Philemon
Philemon 1-25
The apostle Paul was a prisoner in Rome for the cause of Jesus christ, he had been arrested of enduing a riot on the temple grounds in Jerusalem, every were Paul went there was revival or riot...
while in his rented house under house arrest, he was chained to a guard and the guard was changed every four hours, why so they could not get away, many gave there hearts to Jesus. it was during this time that he wrote the letter of Colossians and Ephesians, chained to that guard he desorbed the armor of the roman solider, we will look at this next week,
during this time he also wrote this postcard of Philemon,.
Tychicus was the “postman” who delivered Colossians (Col. 4:7) and Ephesians (Eph. 6:21), and Onesimus (the bearer of this epistle) accompanied him (Col. 4:9). These letters could possibly have been written during the Caesarean or Ephesians imprisonment, as some assert; but the weight of evidence supports the traditional view that Paul wrote them during his Roman imprisonment. The date was probably a.d. 60 or 61.[1]
Onesimus was a runaway slave and very probably a thief into
the bargain. "If he has done you any damage," Paul writes, "or,
if he owes you anything, put it down to my account--I will repay
it" (Phm 18 - 19). Somehow the runaway had found his way to Rome,
to lose himself in the thronging streets of that great city,
somehow he had come into contact with Paul, and somehow he had
become a Christian, the child whom Paul had begotten in his bonds
(Phm 10 ). [2]
Onesimus was a run away slave he robed his master and fled both counts are very serous, we assume that Onesimus run into Paul in Rome, he went through his money and gives his live to Jesus Christ. Onesimus, makes himself of great value to the apostle Paul...
.. some where Paul ran into Onesimus and he was converted to Jesus Christ, now that he is saved he has a decision to make what to do about this runaway slave.
Paul was a rabbis and he was familiar with the law and what you will find in the law my be surprising.
put yourself in the place of Paul you are a Jew rabbis by training.
Deuteronomy 23:15-16
15 “You shall not give back to his master the slave who has escaped from his master to you.16 “He may dwell with you in your midst, in the place which he chooses within one of your gates, where it seems best to him; you shall not oppress him.
The New King James Version
this is a great surprise , according to the law of Moses Paul was privileged to hold on to him. Paul chooses to send him back , as a testimony to those who were at the church at Philemon’s home. he could have kept him and been justified in doing so, he could have set him free, but what Paul did showed a great love for both men.. Slaver to us today is foreign. How could one man own another..
a different culture, ( frediscksburdge Virginia- I saw one of the blocks still there, it was the same in Paul’s day,) you were nothing but a “: living tool”
You had no rights and could own nothing.
if you were part of this culture and herd that you were bought with a price you would understand. do you know what is like to be put on a public corner and stand on a block in front of others as you are sold, stripped of every thing including your family have a person buy you for there use or abuse. and then to have a writer to say you were bought with a price and every slave hearting this would ask is this what it means to be a Christian.
we are owned by Jesus the minute we say yes to him
Your master could kill you and you had no way of requires, there was no one you could appeal to , you are nothing more that a animal. if you..
Rome was literally filled with slaves.. the tax records in Rome in the in the time of Paul showed 870,00 people/ 500.00 of them were slaves, of the new births recorder there were %70 salves, Rome had a problem they were letting them go by the thousands. when one would rebel because of the numbers they would be delta with harshly for fear that there would be a uprising, so it took very little to put your slave to death.
What made it worse was that the slaves were deliberately held
down. There were in the Roman Empire 60,000,000 of them and the
danger of revolt was constantly to be guarded against. A
rebellious slave was promptly eliminated. And, if a slave ran
away, at best he would be branded with a red-hot iron on the
forehead, with the letter F--standing for fugitives, runaway--and
at the worst he would be crucified to death. Paul well knew all
this and that slavery was so ingrained into the ancient world
that even to send Onesimus back to the Christian Philemon was a
considerable risk. [3]
Just when St Paul was reaching Rome, four hundred slaves men and women including no doubt literary slaves of high culture along with the most menial, were executed and deliberant sanction of the senate, while troops lined the streets to prevent a popular rescue. and why because their master, pedanius, had been murder by one of his household; under terrible provocation, if all tales were true. and Old custom, says the dispassionate historian Tacitus, required in such a case that the whole exaction slaved household should suffer death, as a deterrent, .. Crucifixion at the masters absolute sentence was the common punishment for even petty larcenies by slaves. and it need not be said that other and more everyday penalties were cruel in proportion.[4]
if you were a runaway you were branded with a F on your forehead telling everyone that you were a fugitive.
