The letter to Philemon shows how love works in the church when someone is wronged. Can there be love when someone steals from another church member or wrongs them in some way? Onesimus, the slave of Philemon in Colossae, was an unfaithful servant, a deserter, and an ungrateful thief who ran away from his master, Philemon. Can there be love between Philemon, a prominent and wealthy man with a church in his house, and Onesimus, a runaway slave?

Well, welcome to Philemon. Open your Bibles. It's just before Hebrews, right after Titus, and you're getting ready to enter into a really remarkable, beautiful, dramatic story. There are at least four elements of the story I'd like to speak about at the very beginning here, and the first element of Philemon is that it shows how love works in a church. Therefore, it's absolutely one of the most important things that you can meditate upon because in this letter the Apostle Paul writes to Philemon appealing to him to receive Onesimus back into his life.

Onesimus became an unprofitable slave and now he has become profitable to the apostle Paul. And Paul recommends him to be profitable to Philemon. Again, it's a real-life drama. This is reality Christianity in many ways. Paul wanted this runaway slave Onesimus to go back to the one he had wronged and Paul is interceding for this runaway slave Onesimus.

He wants Onesimus to go back and be received without any further discipline And Philemon is showing how love works in the church when someone is wronged and how there can be love and restoration when somebody steals from a church member. And Onesimus was without question an unfaithful servant. He was a deserter. He was a thief. He was ungrateful.

He fled his master Philemon. So the question is how can this be repaired? And Philemon shows how there can be love between a prominent and wealthy man, Philemon, who has a church in his house and has a runaway slave to contend with. And one of the things that I'd like you to notice here is the prominent appearance of the word beloved. There's so much love that's disclosed in this letter like in verses 1 and 2.

Tufi-le-man, our beloved friend. And then in verses 15 and 16 we find that Onesimus is referred to as a beloved brother. The heart of this letter is summed up in the word beloved and how the brokenness of the beloved can be repaired. And it demonstrates how fellow workers in the gospel figure out how to love each other. And love is something that is a result of faith.

That's something that is very clearly taught here, and it also is something that spreads. The Apostle Paul says, I hear of your love. Love is something that's seen. So the first thing that I'd like us to observe about this letter, Philemon, is that it is a work that helps us to understand how love works in the church. Secondly, that God even works through failure.

God causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose. And the Apostle Paul acknowledges something that we'll see when we read through the letter indicating that God in His Providence perhaps had Onesimus to depart for a while so that he would be saved and be counted as a brother. God takes a sinful action and He uses that in order to save the man who committed the sin. So it's a story of how God even works through failure, and this is one thing that you need to recognize is that if you look back and see your failures, It's right to regret them, but also recognize that it's not over. It's never over with God, because God has a way of causing all things to work together for good for the called, according to His purpose.

The third thing that I would like to have us acknowledge here is that sort of the back story of this is a person who could demand his rights. We live in an era where everybody wants to demand their rights. This is the ethic of the day. And, you know, there are children's rights. There's reproductive rights.

There are various kinds of rights that people want to claim, which is why the Apostle Paul, when people in Corinth wanted to be dragging one another into court, Paul said to them, why not rather be wrong? Wouldn't it be better for you to be wrong than to end up in the civil courts? So it speaks of matters of rights. Philemon, who owned this slave, Onesimus, had rights. And so what are his rights?

And what are the things that he ought to do? And then the fourth thing I'd like for us to recognize is how the power of the gospel was working to save pagans in their pagan cities. The power of the gospel to save sinners was obviously alive and well in this story. And it fulfills what Galatians 3 28 speaks of when the Apostle Paul tells the Galatian church that the gospel has come to Jew and Greek and bond and free male and female. The gospel spreads even to despicable societies and this is what is happening here.

You have these people who are out of the city of Colossae who have been confronted by Jesus Christ and His love and they have been saved and as a result something happens. They start learning how to love right out of that pagan city. So let's talk about next to whom it is written. It's written to an individual, perhaps even a family, and perhaps even to the church, but in verse 1 we read, to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia our Kippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house." So he's writing to these individuals and he's also writing to the church, which is meeting in Philemon's house. Now, Philemon is one of the shortest books in the Bible.

The four shortest books in the Bible are Jude, Philemon, 2 John, and 3 John. 2 John is the shortest book in the Bible. It is 219 words. 3 John is the next shortest with 245 words. And this is a letter that is full of people, not just concepts, not just theology, not just commands.

