Book of Philemon - Vs. 8-14

Alrighty, well if y 'all want, y 'all can turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 to start with. I'd like to make one last note before moving on to our next section of Philemon. It's hilarious, I was trying really hard to get to a good stopping point.

So I think today's like the seventh Sunday in a row I've done this, which is kind of crazy. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it's been that many in a row. And so a couple weeks ago, I'm like, all right, I'm going to get to a good stopping point and then give it back to Dave, because I'm sure he's itching to get back to the Psalms.

I'm ready to get back to the Psalms. And so I'll finish. And so then I was like, OK, what was basically last Sunday, when I get there, I'll be at a perfect stopping point and then Dave could take it over for as long as he wants and then we'll get back to Philemon.

And so I did that. And then I texted Dave on like Monday or something of this last week. It was like, all right, Dave, want to take it over for a while? He's like, I'd love to, but I'm traveling. And so I'll be I'll be picking it up for one more week here before handing it over to Dave for a while, which I'm looking forward to again, getting back to the Psalms.

But so it's a little bit less clean cut, but it's still kind of my fault because I'm the one that drug it out. And until we got to where we are. But anyway, I do want to make one last note before starting our next section in regard to Philemon's character.

So if you remember in section one, it was all about the character of one who forgives. And of course, Paul is giving just raining all these commendations down on Philemon, the kind of man that he is to remind him that he has all the capacity needed in order to forgive Onesimus for his wrongdoings.

And so that was all of what the first section was about, which was roughly verses four through seven. But again, one more thing I want to hit on regarding Philemon's character before moving on. If we go to Second Corinthians chapter 11 and start in verse 20, what we're going to do is read a little bit about the apostle Paul, actually, and get kind of a just he gives us a brief summary of all of the tribulations that he experiences or has experienced as an apostle.

In the context is that Paul is sharing his jealousy toward this church, toward the Corinthians, in regard to the false teachers that will inevitably come in and try to sway them. And he's warning them about that.

He's warning them about who will come. He's sharing his heart for them, that he is jealous for them, that he wants them to remain faithful to Paul's gospel and not to a fake gospel that will try to breach this church at some point.

And so then he gives a warning against false teachers and he's just laying all this stuff out there. And in the context of all that, we'll pick it up at verse 20. And here's what he says. He says, For ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face, I speak is concerning reproach, as though we had been weak, how be it whereinsoever any is bold.

I speak foolishly. I am bold also. Are ye Hebrews? I'm sorry. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool.

I am more. In labors, more abundant. In stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In deaths, oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned.

Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger, in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches, who is weak, and I am not weak, who is offended, and I burn not.

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not.". Now, again, Paul, if there was anyone that could understand what persecution for Christ's name's sake, if there's anyone that knows what that looks like, it feels like it's the Apostle Paul, as we just heard.

I mean, you can imagine the burden of any apostle, of any minister. Paul experienced the peak of all of it. And notice that Paul never tries to use that as any kind of boasting or to prove that he's the better of anyone.

In fact, he says he's the lesser of the apostles and the chief sinner. And we know that Paul was being honest because he was inspired as he said those words. So that's what he thought of himself. He was as humble as can be, and yet he experienced some of the worst persecutions that any Christian had ever experienced and ever will.

Now go back to Philemon, which is, of course, where we'll be the rest of this morning. And consider one more time those commendations that Paul had to share regarding Philemon. Okay, so Philemon is kind of our focus here, even though we just read a whole bunch about Paul and his tribulations as an apostle.

Starting at verse 4, Paul, talking about this man, says, I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers, hearing of thy love and faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus and toward all saints, that the communication of thy faith or fellowship of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

For we have great joy and consolation in thy love because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother. The apostle Paul knew what the contrast to Philemon's refreshing, okay, Paul knew what the contrast to Philemon's refreshing of the brethren looked like and he even knew what it felt like because he was beaten, he was whipped, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he was persecuted.

So you have a large spectrum here and two very polarizing ends and Paul understood, as we just read in that 2 Corinthians passage, the bad end of that spectrum as well as anybody, perhaps better than anybody save Jesus, which is a totally different category.

Of all Christians that have been persecuted, perhaps there was no one that could understand that as much as Paul, given that short list of persecutions we just read about. And so now, make your way across the spectrum all the way to the other side.