Luther put it that we are all Onesimus, and this is true we were at one times slaves to sin..
we are as Paul put it many times a bond slave of Jesus Christ. we are his we have no rights we have noting but Him and the he in turn pours upon us His wealth and calls us SONS and Daughters...
Paul in this letter says he is a prisoner and this was literally but also we are his, , just as that slave we have been bought with a price we are now bond slaves of Jesus Christ, you will sever somebody..
Onesimus now going back to his master Paul writing this letter to him interceding for him on his return.
Philemon 1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
Paul was a prisoner of Jesus notice he does not say of Nero or of Rome but of Christ Paul understood that his life was Jesus’ that he was not in prison by accident but by design. we have to understand that we are his, no matter the circumstances we are his. and with that it helps me not to gripe about my circumstances so much I am here by and for Christ.. my stupidity gets me into trouble, but God even allows that to teach me. My life is in his hands no mater what.
as david prayed
Psalm 31:14-15
14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in Your hand;
PS 139
you know me, you have hemmed me in from front and behind and have laded your hand on me. My life my times my circumstances are in his hands and he can be trusted, Paul a Prisoner of JESUS CHRIST..
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also notice that he did not used his authority, I am the APOSTLE PAUL you will do this.
the ministry is not being a dictatorship or pulling rank on others it is service. being available. many with there mouths say I want to be in ministry, but were are they, they are not here , what they are saying to me is that they want to be in control they want to be seen they want to control people. it is not to be like that !!!!
Matthew 20:25-28
25 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.26 “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.27 “And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
in the ministry there is those who would get into running your life, you must do this our that , this is the wrong concept of the ministry..
in the ministry it is if you want to be used it is to serve. not what do I get out of it our how can I militated someone to do what I want. ,
Philemon 1 To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer,
Philemon is unknown except from this epistle, but several things may be concluded about him. He was: (1) a Colossian (Col. 4:9); (2) led to Christ by Paul, probably in Ephesus (v. 19); (3) fairly well-to-do (implied by the generosity mentioned in vv. 5, 7 and his ownership of slaves); (4) loved by the brethren (v. 1); and (5) active in the work of the gospel (fellow worker, v. 1).[5]
he had a church in his home,
Philemon 2 to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
apphia
this apparently is his wife
Archippus
most likely the son of these two, he was the pastor of this particular church, that would seem to be the inference in Col.
Colossians 4:17
17 And say to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”
The New King James Version
whether he was the pastor here or at Laodicea which was within walking distance to colossi and the son would be in scanting touch with his parents.
Archippus, and the church in Philemon’s house. Archippus was a minister in the church of Colossi, Philemon’s friend, and probably co-pastor with him; Paul might think him one whom Philemon would advise with, and who might be capable of furthering the good work of peace-making and forgiveness, and therefore might judge fit to put him in the inscription of the letter, with the adjunct of fellow-soldier. He had called Philemon his fellow-laborer. Ministers must look on themselves as laborers and soldiers, who must therefore take pains, and endure hardship; they must stand on their guard, and make good their post; must look on one another as fellow-laborers, and fellow-soldiers, who must stand together, and strengthen one another’s hands and hearts in any work of their holy function and calling: they need see to it that they be provided with spiritual weapons, and skill to use them; as laborers they must minister the word, and sacraments, and discipline, and watch over souls, as those that must give an account of them; and, as soldiers, they must fight the Lord’s battles, and not entangle themselves in the things of this life, but attend to the pleasing of him who hath chosen them to be soldiers, 2 Tim. 2:4[6]
Some have surmised that Archippus our fellow soldier was Philemon’s son. He may likely have been a mission-pastor in Colossi, for Paul gave a brief instruction for the Colossians to pass on to Archippus (Col. 4:17). Perhaps Archippus, because of his position, could have exerted additional influence on Philemon.[7]
in your church
The practice of churches meeting in private homes for worship was common up to a.d. 200. Not until the third century did churches meet in separate buildings. Home churches were also mentioned by Paul in Romans 16:5 and Colossians 4:15. The words “your home” may refer, some say, to Archippus’ home (“your” is the sing. sou), but it is better to take it as referring to Philemon’s home since he is addressed first in the salutation. The singular “you” in Philemon 4, 6-8, 10-12, 16, 18-21, 23 obviously refers to Philemon. “You” and “your” is plural only in verses 22 and 25.[8]
