The Catholic Church is not a Christian church. Unfortunately, in the world, Christianity is synonymous with Catholicism. But this is a twisted assignment of Catholicism as being synonymous with Christianity, and it's designed by Satan in order to make Christianity an offense even before someone hears it. There's nothing in Catholicism that has to do with the truth of the gospel, nothing.

It's full of idolatry, full of superstition, full of men who arrogate themselves above others and wield their power for their own praise and for their own enrichment. It's just a false church, just like the Jewish religion was in the days of Christ, a false church. non-believing, reprobate city, Jerusalem. And so when he speaks of saints, he's not talking about saints in the Catholic way of understanding.

No. He's talking about those who by Jesus Christ have been sanctified. By His blood they were made saints. They were set apart in eternity by God the Father to Himself. And He purchased them, He made them holy with the blood of His Son, and then He gave His Spirit, His Holy Spirit, to them, birthing them by His Spirit That Spirit then being in them, God's Spirit, they are holy in the nature God has birthed and created in them, that new man. So they're called saints. They are saints by Jesus Christ, by God the Father, and by the Spirit of God.

So this is who he's talking about here. Love toward Christ's own people. And this is building the argument because Onesimus is one of them. And this is where we see the weight of this short letter. So weighty, so pithy, as the old people used to say. It means it's compact and densely full of information.

And so when Paul says these things, your love toward all the saints, he's pulling that together with the grace of God that he made peace with you as his enemy through the blood of his son and with the fellow soldier and the fellow laborer and Paul as a prisoner and Philemon's sympathy towards Paul as both a prisoner and a laborer and a servant of Jesus Christ, a fellow soldier, And all these things are bearing down on the argument that Paul is making to build it up.

Because what he's trying to do here is to incline Philemon's heart toward Onesimus, just as his heart was towards Paul. He's trying to persuade Philemon, you need to think about Onesimus as you think about me. Now that's only on the basis of these things we've been talking about. But there's something infinitely more significant in that statement, that Philemon needed to think of Onesimus as Paul.

Because in that, that statement itself, which is contained in this letter, is simply conveying the infinitely glorious truth, the mystery, that God receives his people as Christ. And Christ receives us to the glory of God. And we are going to talk about this a lot more in a minute. We're going to stretch this out into another sermon. But I won't put it all on you today. But I want you to see that the weight of this argument is building up towards this, that through this letter, Paul is He is persuading Philemon with the truth of the gospel of how Christ appealed for his people to God and to them.

He appealed to God with his own blood and with his intercession for his people. Receive them as me. That's what he's saying. But he also appeals to his church, his beloved ones, his saints. Receive them as me, to each one of us. Receive one another as Christ received us to the glory of God. So in this letter we see that the basis and the weight of the argument ultimately is gonna come down to Christ's petition his advocacy, his pleading with the Father by his own intercessions and the merits of his own blood on behalf of his people, and also pleading with his people to love one another even as I have loved you, you see. That's why this is such a weighty letter.

But notice the skill the tenderness, the insight with which Paul is touching the heart of Philemon. You love Christ. You love his saints. Then, you have sympathy for me and my condition as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, one who is loyal and doing Christ's bidding, therefore imprisoned by men, unlawfully, but according to God's sovereign will. And now he's gonna build up to that, and he goes on, verse six. Your love toward all the saints, that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus, every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

So what Paul is saying here is that Philemon's communication of the gospel of Christ, thy faith, In other words, the objective truth of the gospel would accomplish what God intended. That's what effectual means. It means whatever God means to accomplish by it actually gets done. His word doesn't go out and not accomplish what he means to accomplish with it. It's going to become effectual.

So he has heard of his love and his faith toward the Lord and toward the saints, and he's praying that what he says and what he does would become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus, because these things were the fruits of Christ's work in him. the fruits of the gospel.

Verse seven, for we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. That's quite a commendation, huh? Refreshed, the word refreshed here means put at rest. put at ease. It's the same words Jesus said, come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Philemon as a minister of the gospel or in his house or by his love toward all the saints was putting fellow believers, bringing them into the rest of trusting Christ as everything in their salvation.

And he was doing it in accord with the same love that he showed to them as Christ had showed to him and as Paul was now conveying to him. We have great joy and we have great comfort in your love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by the, dear brother, the bowels, it means the thing that's most tender to you, your heart, your innards. The way you are and think at the deepest level, the affections of the saints are put at rest. Everything that's essential, the most important parts, the essence of their spiritual life is put at rest through the brother. Brother, he identifies him as a brother. Another word that's not by accident, because they were, by Jesus Christ, brothers. Paul didn't say, nowhere in this letter does Paul say, do this because I'm an apostle and you are just an ordinary believer.

That's not the way it comes across at all. It comes across in the most tender, persuasive terms. Paul has so humbled himself, he put himself on the same level as Philemon and even lower because he is pleading with him to correct something that was wrong in Philemon.

Now that's grace, isn't it? Isn't that the way the Lord saves us? Isn't it true that in the process of God's word, when we come under the conviction of our sin and realize that we finally realize I am such a sinner that I can't do anything about my sin, that then the gospel becomes so infinitely precious to us that suddenly we're put at rest? When we were in our most anxious moments, then the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us in the most tender terms, persuading us that what He did for us is enough.

It's all that we need. God doesn't consider us at all because we can't do anything as sinners to attract God's favor. We can't do anything to fulfill his requirements. We can't meet the demands of his justice. Christ has undertaken for us to do everything to bring us to God.

And that just makes us rest, doesn't it? In peace. That's what he's talking about here. All right. So I'm not going to be able to finish this today. I don't know how far we'll get with it next time. But I want you to consider these things as you look at this book here of Philemon. It's such a tender book. By the way, Philemon is a name that means one who kisses. One who loves. Who loves in a way that shows that he loves. He kisses. He embraces.

And yet this man, Philemon, was wrong in the way that he had held Onesimus as a slave. Not in the civil law, because in the Roman law, slaves were allowed. And there's going to be a lot of things to say about that next time. But slaves were, by the Roman law, they were allowed. And Onesimus had confided in Paul, no doubt, that he had been a slave. Otherwise, Paul wouldn't know his master, wouldn't know that he needed to write to him, that he was a slave, that he had left him and wronged him. So Paul now was aware that Onesimus was a lawbreaker. And it's interesting to see how the apostle Paul deals with this civil disobedience.

All right, let's ask the Lord to be with us. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who has given us all of the grace and all of the truth and made our peace with God. He has loved us with an everlasting love when we were sinners. He has laid his life down for his people. And this is all of our salvation, all of our hope, all of our boasting that God is so good that he saved this wretched man that I am. the chief of sinners, and therefore we trust you, Lord, to do right in every matter of our lives. And we trust that your judgments, your works, your will is good because you are good and you can no more do wrong than you can lie or change or cease to be God. And we see these things in our Lord Jesus Christ most prominently because he gave himself for us He served in order to ransom us, to lay down his life, to ransom us from the curse we were under, and to bring us to God. What a great God we serve. And our Savior, Jesus Christ, receive our thanksgiving and our praise for his sake. Amen.

Receive him as me, Philemon p1 of 4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace and peace?

Why is the Letter to Philemon important for Christians?

How do we know that God loves us?

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Receive him as me, Philemon p1 of 4

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about grace and peace?

Why is the Letter to Philemon important for Christians?

How do we know that God loves us?

Sermon Transcript

About Rick Warta

Comments

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