Philemon

Introduction

Can you think back to a time when someone hurt you? When someone did or said something to break the relationship or a trust you had with them. What did you feel; anger, resentment, betrayal? Were you ever reconciled to that person? Did they seek your forgiveness, did you forgive them, did they even know you were hurt by their words or actions? This morning we will be looking more closely at reconciliation. Because reconciliation is at the heart of the message of Philemon.

Philemon is a very short but important book. What Paul does in this short letter is nothing less than radical for the first century Roman empire culture. One commentator says that if we had no other NT book, if this was the only one we had, we would know that something important was happening in the Roman empire. A subversive idea was being adopted that would itself change the empire from within, and would cause it to be primarily Christian in a few hundred years. It is this idea of reconciliation, but not just any reconciliation. Paul was calling for this reconciliation across the biggest cultural and class barrier in the ancient world, reconciliation between a slave and his owner. And Paul was calling for this because the new identity these believers had in being followers of Jesus. As we work through this short book, we will see that;

RECONCILED RELATIONSHIPS ARE AT THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST,

Christians need to be reconciled to each other

2. Christian reconciliation is to be tied to our identity in Christ

Christian reconciliation is to be tied to our identity in Christ

Christian reconciliation is only possible because we have been reconciled to God through Christ

Before we begin let’s open in a word of prayer

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father we …

Background and Re-read Philemon

[Time: 10m, Total: 10+4 = 14min]

Introduction

Before looking at these themes in detail we need to set the story. Who are the characters, what is the setting, and what is the issue Paul is trying to address..

Characters

PAUL. The first character is Paul. He is the author of the letter, and he says writing from prison. He has several people with him. Some who seem to also be in prison like Epaphras. And others that are not, like: Timothy, Luke, Mark, and Demas. Some commentators say it was during his Roman imprisonment, but many others think is was in Ephesus. This seems more likely given what we will see later.

PHILEMON. The second character is Philemon. Philemon is the recipient to the letter. But as verse 2 shows Paul is intending more than just Philemon to read the letter. Paul says he is addressing it Apphia and Archippus who are thought to be Philemon’s wife and son. He also addresses it to the church that meets in their house. Philemon was a convert to Christianity and likely converted by Paul. He is also a good friend of Paul. He was relatively wealthy since as we will see he owned slaves and had a home large enough to have a house church. It would seem the he lives Colossae, because we see many of the same names mentioned in Philemon and Colossians. Including: Onesimus, Archippus and Epaphras.

ONESIMUS. The final important character it he letter is Onesimus. He is a slave owned by Philemon. He has run away, he has become a fugitive slave, a very dangerous position to be in. He may even have stolen from Philemon to help support himself while on the run. Somehow Onesimus meets Paul, but we don’t know how. And in that meeting with Paul, Onesimus is saved. He becomes a follower of Jesus, and Paul has high praise for Onesimus in his letter, who is helping him during his imprisonment.

Setting

GEOGRAPHY. Paul is in Ephesus and Philemon is in Colossae. Ephesus is on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. If you follow the Meander river valley west for 160 km you end up at the site of 3 Roman cities mentioned in the NT. All very close to each other. Laodicea, Hierapolis and Colossae. mentions Laodicea and Hierapolis as places that Epaphras is working hard for them.

SLAVERY. The final thing we need to deal with to understand this letter is slavery in ancient Rome. It is somewhat different than the European and American slave trade we may be familiar with. It was not based one ethnicity. Roman slaves were generally gained though war. A neighbouring nation or people were conquered and enslaved. Jews for example were enslave during Pompei’s conquest of Judea. You may have heard the slavery was similar to employment today. It was not. The life of most slaves was difficult. They were owned as property and the owners had the authority of life and death over them. Slaves in mines had horrible lives and short life expectancies. Household slaves like Onesimus could have it easier but totally depended on who owned you of course. Your life was not your own, and you lived and died, prospered or suffered at the whim of your master.