If you look at the number of people that are listed here, listen to their names. Paul, Philemon, Timothy, Apphia, Archippus, Onesimus, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. All these people are mentioned. Paul is under house arrest in Rome and he is with these people here and it's a picture of Christian community. There are real relationships first of all.

Secondly, when there are real relationships, often wrongs are done. Thirdly, when wrongs are done, it's often necessary to have peacemakers, intercessors. Fourthly, when a wrong is done and there are intercessors, there needs to be love. Fifthly, there needs to be forgiveness. And sixth, there needs to be restoration.

Well, this was a community that understood that you can see it the people gathered around the Apostle Paul there while he's in Rome in prison are sending their greetings back to the church and to Philemon and to his wife, Apphia and Aristarchus. This letter was probably written right near the same time as Colossians and Philippians and The Apostle Paul is writing this letter in his own hand. You picture him at a desk. He's writing a letter and he has many people around him. All the people that I just mentioned, with the exception of Philemon who is in Colossae, but you know, you see this very same thing in Colossians chapter 4 where you have in 4.7 you have Tychicus in verse 9 you have Aneasimus, a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you.

Paul records that Onesimus was present in Colossians 4 when Paul was writing to the Colossian church. You have Aristarchus in verse 10, you have Marcus cousin of Barnabas. In verse 11 you have Jesus who is called Justice. In verse 12, you have Epaphras. And in verse 14, you have Luke, the beloved physician and Demas.

And then there are more that are listed in Colossians 4. You can look yourself. But Picture this community around the Apostle Paul while he's writing this letter on a piece of papyrus. The standard size of papyri during that time was eight inches by ten inches, And this letter here of final Yemen would have fit on that size of papyrus. And so the Apostle Paul is writing very likely on an 8 by 10 sheet of papyrus, and he's going to give it to be taken to the church there in Colossae.

And so it's kind of a dramatic moment in many ways. Paul is writing these letters, he has people around them, there's a real Christian community, they know each other. Remember also how far away Colossae is. Colossae is 1, 700 miles from Rome. That's like walking from here to Austin, Texas.

So Onesimus walked and probably sailed part of the way all those miles. Now, to go back is another 1, 700 miles, which is the equivalent of walking across the entire United States. So, it's interesting that all these people from those churches in Asia, from Colossae, from Philippi, you know some of them were there in the room with Paul while he's writing that letter. Now you know in terms of these people here, particularly Philemon and Apphia and Aristarchus are really interesting to consider. Church tradition holds that Philemon and Apphia were martyred sometime between 62 AD and 68 AD by the Roman Emperor Nero.

And you know, while the Apostle Paul is speaking words of love, there are threats of hatred out there in the civil realm. And the story is that Philemon and Apphia and Aristarchus were in a church service and a crowd rushed into the church where the services were being held and everybody fled the building except Philemon, Apphia, and Aristarchus. And they were led away. The crowd was beating them along the way. Archippus is stabbed with knives.

Philemon and Apphia are stoned to death by the order of the city prefect. So quite likely it wasn't very long after this letter was written that both Philemon and his wife were martyred. And it's interesting to just think about the time frame of this if the story is true. It's not in the Bible but it is in non-biblical records. You think about your life and you think about broken relationships and do you want to die without restoring broken relationships and there's every evidence that there was restoration between Philemon and Onesimus, and we'll get to that later.

But you don't want to pass from this world without being reconciled to your brothers. When was it written? This is one of the prison epistles written from 60 to 62 AD and Onesimus is there at this time of writing and he was led to the Lord by the Apostle Paul. Imagine that for a second. There is Onesimus and the Apostle Paul is preaching the gospel to him and who's there?

Well maybe a lot of people are there but a Roman guard is there. A Roman guard I'm sure witnessed this man coming to the Lord. And so it was written during that time when Paul was in prison in Rome. Who is Philemon? First of all, he had a church in his house.

Secondly, he had enough resources to own slaves. So most commentators say he was a wealthy man. We don't know how wealthy, but he did have resources. We know that he heard the gospel from Paul here in this letter. We know that he lived in Colossae at the same time.

So that's Philemon. When we get into the text we'll see how affectionate the feelings were that Paul had for this man. He was a dear brother and the Apostle Paul expresses the deerness that he had toward him. And who was Onesimus? He was a slave and he was, you know, operating under the system of indentured servanthood, which was nothing like the slavery in the American experience with African slaves.

