Letter to Philemon

Letter to Philemon

How Much is it Worth?

Intro: How do you judge how much something is worth? When you go to the store, how do you know you are getting a fair deal on Corn, coffee, or tri-tip? Is Albertson’s brand coffee better or the same as a named brand?

I have put a baseball card on your chair. As a kid, I collected these and I have drug around them with me for 20-30 years. I am not sure how much any of these ones are worth, but the industry ascribes a value to them.and people pay that price if they want to own it. I bought one card when I was about 13or 14 for $33 and now it is worth about $3. But the card stays in its protective sleeve, free from bending, and keeping the corners nice and square.

We all have things that we baby. Right? Cars? Tea sets, guitars, jewelry. Art. And they all have a value. Some of them are priceless and some are just valuable to us.

But how do you treat people? Are they only as valuable as they are useful? Your employees have worth as long as they work diligently for you. Our kids are only loved when they listen. Your spouse is only worth it when they pull their weight in the relationship?

What if you are the employee,child or spouse that is bearing the brunt of your treatment? How much worth do you feel your employer parent or spouse ascribes to you? A dollar, 50 dollars, Priceless?

In this personal letter, Paul writes to Philemon, his coworker in Christ about Onesimus, a slave that possibly stole from Philemon and ran away from him. He met Paul in prison, got saved and now seems to be getting out of prison and Paul is sending him back to Philemon. But given this situation that Both Philemon and Onesiumus are both Christians, Paul asks Philemon to do something that goes against society, and probably good business but is in complete alignment with Philemon’s new Christian values and life.

Read Verses: 8-22

Main Point: Your submission to Christ compels you to make your beliefs should match your actions in every situation, no matter the cost

I. Christ teaches you the value of Others

First we have the players, Paul, the apostle in prison, Onesiumus a runaway slave who is a new convert in prison and probably getting free, and Philemon, the master.

unfortunately know how most slaves were treated here in America. But America did not invent slavery. We just emulated other cultures. It is not a cop out, it just sis what it is. We fought a war to preserve the Union and later it became about freeing the slaves. Paul is neither condoning or outright condemning slavery, But he knows it existed and it was not good on many levels. So how did Rome treat their slaves? Was it all happy and they were really just employees? The answer is no. If you were guilty of capital crimes like Onesimus is believed to be, for running away from his master and also stealing, he could be punished by receiving brands on his forehead. One an F for fugitive and a CF for Cave Furem which means beware of the thief.

Since the Roman empire was built on Slavery, so they had to maintain control of he slaves. A Roman record about a trial about a wealthy Roman who was murdered by one of his slaves. However the prosecuting attorneys thought that all 400 slaves should be publicly executed as an example. The prosecution won.

For Paul and Philemon, it comes down to useful. Onesimus’ name means useful. Paul found him extremely so, but Paul alludes that Philemon thought Onesimus was incorrectly named. It just seems like it was the principle of returning property, both the stolen money and Onesimus himself.

So how do we judge or value a person’s worth? Well it depends on where you think we come from.

Did we come from a random collection of DNA and just millions of years of trial and error and survival of the fittest. If that is your idea, then i suppose slavery or treating others terribly makes sense.

But If you think we were all created by God, and more importantly made in His Image, how much does each person’s value increase?

How you view Genesis 1 and 2 should be consistent on how you deal with your fellow human beings. It’s called being intellectually honest and consistent.

If you think Humans are made in the image of God, then that should mean every time we interact with another person,we are interacting with another image bearer.

If each of us is an image bearer of God, then how we treat another human indicates a little bit of how we may treat God. You are worthy if you are doing something for me. But if you don't, then I can treat you like junk.

This is in direct contradiction to How God sees us. While we were still sinners while we were not providing him with anything he wanted or commanded, he still loved us enough to die for us.

Paul says I can order you, but I want you to act out of love.

II. Christ Teaches You the Value of Acting in Grace and Love

You can’t love your neighbor if you think your neighbor is lesser.

If you like books there is a book coming out called Dominion By Tom Holland. It is essentially about how Christianity spread through the world. In one review and quoting the book it says. “In our modern and postmodern society, there are many people that agree that people should be treated equally, “in the equal dignity of every person, in the value of the poor and weak, and the necessity of caring and advocating for them all. They still believed that love is the great value and that we should forgive our opponents. They still believed in moral absolutes—that some things are good and some things are evil—and particularly that oppression of the powerless was wrong.”

“ But, Nietzsche argued, all these ideas were unique to Christianity. They did not develop in Eastern cultures, and the Greeks and the Romans found them laughable and incomprehensible when they first heard them. Holland shows that the shame-and-honor cultures of old, pagan Europe—of the Anglo-Saxons, the Franks, and the Germans—thought that the Christian ethic of forgiving one’s enemies and of honoring the poor and weak to be completely unworkable as a basis for society. These ideas would’ve never occurred to anyone unless they held to a universe with a single, personal God who created all beings in his image, and with a Savior who came and died in sacrificial love. The ideas only could’ve grown from such a worldview—they don’t make sense in a different one. If, instead, we believe we’re here by accident through a process of survival of the fittest, then there can be no moral absolutes, and life must be, if anything, about power and the mastery of others, not about love. That, declared Nietzsche, is the only way to live once you are truly willing to admit that the Christian God does not exist.”