Problem to be Solved

So what is the problem that Paul is setting out to solve with this letter? Paul realizes at some point that Onesimus is his good friend Philemon’s fugitive slave. Maybe Epaphras even recognized him from Philemon’s household from attending the house church there. However the problem became apparent, something needed to be done. Paul decides the only thing to be done was for Onesimus to return to Philemon but with a letter in hand. Onesimus needed to seek reconciliation as did Philemon.

Re-Read Philemon

With this background in mind lets re-read the letter.

Reconciliation

[Time: 7m, Total: 14+7 = 21m]

Explanation

The primary theme of this letter is reconciliation between two Christian brothers, Onesimus and Philemon. But what is reconciliation? To be reconciled to someone first there needs to be a broken relationship, a conflict between two people. For Philemon and Onesimus the conflict arose because Onesimus ran away, likely stole some of Philemon’s possessions, and left others to take over his responsibilities. The morality of slavery aside, Onesimus’ offence against Philemon was serious enough to have him executed. For reconciliation occurs three things need to happen: First the offending person needs to ask for forgiveness, the offended person needs to forgive, and both then need to move forward in a renewed relationship.

When we sin against someone we need to ask for their forgiveness. This can be very difficult to do I know, but the Christian life requires it:

· says – we are to confess our sins to each other

Once forgiveness is asked for, the offended person needs to forgive. But even if the other person does not want to be forgiven we as Christians are called to forgive:

· says – to forgive one another, forgive as the Lord forgave you

· says – to forgive each other just as Christ forgave us

Forgiving someone can be just as difficult as seeking forgiveness. It is easy to say “I forgive you.”

But what does genuine forgiveness look like. I like how one writer puts it: “Forgiveness occurs when you choose to let go of resentment or revenge even though the wrongdoer’s actions don’t deserve it. You choose to give him or her acts of generosity or love.” I think the most important part of that is love. And Christ himself says in that it is our love for one another that will identify us as his disciples. He even tells us to love our enemies in .

Finally, there needs to be a renewed relationship moving forward. Not one that forgets what happened but one that genuinely sees what happened as wrong and strive to make the future relationship better.

Illustration

I am reminded of a lawyer friend of mine. He is a criminal defence lawyer and defended a man who killed his best friend and was convicted of murder. My friend then found himself at a social event some time later, and was talking to a woman. They soon became aware that it was the woman’s son that had been killed by the man my friend had defended. It turns out the woman was a Christian and she said she had forgiven the man. This lead to a discussion about forgiveness and what it means. I can only imagine what it would take to forgive the man who murdered my son.

Application

I expect that for most of us the hurt and broken relationship. we face are not as dramatic as murder. But we still face them. Maybe it is a simple argument with your spouse where you said hurtful things. Maybe it is a work situation where you were treated wrongly. Or maybe even a dispute with someone within the church. Whatever the circumstance, I encourage you to take the first step of reconciliation today.

Transition

As we have said, this letter of Philemon is not just about any reconciliation. It is about reconciliation between a huge power divide, between a slave and a slave owner. The only way this can happen is for these two men to see themselves differently. To have a new identity where they are really equals. And this is the second main theme seen in this letter.

New Identity

[Time: 5m Total: 5+21=28min]

Explanation

When we become followers of Jesus we have a new identity. This is an identity of equality before God. Paul says this in Galatians (3:27-28) and even more importantly in Colossians, the very church where Philemon and Onesimus are part of:

· says … there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

These power, ethnic and hierarchical social structures are to be torn down within Christian community. We are to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

· says … we are his adopted Children

· says … we are God’s children

It is only through accepting that we have this new identity can we hope to have reconciliation across power divides. How does Paul say it in Philemon:

15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever— 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

Do we see what Paul is doing here. He has elevated Onesimus to the state of “fellow man” and “brother in the Lord.” This is nothing less than a radical change in his identity before Philemon.