What does that look like? Well, what it looks like is it looks like being in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, being refreshed by them, being edified by them, encouraged by them, and that in and of itself giving you a boost, giving you fuel to keep going and to finish well, which is, of course, one of the last exhortations that Paul gives Timothy at the end of Paul's life.

Well, that's only possible from the human viewpoint. It's only possible through what people like Philemon have to offer someone like Paul. Does that make sense? Again, I say from the human viewpoint, what one of God's ordained means to help us finish well is for us to be surrounded by brothers and sisters to encourage us to keep going.

Now, even in isolation, we can still get through because we have the Lord, we have the Holy Spirit within us, so don't get me wrong there. But again, one of God's ordained means for us to finish well, to run the good race, to fight the good fight, is to be surrounded by brothers and sisters to encourage us and to help keep us going.

So Paul, remembering everything we just read in 2 Corinthians, Paul is encouraged, he's edified, he's refreshed by Philemon, and he knew what the other end of that spectrum felt like. Now, the whole point of me mentioning that, this is a final note of section 1, is that we, in this room, listening online, listening to the recording later, whoever it may be, all Christians, we need to be like Philemon.

We need to be the guy or the gal that offers our elders, offers our ministers, offers our other brothers and sisters. But in the context of Philemon and Paul, you had Paul as, let's just say, an elder, a pastor, an apostle, and you had Philemon who, as far as we know, was a layman.

Now, he may have had a larger role, maybe a deacon, maybe more than that, in the church of Colossae. We know it was in his home. We're just never told whether or not he was an officer in that church. As far as we know, he was a layman, yet he was the one encouraging Paul.

Philemon was the one refreshing Paul's heart. And so that's what we need to be like. He was able to offer so much to Paul. We need to be able to offer the same to our mentors, our elders, and so on and so forth.

And, of course, all other brothers and sisters as well. And so I think that's a really good application for all of us that we can take from the character traits of Philemon. That's someone we want to be like.

That's someone we want to emulate. Now, moving on to section 2, which will cover a pretty good portion of verses here. Verses 8 through 18. We're going to talk about, we just finished talking about the character traits of one who forgives.

Now we're going to shift into talking about the actions of one who forgives. In other words, the things that a person does in the process of forgiving. Does that make sense? So it's one thing to have your heart in the right place.

It's another thing to show those things forth, if you will. That's what this next section is all about. Now, something important to remember is that despite our theme of forgiveness here, which is still certainly in play and will continue to be in play, the word itself, the word forgiveness itself, is never mentioned in this letter.

We've already set all the building blocks for what this book is all about, what this letter is all about. And yet, the letter itself never mentions the word forgiveness. In fact, even the very principles that undergird that doctrine of forgiveness, the way that the Bible talks about forgiveness, even the principles aren't explicitly mentioned in the letter.

Now you might ask, why would that be the case? Well, the answer is actually pretty cool. And the reason is because Paul assumes Philemon's understanding of all of that already. In other words, it doesn't have to be explained.

Paul doesn't have to explain the principles of forgiveness. He doesn't have to give Philemon a little sermonette on what forgiveness is all about, and that he was forgiven, therefore he should forgive.

Basically, all the stuff we talked about in our introduction, which was good for all of us to talk through and to understand, and again, to set the tone for this letter, give us context and things like that, Paul didn't have to do all that with Philemon because Paul assumed Philemon understood all of that already.

Now, Paul does break down the doctrine of forgiveness in crystal clear principle in the other prison epistles. In Colossians, he will break it down. In Ephesians, he breaks it down. Not only does he break down the principles of forgiveness, he actually breaks it down in such a way as to make it clear it is a mandate of Christians.

In other words, it is a Christian duty to be a forgiver. Why? Because we're to model our Father, as we've discussed at length numerous times already. So Paul does break all that down. It's not like we're just having to infer here and there.

It's abundantly clear in the other prison epistles, and it's crystal clear in this letter too. Again, the word itself isn't used. It doesn't have to be used, because Paul assumes Philemon's understanding of all of it.

But even though he does make it clear in the other epistles, some of the other epistles, he makes the principles clear, he makes the mandate of forgiveness clear when speaking to others. The primary goal in this letter, which again is a personal letter to Philemon, it's to be read to the church as he put in his salutation, but it's to Philemon first.