Philemon is the host of a house-church that, according to contemporary architectural patterns, would have been limited to fifteen to thirty members. The letter is addressed to the whole church, although Paul speaks almost exclusively to Philemon ("you" in vv. 22b and 25 is in the plural)[9]
Philemon 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
V. 3. This salutation—Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ—is the usual Pauline greeting. It is almost identical in wording to the greeting in six of his other epistles (Rom., 1 and 2 Cor., Gal., Eph., Phil.); the salutation in Paul’s six other epistles have only slight variations (Col., 1 and 2 Thes., 1 and 2 Tim., Titus). (See chart, “Paul’s Introductions to His Epistles” at Rom. 1:1.)[10]
It is important to note the word order. The word “peace” expresses a spiritual state denoting a proper relationship between God and man; it is the effect of only one cause: the “grace” of God. There can be no peace apart from grace. Peace with God, a judicial matter, comes by means of faith (Rom. 5:1). The peace of God, an experiential condition, results from the infilling ministry of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:22-23). Paul concluded the letter with a similar prayer regarding the “grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phile. 25).[11]
Note how Grace comes before peace, we can not know God peace until we Note how Grace comes before peace, we can not know God peace until we expense his Grace, It could never read grace and peace. it there is no peace in your heart, if there is a unrest in your heart is it because you have not experienced his grace.
Hebrew= Shalom
Greek=Grace
you will never have grace until you understating grace. if you are trying to be holier you will not receive peace. when you stop trying to earn Gods blessings and just receive them, you will then have peace.
Peace from God implies peace with God,
Romans 5:1
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (NKJV)
The war is over, God would say I have nothing against you I am not disappointed in you, we have peace with God it is positional and uncontrolled. Jesus tool all my sin my rebellion on the cross. God is disjointed in me, I don’t pray like I should I’m not doing very much, why not , we have peace with God because what Jesus did. this is good news this gospel. you can have peace with God that is unconditional if you have Jesus in your life you have this peace.
Philippians 4:6-7 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (NKJV)
grace and peace........because on in the lord Jesus Christ.
I have experienced His grace this is a gathering of sinners anonymous this is a gathering of people who know they are bad and are getting a better this things is by grace you cant earn it no matter how hard you try....
there was a poem that was written by a pastor , one that fell bad. GAY, if you mess up with some gal you can maybe get back into the ministry if there is enough repentance and purity but if you are gay you cant do it. there is brother that are grater sinners than him in the church and they wont speak to him. it is like when Christ said to peter when you have returned help your brethren. this man has done this and is helping others in this sin. he wrote this poem six months after fall..
Jesus has just risen from the dead the angles have trumpeted ,the hour has come
awake O Christ the victory is won.
your trumpet is glorious all hells at your feet
what’s that you say where’s Pete.
you mean peter that failed you that proud pompous man
who measured his faith by the mussels in his hand
he sadly has spent three miserable days
and now you have risen his life is in a daze
he is more than a friend alto it is true
he failed me on Friday and other days two.
but while in the grave my body at rest
I held onto peter and prayed for strength for the test.
now that I’m risen my power over death
is proof of the truth of all that I have said.
now high on my agenda once up on my feet
I’ve got to find Simon, where in the world is Pete.
peter says lord I’m here I didn’t think you’d come
come to me after all that I had done,
and then when it happened and you were in jail, I just gave up trying and turned from the shame
I failed and I stumbled and I cured your name
peter I love you and have given you my power
when every you stumble just remember this hour.
he is only lost who runs from my grace
and lives in his sin and hides from my face.
if you are good you are in the wrong place, if you can do it on your own your in the wrong place. if you have a need and its grace and you know that you cant earn it my yourself that is what the christen faith is all about.
we can fool ourselves but it is his grace and only then do we know his peace, that peace that only comes from him.
1 Peter 5:12
I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.
The New International Version
I learn this through his word, we need to be in the word every day , let it become a part of you let it permeated it you until you life it...
a wife or a prisoner during the Vietnam era said this. when asked how she stained her self, she said I have his letters and I read them over and over and over and over...
the sustaining power of the letter from one that loves us that is what the bible is all about, and we hurt that when we only open our bible on Sunday morning when the preacher teaches it. you unwed to be in the word, every day of your life and you will find that God wills speak to you...