And So Paul encourages Philemon with love to act in love and show his brother in Christ. And if you follow Paul’s usual statements on how he describes himself in other letters, Paul is. Doulas or slave for Christ. But instead Paul describes himself as a prisoner in Christ because he is in jail for God. But we see Now Onesimus and Philemon are both slaves for Christ. They both serve the same master now. And it is for the better. Because God is fair, just, and not fickle or cruel. He deals with his children in a loving manner and he goes out and finds each one of the lost ones.

And we sit here today because many of us have been rescued. Perhaps you're lost and found yourself here and you don't know why. Or maybe you just need a reminder, like Philemon on what our world can look like when we love people. And show them grace.

Genesis Tells us that God’s Created man and woman. The first of our kind. And it was very good. We are all descendants of these two. We all bear the mark of the Creator. And that makes us image bearers.

That very idea should make us give pause on how we treat each other. The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Martin Luther is quoted as saying “The Christian is supposed to love his neighbor, and since his wife is his nearest neighbor, she should be his deepest love.” Husbands and men, you lead by example. The same can be true for children loving their parents and vice versa.

We will talk more about that topic when we cover Ephesians, but you see how Paul is fitting all of these things together. It is as if the letters are pieces of mosaic tile, creating the Larger image of Christ.

III. Christ Teaches You the Value of Forgiveness

What is Paul expecting Philemon to do? Forgive Onesimus’ debt. Forgive him for running away. Forgive Him for probably costing Philemon time and money for lost work.

And he says look if he owes you anything, charge it to me.

Here we see Paul acting as closely to Jesus as possibly by paying for another person's sin. Of course, imagine Philemon really making Paul pay for real. But as you read the letters, you get the sense that Paul would settle up with him. He was good for his word.

The Night of the Last Supper, Jesus tells Peter that before the Rooster crows, Peter will betray him three times. With Bravado, Peters says No way would I do that, Lord. But then we watch as he does. And then after the resurrection, In John 21, We see Jesus invite Peter and the other apostles to a meal and during the meal, he restores Peter. He forgives Peter for his sin of forsaking Jesus in His time of need.

Jesus knew what would happen because It was foreordained to do so. It wasn’t because he just knew Peter Really well. It was because if Peter didn’t do that, then Jesus could forgive him on the beach and demonstrate His love for his disciples.

Christ's act of forgiveness and reconciliation that takes place on the cross is what Paul wants Philemon to experience for himself.

Philemon was legally allowed to collect whatever debt was owed to him through the court for Onesimus’s crime, but in love and in more importantly He could choose to forgive his debt.

This is exactly what God has done. He has forgiven your debt although he is legally allowed to collect on that debt. He has redeemed you.

Ephesians 1:7

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Romans 2:4

4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

Psalm 107:2 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

Christ shows us the value of others, of grace, and forgiveness and he expects us to say yes it is worth it. I will do the same thing. Not because I am being forced to, but because I want to be like my Lord and savior and I don't have to repay Him, I can never repay God for his grace and mercy. But I don't need to. but I can pay it forward to my brother and sister.

So What the rest of the story of Philemon and Onesimus? Do they just fade away into the background?

Here is where knowing church History and looking toward the Eastern and the Catholic church comes in handy because they have the traditions or records of a lot of Biblical people.

Philemon: After he and his wife Apphia, were baptized by the holy Apostle Paul, they converted their house into a house of prayer, where all those who believed in Christ gathered and attended services. They devoted themselves to serving the sick and downcast.

Saint Philemon became bishop of the city of Gaza, and he preached the Word of God throughout Phrygia. Saints Philemon and Apphia, and also Saint Archippus (who also lived at Colossae), all received the crown of martyrdom during the persecution of Nero (54-68). During a pagan festival an enraged crowd rushed into the Christian church when services were going on. All fled in terror, and only Saints Philemon, Archippus and Apphia remained. They seized them and led them off to the city prefect. The crowd beat and stabbed Saint Archippus with knives, and he died on the way to the court. Saints Philemon and Apphia were stoned to death by order of the prefect.

Onesimus: Tradition tells us that he went from slave to brother to Bishop. He supposedly took over for Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus. This is attested in Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians where Ignatius praises Onesimus. He says “I received, therefore, your whole multitude in the name of God, through Onesimus, a man of inexpressible love, and your bishop in the flesh, whom I pray you by Jesus Christ to love, and that you would all seek to be like him. And blessed be He who has granted unto you, being worthy, to obtain such an excellent bishop.”

Conclusion:

Paul wasn’t starting a full on rebellion to stop the empire from using slavery. That wasn’t the point. But he was Getting Philemon to act according to his belief in Christ. There was no law that said you had to keep slaves or treat them badly if you did. and there was a way to free the people that you owned. And Paul got Philemon to rebel against the world and move toward God. He as going around, and just like he was accused of in Acts 17, Paul was turning the world upside down.

Likewise Jesus wasn’t here to over throw the world as far as the empire. He came to fix the singular, but massive problem of sin in our world.

God used the terrible punishment known to the Romans and turned it into a victory that we celebrate every year, because in the death of Christ there was the death of death. God Conquered the grave and He gave each believer new life along with him when we die to ourselves and live in Christ.

So the question that we started with is How much is it worth?

How much is your pride worth?

How much is your relationship worth? You could be right and then send the next five days asking for forgiveness because you wanted to be right.

How much is it worth to get along?

How much is it worth to you to forgive? It's not something to be powerful with, but to be humble about. To throw away what you may be rightfully owed because what you get in return is much greater.

How much is it worth to realize you are forgiven? and to Accept God’s gracious gift of his Love to restore you to his side?