His primary goal in this letter is to provide a reminder of Philemon's love for the brethren. Philemon's love for the brethren, which if you think about it, if you were reminded of your love for the brethren, if you have a genuine love for the brethren, that necessitates forgiveness.

Because if you love them, you're going to forgive them, right? If a person has genuine love, agape love, which is the Greek word that is used at the top of the letter, so we know that Philemon has agape love toward all brothers and sisters in Christ.

If you have that, you don't necessarily need to talk about all of the other fruits of the Spirit, because the Christian love you have necessitates all the rest of it, and forgiveness is one of them. So Paul, again, doesn't have to remind Philemon about forgiveness, and what he should do, and what his Christian mandate is, and that his duty is to forgive.

He doesn't have to remind him all that explicitly, because all he has to do is bring it back to the love that he knows Philemon has, and that necessitates forgiveness, in this case for Onesimus, but also beyond that as well.

This is still absolutely the primary application, that being forgiveness, is absolutely the primary application of the letter throughout. And it's made abundantly clear, even without the word itself being used.

Even though Paul never uses the word forgiveness, you can't read the letter and not know that that's what he was getting after, and that's the thing that he was stirring up in Philemon as he sent this letter back.

So again, everything that we've already discussed on the topic of forgiveness leading up to this point, it is assumed by us, but it's also assumed by Paul himself, that Philemon is aware of everything we've already discussed in this study.

All the introduction we did, all of the topic on forgiveness, all of the things we talked about regarding bitterness, all those things. All of those things Philemon knows too, and Paul assumes that we should assume it as well, given the Christian character that he exhibits all throughout this.

And Philemon is aware of all of that, and kind of via his Christian character and also his duty to forgive because of his Christian character, he's going to do it. He will. He will forgive. Now because the doctrine of forgiveness is assumed by Paul, as we'll see in just a second, we'll actually see that in the verses we're going to look at, he's going to emphasize something that he knows they both share, and again, that is Christian love, that is that agape love for the brethren.

I'm going to read you guys a really cool quote. This is from a neat commentary that I got out of Brother Otis' library. It's Alexander McLaren. He had a multi-volume commentary on the whole Bible, McLaren's expository commentary.

And there are times when you have to read it multiple times to really know what he's talking about because he's very sophisticated and it was written a long time ago, so the vocabulary was a lot better.

Y 'all know what I'm talking about. But I still love just kind of skimming through it and taking out of it what I can. And this particular quote regarding the verses we're about to read in Philemon was abundantly clear, and I just had to include this.

So this is McLaren, Alexander McLaren, in his commentary on the Epistle of Philemon talking about verses 8 through 11, which we're about to read in just a minute. He says, quote, These verses not only present a model for efforts to lead men in right paths, but they unveil the very spirit of Christianity in their pleadings.

Paul's persuasives to Philemon are echoes of Christ's persuasives to Paul. He had learned his method from his master and had himself experienced that gentle love was more than commandments. He himself experienced that gentle love was more than commandments.

Therefore, he softens his voice to speak to Philemon, as Christ had softened his to speak to Paul. We do not arbitrarily, quote, spiritualize in, quote, the words, but simply recognize that the apostle molded his conduct after Christ's pattern.

When we see here a mirror reflecting some of the highest truths of Christian ethics.

Close quote.

So that's kind of cool, because what we're about to see is we're going to see a very loving and a very, very loving approach, but also a very strategic approach. It's not a strategic in like a, you know, manipulative sense.

It's strategic in that he is approaching Philemon with basically respect as a fellow brother in Christ. And what McLaren is pointing out here is that Paul learned that from Jesus himself, because that's how Jesus approached Paul.

If y 'all I mean, you can think about the road up to Damascus in the words that were spoken between them. I mean, the hammer could have been brought down. Now, Gauntlet could have been brought down on Paul, given all of what he had done.

But instead, it was a meek, soft voice, you know, asking him why he's kicking against the bricks. And then Paul's immediate response is, who are you? And he tells him and then he says, what will you have me to do?

I mean, it was so you have that first exposure. But then you also have the three years in the wilderness between Jesus and Paul. And so McLaren, I love what he brought out there. He softens his voice to speak to Philemon as Christ had softened his to speak to Paul.

And so as we read these following verses, keep that in mind. Paul is being strategic. He is being but he's being loving at the same time. He's not being manipulative. He's approaching this in a very Christlike way.