Nothing like it at all. It was more like a working arrangement. There was ownership, but it was a completely different kind of model. It was not racially based and, you know, very high percentages of people were slaves. I read in one place where it's possible that 80% of the people were slaves in the Roman Empire.

They were employees who had more bonds to their employers than do today. But Onesimus had become useless to Philemon. You learn that in verse 12 in this text, and Paul makes it clear in verse 14 that Onesimus should not stay in Rome with him without Philemon's approval. So Paul is writing to get approval either for him to stay, but actually he wants Onesimus to go back. There was some formal relationship and arrangement between Onesimus and Philemon that needed to be considered and to be dealt with.

And so the Apostle Paul deals with Philemon in a humble way, not commanding him, but sort of commanding him. If you read it, it's very interesting the way he words it. In verse 18 it's clear that Onesimus wronged Paul. He most likely had stolen something. The phrase, if he owes you anything, has been taken to mean that he stole something from Philemon.

He was AWOL. You know what AWOL stands for? Absent without leave. He took the road and it was a long road, 1, 700 miles to find the Apostle Paul. He becomes a Christian with the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Paul loves him and finds that he's very useful to him.

And one of the things that comes to the surface here is how do you deal with sin, how do you deal with restitution, and things like that. You know what you'll find is that when people become Christians, they often have had a long history of sinning against people. Maybe sinning against family members, maybe against employers, maybe against people in the community, and when they become Christians they begin to understand forgiveness and the Holy Spirit convicts them of sin and they have a stricken sense that they need to make things right. And so a lot of times you'll find when somebody becomes a Christian they'll write letters to people they've wronged if they're not close by, or they may make appointments, they may give money back that they had pilfered from them, and this is the situation that Onesimus is in and the Apostle Paul offers to pay his restitution. There's this picture of kindness and mercy toward one who had been caught in trespasses and sins.

I think it's a picture of Galatians chapter 6, if anyone is caught in trespasses let him restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. This is what's happening here with the Apostle Paul. I'd like to also address who the characters signify. The two characters. Who does Philemon signify and who does Onesimus signify?

This is very important and I think that what's before us is a picture of the gospel and the power of the gospel at work in people's lives, and what you have is you have a man who was robbed by another man and fled. That's Philemon. He was robbed, and what does that signify? I think it signifies how the gospel affects us, and that is that, you know, we've robbed God. We've robbed God of his glory.

We robbed God of tithes and offerings we robbed God of time we hold back and we are the runaway slave in the picture and the only basis by which we can be accepted by God is the payment of Jesus Christ. And I do think it's a picture of how salvation works in the heart of a person. There are some key verses to consider. Philemon 1 verses 10 and 11 and Philemon 1, 15 through 16. We'll get to those in just a minute.

Let's go into the text. Again, you know, it's a short letter easily fitting on an 8 by 10 piece of parchment. And the first three verses give Paul's introductory greetings. And remember Paul is writing from prison and so that's why he opens up Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother so Timothy is with him Paul's true son in the faith and then he says To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house." Now the language of verses 1 and 2 has made some scholars conclude that Philemon and his wife, Apphia, and his son, Archippus, were the ones who had the church in their house. I don't think it's perfectly clear from the text, but it's possible.

And then he says in verse 3, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And what you learn from these first three verses is that Philemon is a loved man. Paul loves this man and he says more about this later. We also learn that Philemon has a church in his house and he has a wife, Aphia. So that's the introduction.

You sort of get the scope of the focus of the letter. And then the Apostle in verses 4 through 7 delivers a prayer of thanksgiving, and he's giving thanks for Philemon's love and for his faith. Verse 4, I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers. Now just pause on that for a minute. The Apostle Paul is 1, 700 miles away from Philemon and he's giving thanks for his brother so far away.

Hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the Saints these two marks love and faith. Toward Christ and toward His saints. And then he says in verse 6, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. Now the first thing that I want to point out in these verses, in verses 4 through 7, is that love prays.

Love remembers. Love's heart goes out across the miles and prays for people that are far away. It's such an important thing. Who knows what kind of support others need who are not with us today? We should pray across the miles.

And what we learn is that about Philemon is that he's a man of love and faith toward the Saints. And his love toward the Saints was something that brought consolation to Paul. What does that mean? It means that when you love someone, it becomes a consoling encouragement to you. Love is something that spreads encouragement.