Donald grey Barnhouse after doing some studies found that we need 1600 to 1800 calories just to live, but the Minster in England need 200 more calories on top of that for every ton of coal that they mine..
this is food too and faithfulness requires those kind of celeries. if you want to look at the world and know what it is all about go to the bible if you what to know how to live go to the bible, how do deal with others go tot he bible, is your actions right or wrong, if you want to hear the voice of God go to the bible..
Philemon 4 I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,
Paul was a person of prayer, he prayed, this is one thing that we need more of in this body’s life. how do you pray without ceasing. to stay in a attune of prayer, to pray when you get up to pray through the day. to stay in a attune of prayer. there is times I am not in a attune of prayer it is at that times I need to pray,
Philemon 5-7 hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,6 that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.7 For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.
Philemon your ministry it a great blessing in the community, and in this you are mature to handle what I’m about to lay on you..
Philemon 8-9 Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting,9 yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ—
Science you are mature, since you are being used of GOD..
I could tell you, but for loves sake .. God is like that I could tell you to love me, I could force you but because of Love I will not ..
he could have order him to let him Go or he was even in his rights to keep him, I found him now I will keep him but he did neither, he sent him back..
an old man: The mss. read presbyteµs, "an old man"—"a man of 50-60 years"
think of the hardship Paul put his body through, we was from his own words..
2 Corinthians 11:24-27
24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness—
The New King James Version
Philemon 10 I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains,
Onesimus came to Jesus while Paul was in prison, he lead him to Jesus
Philemon 11 who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
For Oneµsimos means "Profitable One," and stands in contrast to the adjective "useless" (achreµstos, 11). Paul implies that the Christian slave will now live up to his name
Verse 11 presents a play on the name Onesimus, which means “profitable.” Formerly Onesimus was “useless” to Philemon as a runaway. But now, since this revolutionary change in his life as a result of his conversion, he is “useful” to both Philemon and Paul. He is presently profitable to Paul; he will be profitable to Philemon as his services are restored to his master; and Onesimus work will be of a new and higher character (cf. Col. 3:22ff.).[12]
Philemon 12-13 I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,13 whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.
I want to keep him with me, I could use his help , but I sent him to you.
Philemon 14-16 But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.15 For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever,16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
(for a little while is lit., “to an hour”) [13]
this all happened that he could come to Christ and now you have a brother back. there is times I look and I don’t understand why this bend in the road here, why did this happen but God was working out his plan and that is what was going on here.
Philemon 17-18 If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.18 But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account.
if he owe you anything I will pay.
It is one of the laws of life that someone has to pay the
price of sin. God can and does forgive, but not even he can free
a man from the consequences of what he has done. It is the glory
of the Christian faith that, just as Jesus Christ shouldered the
sins of all men, so there are those who in love are prepared to
help pay for the consequences of the sins of those who are dear
to them. Christianity never entitled a man to default on his
debts. Onesimus must have stolen from Philemon, as well as run
away from him. If he had not helped himself to Philemon's money,
it is difficult to see how he could ever have covered the long
road to Rome. Paul writes with his own hand that he will be
responsible and will repay in full. [14]
Philemon 19 I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay—not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides.
Just so Philemon would not miss the cruelness of this note Paul was writing in his own hand this was very reared for Paul to write, he had scribes write for him.
V. 19b. You owe me your very self hints that Philemon may have been won to the Lord by Paul, and was thus obligated to him spiritually. If so, this was further evidence that Onesimus and Philemon were on the same spiritual plane; they had both been led to the Savior by the apostle. Such a debt could in one sense cover Onesimus’ obligations. And yet Paul chose not to dwell on that fact.[15]
I don’t know it what was the case I seem to believe that there is something deeper here, Paul
Philemon 20 -22 Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord.21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.22 But, meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you.
Paul knew they were praying for his release, so that was the plan for him to go there after release, we don’t know if he made it our not. you have to hear behind these words I’m going to check up to see how you responded to this letter.