And it's because he's modeling Christ himself. So let's pick it up at verse eight. We we finished at verse seven last week. We'll pick it up in verse eight now. He says, Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoy to enjoin thee that which is convenient.

Yet for love's sake, I rather beseech thee being such a one as Paul, the aged and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now, the first thing to take note of here in verse eight is that Paul makes it clear that he could approach this in kind of a more commanding and bold way.

In other words, he's telling Philemon, look, if I wanted to, I could come in here and just tell you, you got to do this. And you're going to you're going to obey it. OK, because you need to. He could have come in.

He could have commanded him. He could have in a very bold way given his commission that, by the way, Philemon also knows comes directly from Jesus. So he not only could have been bold, but he could have been so bold.

Understanding that Philemon knew where the boldness was coming from, and therefore Philemon would have to obey it because he is coming from Christ himself, because Paul's an apostle. It was Christ that gave Paul his commission.

He could have just come out and said, Paul could have come out and said, look, I command you in the name of Christ to do your Christian duty and forgive this man now that he's a brother. So go do it. That literally it could have been that simple, you know, from the human viewpoint.

And Paul even tells him that in verse eight, he says, though, I might be much bold in Christ. To enjoin thee that which is convenient, that's that which you should do. He's saying I could take that approach.

But rather, as we see in verse nine, after Paul reminds him of the boldness he could invoke as an apostle, he instead appeals to Christian love. And we know that Paul loved Philemon very much, and he's already made it very clear that he knows of Philemon's reciprocal love to Paul as well as for all brethren.

And because of this, there was absolutely no need for Paul to invoke his apostolic authority here. And we talked about this a little bit in our introduction like six weeks ago. He's talking to a friend.

He didn't have to open up his letter by saying Paul, an apostle of Jesus and so on and so forth, like was so common with his other salutations because he was writing to a friend. He wasn't writing to a group of people that needed to be reminded of his apostolic authority.

And so once again, in verse nine, he already made that clear in verse one in the opening verses. And now again, in verse nine, he's reminding Philemon again. Yet for love's sake, regardless of what I could do as an apostle, regardless of the commandments I could invoke, I'm not going to do that.

But for love's sake, I beseech you. You see that? For the sake of Christian love, I beseech you. Their bond was too great for him to come in there and kind of push him around a little bit in an apostle kind of way.

You know what I mean? Like tell him just kind of straightforward what he needs to do, kind of bluntly and frankly, just telling him what he needs to do. Their bond was too great for that. And Paul is addressing him accordingly.

He knew that Philemon didn't need that approach because he was going to receive Paul's words and Philemon was going to show the love and forgiveness that he had the capacity for. Now, what Paul does next in verse nine is actually kind of kind of funny.

It's a little bit humorous, especially in hindsight, like with us looking back, reading this letter as we read this story. It wasn't necessarily meant to be humorous at the time it was written. It wasn't just some pitiful little detail that Paul throws into the letter here.

I would say it was just as sincere as everything else Paul was saying. But he knew what he was going to say would carry some particular gravity with it that would soften Philemon's heart even more. At the end of verse nine, notice what Paul says.

He says, being such a one is Paul the aged and also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. What Paul does here is he literally points out that he's just an old guy, just an old man chained to a prison wall. He is reminding Philemon of the position he's in.

Just an old man chained to a prison wall. Now, think about the context for a second as Philemon is reading this same letter. So, picture him holding the letter just like we have it before us today. It's not in verse divisions just yet, but he had the letter.

He's reading it from top to bottom, and he gets to this particular point in the letter. Onesimus, the slave, has already handed him the letter. Remember, he was the one to deliver the letter. In Colossians, Paul tells us that Onesimus and Tychicus, I believe is the name.

I'm probably not pronouncing that right at all. But Onesimus, along with another guy, were sent from Paul to deliver letters to the Colossians. One of the letters was this one. Onesimus, the slave, delivered this.

So, think about that. Onesimus had already delivered this letter to Philemon, and all the emotions of what had transpired previously— in other words, Philemon being upset about him being abandoned and being robbed by someone he trusted and cared about as family— all of the emotions for what has already happened are still kind of within him.

They were no doubt bearing down on Philemon as he's reading this letter with Onesimus possibly right in front of him. We don't know if he's sitting there while he's reading it or not, but who knows? Maybe he was.

