Philemon-Philemon 20-21-Paul Strongly Affirms His Request and Expresses His Confidence in Philemon to Meet His Request and Go Beyond It
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday April 28, 2013
Philemon: Philemon 20-21-Paul Strongly Affirms His Request and Expresses His Confidence in Philemon to Meet His Request and Go Beyond It
Lesson # 10
Please turn in your Bibles to Philemon 1.
Philemon 1 From Paul, a prisoner owned by Christ, who is Jesus, along with Timothy, our spiritual brother, to Philemon, who is our dear friend and co-worker 2 as well as to Apphia, our spiritual sister and in addition, Archippus, our fellow-soldier, also, the church, which is in your private home. 3 Grace to all of you as well as peace from God our Father as well as the Lord, who is Jesus, who is the Christ. 4 I continue making it a habit of giving thanks to my God always as I myself continue to make it a habit of remembering you during my prayers 5 because I continue to regularly hear about your divine-love as well as your faithfulness, which you continue to regularly demonstrate toward the Lord who is Jesus, which is for the benefit of each and every one of the saints. 6 I make it a habit to pray that the fellowship produced by your faith would cause itself to be manifested as effective because of an experiential knowledge, which produces every type of divine good of intrinsic quality and character, which is in all of us on behalf of Christ. 7 Indeed, I have experienced much joy as well as encouragement because of your divine-love in the sense that the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, spiritual brother. 8 Therefore, even though I possess great confidence because of my authority from Christ to command what is appropriate and obligatory for you, 9 I rather appeal to you on the basis of this divine-love, even though I am the one who is identified as Paul, an elder as well as now in fact, a prisoner, owned by the Christ, who is Jesus. 10 I appeal to you on behalf of my spiritual child whom I became the spiritual father of during my imprisonment, Onesimus. 11 The one who was formerly characterized as useless, of no benefit to you but now for your benefit and especially for my benefit, is characterized as useful 12 whom I have sent back to you himself, that is, my very own affections 13 whom I myself in contrast to this desire, could almost wish for my own benefit keep with myself in order that on your behalf, he could render service to me during my imprisonment with reference to the proclamation of the gospel. 14 However, I prefer to do absolutely nothing without your consent in order that your good deed would not be as characterized on the basis of compulsion but rather on the basis self-determination. 15 Indeed, perhaps because of this he was taken away for a brief period of time in order that you would receive him back in person forever. 16 No longer as a slave but rather, more than a slave, namely a divinely loved spiritual brother, especially for my benefit but how much more, for your benefit, both a human relationship and a relationship with the Lord. 17 Therefore, if, and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument you regard me as a partner and of course you do, then please, you yourself welcome him into the fellowship as you, yourself would certainly welcome me into the fellowship. 18 However, if, and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, and we know this is the case, then please, at this time, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul am writing with my very own hand: I will make restitution in order to avoid mentioning to you that you owe even your very self to me. (My translation)
Philemon 20 Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. (NASB95)
“Yes” is the emphatic use of the particle nai, which introduces a statement which presents a strong, emphatic affirmation of Paul’s appeal to Philemon in verse 17 that he operate in the love of God and welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home just as Philemon would welcome him.
Paul resumes his thought from verse 17 and appeals to Philemon to operate in the love of God and welcome Onesimus by stating that doing so would cause him to benefit in the Lord from Philemon and would refresh his heart in Christ.
Therefore, verses 18-19 are parenthetical.
“Let me benefit” is the verb oninamai (ὀνίναμαι), which means “to be the recipient of some benefit” and here it has Paul as its subject and Philemon as its object.
Therefore, Paul is writing to Philemon and asking him to operate in the love of God and welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home so that he can “benefit” from him in the sense that his heart would be refreshed.
By employing this word, Paul is using a word play with the proper name “Onesimus,” which means useful since both words have the same root.
Paul is saying to Philemon that he is requesting that he could profit from him by his operating in the love of God and forgiving and welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home since Onesimus is now a profitable servant as a result of becoming a Christian.
“In the Lord” contains the figure of metonymy where the Lord is put for His authority over the church.
It indicates that Paul wants Philemon to welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home “on the basis of” the Lord’s sovereign authority in the sense that the Lord wants him to do this.
In this situation with Onesimus, the Lord as sovereign ruler over the church would require him to welcome Onesimus since the Lord taught believers to love one another as He loves them.
This prepositional phrase is answering the question as to why Paul wants to benefit from Philemon operating in the love of God and welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
He wants to benefit from Philemon in the sense that he wants him to welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home “on the basis of the Lord,” i.e His sovereign authority since He taught the church to love one another (John 13:34).
Paul is requesting that Philemon welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home “because” this is what the Lord as sovereign ruler over the church requires of His people since He taught us to love one another.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that Paul is making this request of Philemon based upon the authority of the Lord Himself.
The apostle Paul employs the figure of “asyndeton” at this point in Philemon 20 since he does not use a connective between the previous statement and the one to follow.