Paul goes even further to put Onesimus and himself on the same footing:

17 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

Do you see yourself first and foremost as a disciple of Christ? Does that define your identity or do you define yourself more by:

your profession: farmer, businessman

your relationships: wife/husband, father/mother, son/daughter

· your relationships: wife/husband, father/mother, son/daughter

Illustration

As some of you may know I spent 27 years in the Canadian Navy. I left the military 5 years ago and now work for a company that does engineering support for the navy. During the time I was leaving the military I felt very anxious, so much so that I thought I was having heart problems. I couldn’t figure out why I was feeling that way. I knew I wanted to leave, and I had a good job to go to, but I was still anxious. As I reflected on it then and later, I believe it had to do with my identity. All my adult life I had been a military officer. Every day I put on the same clothes and saw a navy office looking back at me in the mirror. But now that I was retiring what was I? It took quite a long time to answer the question “what do you do” without saying “I used to be in the Navy.” I think now it was a rather sad reflection on me. I wish I could have seen more of my identity in being a follower of Jesus no matter what clothes I wore or job I had. How about you?

Application

Where is your identity fundamentally found? Issues of identify are very big in our culture today. Whether its identity politics, gender identity issues, or low self-esteem, these all come out of how we see ourselves and want to be seen by others. As Christians our identity needs to fundamentally be as disciples of Jesus, and sons and daughters of the living God.

Transition

The final point I want to look at from this letter is that the reconciliation we can have with fellow believers through our shared identity in Christ is to be modelled on the reconciliation we have true with God Jesus Christ.

Models Christ’s Reconciling us to God

[Time: 3m Total: 3+28=31min]

Explanation

In Paul’s second letter to Corinthians, he shows us the reconciliation is not just at the personal level between fellow believers, but it is at a universal level, between God and all humanity. In Paul says:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Paul reiterates this in Romans and Colossians where he says:

· “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life.”

· “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

We can be reconciled to God. Like any other reconciliation, as the offender we need to approach Him asking for forgiveness. Then God needs to forgive us, and He promises he will.

· “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Application

Before we can have true reconciliation with other believers we first need to be reconciled to God through Christ. It is through experiencing His forgiveness that we can truly begin to forgive others. If you have not had your sins forgiven, if you are still in a broken relationship with God, I encourage you to be reconciled with him today.

Conclusion

[Time: 6m Total: 6+31 = 37]

I would like to wrap things up with a more contemporary story of reconciliation. It comes from this book by Charles Colson “How Now Should We Live?” Colson talks about how after the Vietnam war Robert McNamara a US leader during the war tried to organize a summit to address reconciliation between the nations, and of course it was not successful. But he also tells another story. A more personal story of reconciliation like the one we read about between Onesimus and Philemon.

PICK UP THE BOOK AND OPEN TO THE MARKED PAGES

The story about the woman Kim Phuk. She was the young girl in the infamous photo where she is running down the street naked with burns over her body after her village had been bombed. After her recovery she later becomes a Christian in Vietnam. Colson writes:

Not long afterward Kim went forward to the alter and accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior. “It was the file of the bomb that burned my body, and it was the skill of the doctor that mended my skin,” she says, “but it took the power of God to heal my heart.”

Eventually Kim actually defects to Canada and settles in a Vietnamese community in Toronto. Later in life she is asked to speak at a veteran’s day ceremony in Washington DC. Again Colson writes about that event:

Her voice dropped. “I have suffered a lot from both physical and emotional pain. Sometimes I thought I could not live, but God save my life and gave me faith and hope.”

And then she uttered healing words of grace and forgiveness: “Even if I could talk face-to-face with the pilot who dropped the bomb, I could tell him we cannot change history, but we should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace.”

It turns out that pilot is in the audience of veteran’s hearing Kim’s speech. He is able to get her a note that says “I’m the man you are looking for.”

Colson again says:

When the reporters cleared away, Kim turned around and looked straight into the man’s eyes and then held out her arms … the same arms she had held out as she ran along the road, in agony form her burning skin. She hugged the man and began to sob.

“I am sorry I am just so sorry!” he said

“Its okay. I forgive I forgive said Kim Phuc, echoing her favorite Bible verse, “Forgive and you will be given.”

If God can providentially bring about dramatic reconciliation like this, between Kim and the bomber pilot, as well as between Onesimus and Philemon then he can do the same for you. Do not hesitate. Decide today to be first reconciled with God through Christ. Then take the first step toward reconciliation with that person God has laid on your heart today.

LET’S PRAY

Heavenly Father we …