The apostle Paul anticipated all of that. The apostle Paul anticipated that Philemon would be having these emotions and that he would be probably just— who knows all the thoughts going in his mind he probably never expected to see Onesimus again, and now he's back.

And not only is he back, he's delivering a letter from the apostle Paul addressed to Philemon. Who knows what was going through Philemon's mind at this time? The apostle Paul, though, anticipated all of that.

And Paul gives that little detail. Paul the Aged, a prisoner of Christ, just an old man chained to a prison wall, he gave that little detail to kind of be a kind reminder to Philemon that he's in a much worse spot than Philemon is himself.

Now, he doesn't give Philemon a hard time for having the emotions and for probably feeling kind of bad and for maybe even being a little bit angry and bitter even after he sees that Onesimus has come back.

He's not giving him a hard time for those things, but he's trying to give him a little bit more perspective. He's trying to remind him, look, I myself am in a pretty bad spot right now, but I'm remaining joyful.

I'm okay, and you can be okay too. And in fact, not only are you going to be okay, but here's what you need to do. And that, of course, in the verses that follow will be kind of the exhortation aspect of things here.

Of course, Paul was a very wise man. He was a great strategist, certainly, like I said a minute ago. He's planning out his words and the structure of this letter perfectly, of course, as he's carried along by the Holy Spirit himself.

2 Peter 1 .21 tells us that. And so all of this is coming into play. So many dynamics are going on here. Now, it probably goes without saying, especially after reading that passage that we opened up with this morning in 2 Corinthians 11, that a part of the aging that Paul is talking about here, part of that aging that he referred to was brought on by the rough life of persecution that he had lived up to this point.

So you can imagine you're aging as in years, but you're also getting beat up all the time. You're getting whipped. You're getting chained to prison walls. You're getting stoned. You're being shipwrecked.

You're being persecuted by the heathen and by the brethren. You're getting persecuted in the city and in the wilderness. I mean, Paul was just put through the ringer constantly. And so when he says being such as one Paul the aged, Philemon, given their friendship, most likely knows a little bit about all of what we read in 2 Corinthians, all of those things.

I'm sure that Paul was constantly on the prayer request list for the church at Colossae, and Philemon was probably more than aware of all these things as well. So when Paul reminds him of that, Paul the aged, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, a whole new set of emotions most likely start flooding Philemon's mind, thinking less about himself, and now with more care and love and things toward Paul, and less about his own situation, more about Paul's situation, is kind of what I suspect is happening here in the mind of Philemon as he reads all this.

He also gave Philemon yet another reminder that he is, in fact, not a prisoner of Rome. Y 'all remember we talked about this in our introduction as well, and so Paul is rehashing this one more time. He is not a prisoner of Rome.

He may be chained to a Roman wall with a Roman guard chained right there next to him, or however that worked. Some people believe there would be a guard chained to Paul, or to the prisoner, just to be extra sure that they couldn't be separated and that the prisoner wasn't going anywhere, and then they would rotate shifts and a new Roman soldier would come.

And so, yeah, there's Roman soldiers everywhere. He's chained to a wall in a Roman prison, and yet Paul's like, by implication he's saying, I'm not a prisoner of Rome, but rather I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ himself.

That's how verse 9 ends. Now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. This is the second time that he has reminded Philemon and all of us of that reality in this letter. This was something that Paul told us again at the very beginning of the letter, and as I said in the introduction, I believe is a really great subtle reminder of God's sovereignty over all of life, not just the good parts.

He's sovereign over all of life, even the toughest times we will ever go through. Paul was chained to a prison wall, and he makes it clear that he is a prisoner because of Jesus Christ, because Jesus put him there.

He is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. He's not a prisoner of Rome. And so if we find ourselves in similar tough spots, going through tough times in life, we need to realize that we also are there because of Jesus himself.

After all, we're his slaves, as we talked about two or three weeks ago as well. And we need to be obedient and we need to be joyful, as Paul tells us in Philippians, in all of it, even in the tough times because God is not just sovereign.

We don't get to just talk about the reality of God's sovereignty when we're feeling great. We would be a little bit inconsistent if we're talking about how awesome the sovereignty of God is and how it's the most important doctrine when we're all feeling great.

And then later on in life, we're wondering what's going on and why. God is sovereign over all of it, over both situations, the good and the bad. And Paul was able to remain rejoiceful. Rejoiceful? Joyful?