He uses this figure since he wants Philemon to dwell upon the fact that he would be refreshed in his heart if he meets his request and operates in the love of God by forgiving Onesimus and welcoming him into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
It emphasizes with Philemon that it is extremely important to Paul that he meet his request since it will not only benefit himself, Onesimus and the entire church which met in Philemon’s home but would also glorify the Lord since it will manifest the love of God in their fellowship.
“Refresh” is the verb anapauō (ἀναπαύω), which means “to be refreshed” from weariness or tiredness whether, physical, mental or spiritual.
Therefore, this word denotes that if Philemon meets Paul’s request to operate in the love of God toward Onesimus by forgiving him and welcoming him into the fellowship of the church which met in his home, the apostle’s heart would be “refreshed.”
The aorist imperative form of the verb indicates that Paul is stressing with Philemon the urgency to refresh his heart by meeting his request to operate in the love of God by forgiving and welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
The imperative mood is not an imperative of command but rather an imperative of request since in verses 8-16, Paul made clear to Philemon he was not going to exercise his apostolic authority and order him to welcome Onesimus.
Paul already told Philemon that he does not want to order Philemon to welcome Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home but rather was appealing to Philemon to exercise God’s love towards Onesimus and welcome him.
“In Christ” indicates that Paul is requesting that Philemon refresh his heart by welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home because this is what the Lord has taught His people by the Spirit.
This prepositional phrase is answering the question as to why Paul is requesting that Philemon refresh his heart by welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
He is to do so “on the basis of the Christ’s” teaching since He taught the church to love one another (John 13:34).
Philemon 20 Yes, spiritual brother, may I benefit from you on the basis of the Lord’s sovereign authority. Please cause my heart to be refreshed on the basis of the Christ’s teaching. (My translation)
Philemon 21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say. (NASB95)
“Having confidence” is the verb peithō (πείθω), which denotes that Paul is expressing his confidence in Philemon’s obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another as He loves.
The participle form of this verb is a causal participle indicating that Paul wrote to Philemon “because” he was confident in his obedience to the command to love one another which would result in him welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
“Your obedience” is a reference to Philemon’s obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ’s command to love one another as He loves, which will result in Philemon fulfilling Paul’s request to forgive Onesimus and welcome him into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
“I write” is the verb grapho (γράφω), which refers to the act of Paul communicating in writing to Philemon his request that he operate in God’s love toward Onesimus by forgiving him and welcoming him into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
“Since I know” is the verb oida (οἶδα), which means “to know for certain, to know without a doubt” and denotes that since he was confident in Philemon’s obedience, Paul wrote to him while at the same time he “was certain” or “knew without a doubt” that Philemon would do even more than Paul was asking from him.
The participle form of this verb is a temporal participle which indicates that Paul put in writing this appeal to Philemon to welcome Onesimus because he was confident of his obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another “while simultaneously” being certain that Philemon would go beyond what he requested.
Since Paul was confident of Philemon’s obedience, he wrote to him the appeal contained in verses 8-20 “while simultaneously” knowing for certain that he would do more than he requested of him in the appeal.
Philemon 21 Because I was confident of your obedience, I have written to you while being certain that you will do even more than what I request. (My translation)
Paul expresses his confidence that Philemon will obey the Lord’s command to love another in relation to Onesimus, when he returns home.
Philemon’s obedience is not to any of Paul’s commands because Paul does not command him to do anything but appeals to him and makes requests.
Thus, when Paul speaks of Philemon’s obedience he is referring to his obedience to the Lord’s command to love one another which would result in Philemon forgiving Onesimus and not only welcoming him back into his home but also welcoming him into the fellowship of the church which met in his home.
In verses 4-8, Paul acknowledged that Philemon had obeyed the Lord’s command to love one another as demonstrated by his operating in God’s love toward the body of Christ since he heard reports of him from others like Tychicus.
Thus, we know the basis for Paul’s statements here in verse 21. He was confident that he would exercise this very same love toward his new spiritual brother, Onesimus.
When Paul says he is certain that Philemon would do even more than he requested of him in this epistle it would seem to indicate or imply that the apostle was certain that Philemon would set Onesimus free.
This statement could also indicate that Philemon would give an even more generous reception of Onesimus when he returned or that Philemon would forgive Onesimus and reinstate him in his household.
However, by welcoming Onesimus into the fellowship of the church, it would clearly imply that Philemon forgive Onesimus and reinstate him in the household.
God’s love would require him to do this.
By freeing Onesimus, he could return to Paul in Rome and serve him with regards to the propagation of the gospel.
If you recall, Paul wanted to keep Onesimus in Rome with him as Philemon’s representative to him.
It appears that when Paul expresses his certainty that Philemon would do even more than he requested of him in this epistle, he is saying to Philemon that “I am certain that you will free Onesimus and let him return to serve with me here in Rome with regards to the propagation of the gospel.”
Or, at the least, Paul could be suggesting here in verse 21 that Philemon let Onesimus simply return to Rome as Philemon’s representative.
It would appear that Paul is suggesting that Philemon release Onesimus in order to serve him in Rome as Philemon’s representative.
What more could Philemon do than forgiving Onesimus by welcoming him as a spiritual brother into the fellowship of the church which met in his home but to free him in order to serve Paul in Rome as his representative to Paul!