And Philemon was refreshing the Saints. I love that phrase where he says, the hearts of the saints have been refreshed. And he is speaking about one of the most wonderful roles that God has given his children to refresh one another and to refresh one another's hearts by the way that we deal with one another. And the question I think we should ask is, am I like that? Do I refresh the hearts that are around me?

Am I a source of encouragement? Am I a source of joy with those around me? The Christian community ought to contain people who are like this, who are refreshing the Saints. And then Paul makes a request in verses 8 through 21, and this is the bulk of the appeal that the Apostle Paul is making, and it's a very interesting appeal as Paul is working to bring about this reconciliation, and Notice how he does it. First of all, he appeals to Philemon out of love to receive Onesimus.

Therefore, verse 8, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, 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." Paul is doing this for love's sake And the apostle is demonstrating really what is the heart of everything in the kingdom of heaven. It's a kingdom of love. And the apostle Paul is speaking to him for love's sake. And this strikes to the heart of Paul's motivations. What is driving him?

Love. He does what he does for the sake of love. I remember in 1st Corinthians 13 the Apostle Paul said, without love you're nothing. Paul understood that and perhaps he was even thinking of why he was writing this letter but the reason he was writing this letter was for the sake of love. You might be able to title this chapter, For the Sake of Love, because that's what Paul is appealing to Philemon for.

Then in verse 10, we learn a particular fact about this drama, and that is that Onesimus became a Christian while Paul was in chains. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, for whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable to you but now is profitable to you and to me. So Paul is in chains, Onesimus shows up and he turns to the Lord. He's born again. He is begotten.

He becomes a new person and the change has taken place and he was formerly unprofitable and now he was a profitable servant. So this act of disobedience actually ended up in the salvation of this runaway, disobedient, AWOL slave. And so Paul says, I appeal to you for my son. Now, God has a way of rescuing people when they're on the run. You can think of people like that in the Bible.

How about Jonah? Jonah left. He went the wrong direction. He went away from God. He thought he'd go as far away from God as he could, and God met him.

God stood right in front of him and took him in a different direction. You know, David said, where can I go from your spirit? You can't run from God. It's impossible. And so even though this man is running, God stops him up And God changes him.

You know, the Church Father Ignatius writes a letter to the Ephesian Church speaking of Onesimus. And what does he say about him? He calls him a man of inexpressible love. So Onesimus was transformed from a selfish thief to a person who is full of inexpressible love. That's the power of the love of God in a person's life.

And Ignatius also comments that Onesimus became an elder in the Colossian church. So there was a dramatic change. He went back to Colossae. He actually became an elder, from thief to elder. This is the power of God to save a soul.

The word Onesimus in Greek means useful, and that's really the basis upon which the Apostle was appealing to Philemon, that he is useful to me. He once was not useful to you, but He is useful now. So Paul was really interceding. Look at verse 12. There are just four words in verse 12 that I think you should see.

Paul says, I'm sending him back, therefore receive him. That is my own heart. Those four words are, that is my own heart. In other words, Onesimus is my own heart. You can get the closeness, the love, the appreciation that the Apostle Paul has for this converted slave.

And Paul says in verse 13, whom I wish to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel, but without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion as it were but voluntary." So Paul is saying, I really would like to keep him, but I can't keep him without your consent. And so the apostle is recognizing the authority structure that existed between Philemon and Onesimus. I think it's just remarkable to think of how this act of disobedience led to his becoming a Christian in Rome and it also led to a whole new life of appreciation where he was so appreciated. He went from the status of not being appreciated at all for his terrible behavior to a person who was appreciated. Now look at verse 15.

This is very insightful and it really speaks of the sovereignty of God. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose that you might receive him forever 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." I love that line. Perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose. In other words, that God somehow orchestrated that this young man would flee and the result would be that he would turn and become a new man. And then the Apostle Paul in verse 17 is encouraging Philemon to be kind and so we read, if then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.

In other words, be kind to him. Treat him like he would treat me. The Apostle Paul wanted to appeal to Philemon that you don't treat different people differently, and he wanted Onesimus to be treated as if he was the Apostle Paul. Remember earlier he had said Onesimus is my heart, so I'm sending him to you. Verse 18, the Apostle Paul makes an offer that is remarkable and very beautiful and really does teach about tenderness and love.