Rejoiceful? Is that a word? I don't know. He was able to rejoice in all. He was joyful. And he was able to rejoice in all of it. And so we should be too. We need to model the Apostle Paul there. All right, let's pick it up in verse 10.

I only have about maybe five minutes left, but I think we can get a little bit further. In fact, let's go ahead and just read the next several verses because they all just kind of run together here. It says, I beseech thee for my son Onesimus.

Pay close attention to certain words and certain just visuals that Paul is trying to bring out here, like physical pictures of what happened spiritually back in Rome. Just pay attention to that. I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, which in time past was to you, was to thee unprofitable.

Another way you could translate that is useless, which in times past to you was useless, but now profitable to you and to me, whom I have sent, thou therefore receive him. That is mine own bowels. Therefore receive him.

That is mine own bowels, whom I would have retained with me, that in my stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

So let's break this down a little bit. Maybe not all of those verses, but we'll get started here. The first plea that Paul makes to Philemon, because now remember we're right in the action steps here, right?

So this is where all of the things happening in Philemon's heart, all of the things that make up Philemon's Christian character that we've already read, it is time for all of that to now be shown forth and put into action.

The first plea that Paul makes to Philemon is to be receptive of Onesimus, to receive him. Just like, if you guys recall, the father in the parable of the prodigal son, he wants him to eagerly receive Onesimus back, because this is no longer just a slave that wronged Philemon.

This is now a profitable person. He's no longer unprofitable. He's now profitable. But more than that, he is useful to both of us, as Paul said, not just to you, but to both of us as a brother. So by pointing out to Philemon that Onesimus was begotten of Paul, he is pointing out that he is now a repentant.

By that, Paul means, I've converted him. He is a Christian now. I witnessed to him, and he is saved. And so by saying, he was begotten by me, Philemon now knows that Onesimus was repentant of his sins, that he repented, that he is now regenerated or transformed.

His life is totally transformed now. He's a totally different person. He's been regened, as dad has said before, and he is faithful. He's all of these things. Philemon knows all of these things. Just in the little phrase of Paul saying that I have begotten him in my bonds, Philemon now knows this guy is different.

He's transformed. He's saved. He's faithful. And because he is a faithful brother in Christ now, he should be received back and forgiven immediately. So these are all of the things that Paul is trying to pull out of Philemon as Philemon is reading this.

Philemon understands what he needs to do now. He needs to be received, which Paul told him to do, to receive him, and that he needs to be forgiven immediately because he is now a brother. The receiving of him back, I'll say it again, necessitates forgiveness.

If Philemon is going to receive Onesimus, he kind of has to forgive him. Remember, Paul doesn't have to tell him you need to forgive him. He says receive him. Well, by very clear implication, in order for Philemon to in good conscience, as a Christian, receive him back, he has to forgive him because the only alternative is to receive him back and remain bitter toward him, which is a sin, and which Philemon knows is a sin.

So in order to receive him, he has to be simultaneously forgiving Onesimus at the same time. The receiving necessitates forgiveness because otherwise, again, Philemon would have just remained bitter, which he knew was a sin.

Onesimus was ready to be taken back. Remember, Onesimus willingly went back with the letter from Paul, so Philemon needed to be ready to receive Paul's very child in a spiritual sense. That's the language that Paul was using.

So I'll kind of end on this thought. Think about the emotional appeal that would have been carried for Philemon as well when he hears this language being used, that I have begotten him, that he is my son whom I have begotten in my bonds.

When Philemon hears all this, think about what that would carry emotionally for him given the fact that he was also a convert of Paul. Philemon had been witnessed to by Paul as well and saved maybe two or three years prior to this.

And now Paul is telling Philemon that Onesimus is now my son begotten in my bonds. I have begotten him, Paul says, in my bonds. So he's using the physical picture of father and son to express the spiritual truth of what had just happened, which was the spiritual conversion of Onesimus.

And Philemon, while he's reading that, recalls the fact that I'm also a convert of Paul. What it means is that for the same reason that Onesimus was a child of Paul, so was Philemon. Philemon was a child of Paul.

And Philemon knew that, and you've got to know he was feeling it too as he was reading all this. He recalled his conversion story some years prior. And so, again, think about the way Paul is structuring this letter, the way he's wording everything, the physical pictures he's using to demonstrate what happened, the transformed heart that happened within Onesimus.