Philemon 23-25 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers.25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
23-24. Those who sent greetings to Philemon (you in v. 23 is sing.) are five of the six people also mentioned in Colossians 4:10-14, though in a different order: Epaphras . . . Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. In Colossians Paul also added “Jesus, who is called Justus.” In Colossians 4:12-13 Paul highly commended Epaphras, who in Philemon 23 is called my fellow prisoner for Christ Jesus.[16]
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what did he do , what would you have done, we have chaise what did he do, where is speculation but that is all that it is. history speaks of several Onesimus in the early church but that being a common name for slaves its hard to tell ,
The identification of him with the Onesimus who was bishop of Ephesus some sixty years later and the notion that he collected Paul’s letters and wrote Ephesians represent speculation. More likely, the prominence of Onesimus led to the use of his name by later church leaders. A tradition identifies him as the bishop of Berea, and Melito of Sardis (mid-second century) wrote to his ’brother Onesimus.’ In the fourth century, two other bishops bear the name ’Onesimus.’[17]
Some scholars believe that the Onesimus known to Ignatius and described by him in his Epistle to the Ephesians as ‘a man of inexpressible love and your bishop’ was none other than the runaway slave. This hypothesis, though not impossible, would seem improbable on chronological considerations. It is urged in its support that it supplies a reason why Philemon was preserved as a canonical book. On the other hand, its close connection with Colossians, and its importance for the light it throws on the Christian treatment of slaves, would seem to provide adequate reasons for its canonicity.[18]
I believe that we are not told, because we to have choices. look at this one Demas he had choices, he followed for a while Paul.
2 Timothy 4:10
10 for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica
The New King James Version
we have choices to make what choices will you make..
Once there was a king and he ruled over a great and mighty land and he loved being kings , he loved going through the kingdom with his onerous he loved counting the money, he lived live in the castle but he had a little boy and that boy was two years old and he loved that little boy more that anything in the world. just before dinner every night he would go out and play with his little boy every evening in the gardens behind the castle, and one time the little boy got lost and he wondered off in the forest behind the castle and before his father the king came and called his name before dinner and he was not there. the little boy wanted to get back home but the boy was so little and the world was so big and he got turned around and his clothes got tattered and torn against the limbs in the forest, he fell several; times in the mud there in the forest and he looked like street kid. meanwhile back in the castle the there was panic the king had lost his son, he called all his servants and sent them out to search for his son and the next morning he offered a great reward and sent his army throughout the kingdom and in the mean time the little boy found himself in one of the little villages in the kingdom, he would go up to those he meet and pull on there coat and say hey mister I’m the kings son. and he would say sure kid sure you are and he would go to someone else and say I’m the prince, and they would say the price would not look that way, at first he thought he was the kings son but they were adults and he was so little and they were so big and adults do know everything. he began to think maybe I’m not maybe I dreamed it then after a while he even forgot about the dream and the days blended into weeks and weeks blended into months and the month’s blended into years and the little boy grew up to a young man..
then he began to run with the wrong crowd murder, stealing, rape , nothing was beneath them , then he became the leader of the wrong crowd. every time he would ride past the castle of his unknown father the king he would spit on the ground because the king represented authority and he hated authority. one day the king found out the most wanted many throughout the kingdom was his own son. those were the days that the kings was over the law and whatever he decided was law, but he was good and Benevento and he was righteous and he thought if I let my son go I will have to let all the criminals go. the young man was arrested he was condemned to be executed and was thrown into a prison cell in a dungeon in the castle where he had once lived as the price. the night before he was to be executed , the king his father a old man now made his way down the stars to the prison cell. he open the door and sat next to his son. the old mans voice shaking with emotion and tears streamed down his face, and he said to his son, Son I loved you with a great love but you became lost and not a moment of my life in all these years that I did not think about you and loved you. and now it has come to this and tomorrow you are appointed to die. Son I have thought about this a lot and I have decided to give you your r freedom you can go.. the old man got up and walked out of the cell door . and the young man got up and tried the cell door and sure enough it was opened and he grabbed his coat and he said that stupid old man he is more senile then even I thought it he thinks I’m going to come back here and be his slave. he opened the door and he was gone.. it was two weeks later that young man found out the price that was paid for his freedom. he found out on the day that he was to be executed his father in order to meet the demands of justice had literally been executed in his place............ what did you do he come back home... I don’t know because you are the son.......[19]
WE ALL HAVE CHOICES WHICH ONES WILL YOU MAKE
THE SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE OF DEMAS
First on the list comes Demas. There are three mentions of him
in Paul's letters; and it may well be that they hake in them the
story of a tragedy. (i) In Phm 24 he is listed amongst a group
of men whom Paul calls his fellow-labourers. (ii) In Col 4:14 he
is mentioned without any comment at all. (iii) Here he has
forsaken Paul because he loved this present world. First, Demas
the fellow-labourer, then, just Demas, and, finally, Demas the
deserter who loved the world. Here is the history of a spiritual
degeneration. Bit by bit the fellow-labourer has become the
deserter; the title of honour has become the name of shame.