But if he has wronged you or owes you anything put that on my account In other words Paul is saying if he stole anything from you, I'll take care of it I'll deal with it. I will make his restitution. I will pay his restitution And I think this just is a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ where God sends his Son and he pays the price for our sins. And we're let off free. Yes, He was let off free.

He didn't have to make restitution. He didn't have to endure church discipline. He was paid for by the Apostle Paul. In verse 19 you get an insight on how the letter was being composed. 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. So Paul is saying, by the way Philemon, you owe me your life, And what he's referring to is that it was the evangelistic efforts of the Apostle Paul that led to Philemon's conversion. So Paul is pulling some punches here in a funny way. And then in verse 20 he says, Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.

So Paul is going to pay for Philemon's loss for Onesimus' sin. Now that sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? But try to somehow put yourself in Philemon's shoes and Try to think about what might have been going on in his mind. You know, Philemon is living in a world where allowing a runaway slave to just come back without any Punishment would be seen as a sign of weakness. To let him off the hook would be something that you just don't do.

He would probably be thought of as someone who just takes crime lightly and is too lenient. And he would easily be accused as being a person who in letting him go would be encouraging others to feel like they can act like Onesimus and they can get away with going AWOL, they can get away with stealing, they can get away with hitting the road. And it's okay to take advantage of your employer. There'll be no punishment. You can imagine, you know, Philemon thinking about this, am I going to be accused of this?

People are going to accuse me of just destroying the whole social order here by not punishing this man? Or what would it do to the other indentured servants as a result of the precedent that Philemon would be setting by going light on Onesimus? And then also think of this, think of Paul. He's in a Roman prison and he's telling Philemon that he is willing to pay. It puts Philemon in kind of an awkward situation.

You know, it's kind of like saying, okay, you know, Philemon is thinking, so Paul is gonna pay this, right? It's like asking, you know, a three-year-old, you know, to pay a thousand-dollar bill. It's like, you know, taking your grandmother's retirement check you know Paul's in prison how's he gonna pay this but Paul actually offers it so there's a very interesting interchange that's going on here and then in verses 21 and 22 Paul makes an announcement that He wants to come to Colossae So he says having confidence in your obedience. I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say But meanwhile also prepare a guest room for me for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you." So Paul says, you know, I'm gonna come. When I get out of this prison I'm gonna come and see you.

Would you please prepare a guest room for me?" And so the apostle, you know, I don't know if he's threatening to come and check up on the relationship. I don't know, but he definitely believes He will be going to Colossae. There's no record that He ever made it. We don't believe He ever did. And then in the last verses, in verses 23 through 25, is a personal farewell.

And I want you to see how much love there is loaded into this farewell. Verse 23, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you. As do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen." And so the Apostle Paul ends with this beautiful set of words to really encourage those who were going to receive the letter.

And so here what you have is you have the Apostle Paul. He is being used of the Lord to bring about restoration. He's urging forgiveness. He is paying a price for the restitution. He's reminding Philemon that he's been forgiven much and therefore he ought to forgive much.

And Paul is presenting to him an opportunity to display the love of Jesus Christ. He who has been forgiven much loves much. And when we think about our relationships with other people the most important thing that we can do when there's trouble or there's a disappointment is to remember how much you've been forgiven. When someone wrongs you, you have to recognize how much you've been forgiven. If you don't recognize that, you'll never be able to forgive other people.

You know, often the reason people struggle with love is that they've never really experienced love. They've never experienced the power of the gospel. They've never They've never experienced what it's like to be forgiven much, and so they can't love much. And the Apostle Paul, he plays the role of a peacemaker. He's fulfilling the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.

That's really the heart of the Apostles approach to Philemon. You know God has called His church to be a community of forgiveness and I think what we ought to really take time to consider is this. Have you been wronged And what are you doing about it? Have you been wronged even by a church member? Have you been defrauded?

Have you been slandered? What will you do? Well we see what the Apostle Paul did, and we see what Philemon did. And I think what we see here is a beautiful fulfillment of what the Lord Jesus spoke about in the Lord's Prayer where he said, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation. It's so critical that the church is a forgiving community.

It's a place where there are peacemakers. It's a community where people are gathered around in love. They maintain their appreciation for one another. They love one another. And they help one another to be reconciled.

This is the community of the King of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a community of generosity. It's a community of love. It's a community of forgiveness. And This is why the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, for the greatest of these is love.

Philemon is a beautiful demonstration of how the greatest of these is love. So there you have it. There is the community of the King, the King of Restoration.