What happened to Demas? That we cannot tell for sure, but we
can guess.
(i) It may be that he had begun to follow Christ without first
counting the cost; and it may be that he was not altogether to
blame. There is a kind of evangelism which proclaims: "Accept
Christ and you will have rest and peace and joy." There is a
sense, the deepest of all senses, in which that is profoundly and
blessedly true. But it is also true that when we accept Christ
our troubles begin. Up to this time we have lived in conformity
with the world and its standards. Because of that life was easy,
because we followed the line of least resistance and went with
the crowd. But once a man accepts Christ, he accepts an entirely
new set of standards and is committed to an entirely new kind of
life at his work, in his personal relationships, in his
pleasures, and there are bound to be collisions. It may be that
Demas was swept into the Church in a moment of emotion without
ever thinking things out; and then when unpopularity,
persecution, the necessity of sacrifice, loneliness, imprisonment
came, he quit because he had never bargained for anything like
that. When a man undertakes to follow Christ, the first essential
is that he should know what he is doing.
(ii) It may be that there came to Demas the inevitable
weariness of the years. They have a way of taking our ideals
away, of lowering our standards, of accustoming us to defeat.
Halliday Sutherland tells how he felt when he first qualified
as a doctor. If on the street or in any company there came the
call: "Is there a doctor here?" he thrilled to it, proud and
eager to step forward and help. But as the years went on, a
request like that became a nuisance. The thrill was gone.
W. H. Davies, the tramp who was also one of the greatest
poets, has a revealing passage about himself. He had walked to
see Tintern Abbey which he had last seen twenty-seven years ago.
He says: "As I stood there now, twenty-seven years after, and
compared that young boy's enthusiasm with my present lukewarm
feelings, I was not very well pleased with myself. For instance,
at that time I would sacrifice both food and sleep to see
anything wonderful; but now in my prime I did not go seeking
things of beauty, and only sang of things that came my way by
chance."
Dean Inge had a sermon on Ps 91:6--"the destruction that
wastes at noonday," which he called "The Peril of Middle Age."
There is no threat so dangerous as the threat of the years to a
man's ideals; and it can be kept at bay only by living constantly
in the presence of Jesus Christ.
(iii) Paul said of Demas that "he loved this present world."
His trouble may have been quite simple, and yet very terrible. It
may simply be that he loved comfort more than he loved Christ,
that he loved the easy way more than he loved the way which led
first to a cross and then to the stars.
We think of Demas, not to condemn, but to sympathize, for so
many of us are like him.
It is just possible that this is neither the beginning nor the
end of the story of Demas. The name Demas is a shortened and
familiar form of Demetrius and twice we come upon a Demetrius in
the New Testament story. There was a Demetrius who led the riot
of the silversmiths at Ephesus and wished to lynch Paul because
he had taken their temple trade away (Ac 19:25). There was a
Demetrius of whom John wrote that he had a good report of all and
of the truth itself, a fact to which John bore willing and
decisive witness (3Jn 12 ). May this be the beginning and the end
of the story? Did Demetrius the silversmith find something about
Paul and Christ which twined itself round his heart? Did the
hostile leader of the riot become the convert to Christ? Did he
for a time fall away from the Christian way and become Demas, the
deserter, who loved this present world? And did the grace of God
lay hands on him again, and bring him back, and make him the
Demetrius of Ephesus of whom John wrote that he was a servant of
the truth of whom all spoke well? That we will never know, but it
is a lovely thing to think that the charge of being a deserter
may not have been the final verdict on the life of Demas. [20]
----
[1]Elwell, Walter A. ed., Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company) 1989.
[2]William Barclay on Phile.
[3]William Barclay on Phile
[4]Colossian and Philemon studies, HCG Moule D.D. Page 288
[5]Elwell, Walter A. ed., Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company) 1989.
[6]Henry, Matthew, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Bible, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers) 1991.
[7]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[8]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[9]Mays, James Luther, Ph.D., Editor, Harper’s Bible Commentary, (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1988.
[10]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[11]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[12]Elwell, Walter A. ed., Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company) 1989.
[13]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[14]William Barclay on Phile
[15]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[16]Walvoord, John F., and Zuck, Roy B., The Bible Knowledge Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Scripture Press Publications, Inc.) 1983, 1985.
[17]Achtemier, Paul J., Th.D., Harper’s Bible Dictionary, (San Francisco: Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc.) 1985.
[18]The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
[19]Tape by Steve brown
[20]William Barclay, commentary on 2 timothy