Book of Philemon - Vs. 17-19

All right, well you can watch the chat too, they'll tell you if it sounds weird

All right, well I kicked Dave out sorry Dave I was too anxious to get back to it so you're out here

Appreciate that well, that'll be pretty soon because we're almost done It was funny. I was just it was like well,

I guess I mean I went for like eight or nine weeks in a row They're and got within just I think

I think we're about two lessons shy of being done and then I can't remember we started getting sick or something and Otherwise, it would have finished it sooner.

But anywho Let's see now

I just need to figure out where I want to start All right,

I guess let's pick it up in verse 10 and I'll just read a few verses To get us back up to speed

Since it's been a few weeks now and we will go from there, so finally men will start in verse 10 and Verse 17 is officially where we'll pick up where we left off last

But verse 10 says I beseech thee for my son, excuse me for my son Onesimus Whom I have begotten in my bonds which in time past was to thee unprofitable but now

Profitable to thee and to me whom I have sent again thou therefore receive him

That is mine own bowels whom I would have retained with me that in thy 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 you got a couple of things going on in those in that little roundup

Paul makes it clear that Onesimus was Now a saved man.

In fact, he was converted after the testimony that Paul Gave to him after Paul witnessed to him himself

He has begotten him in his bonds as Paul says and notice the language that Paul is using there.

He is Making the parallel of spiritual birth with physical birth in crystal clear terms it has no issue doing that just like Jesus didn't in in John chapter 3 and So he's telling

Philemon this in Personal terms. I have begotten him in my bonds which in times past I know he was unprofitable to you another way you could translate.

That is he wasn't useful To you in times past but right now he is actually profitable to both of us

And the reason of course is because of the preceding verse. I've begotten him. He is now a saved converted man

Therefore because of that Philemon you need to receive him you need to receive him That is my own bowels that my own son the person that I have

That I can testify is now a brother in the Lord much more than he was when he left you and Paul says in verse 13.

I've retained him with me for a while That in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bonds of the gospel

That's an interesting little verse right there because what Paul is doing is he's once again Reminding Philemon of the kind of guy that he is that Philemon is himself

He says look if you were here, you'd be ministering to me, but you're not here But guess what

Onesimus is doing exactly what you would be doing if you were here. So it's both a testament to Onesimus is

Regeneration. He is a new creature. He is ministering to me in my bonds and secondly He's reminding

Philemon that look you're the kind of guy that would be doing that yourself if you were here Paul just trickles that along and trickles that through the whole letter verse 14 when he says

I Want I want you to receive him back, but I want you to do so willingly I'm not going to make you take him back.

I want you by your own will to receive him back And so we talked about all of that Last time and in verse 15, it says for For perhaps he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest receive him forever.

That is a great Example of the sovereignty of God Paul Pointing toward the sovereignty of God in this letter, which he did at the beginning of the letter

He's doing so again here, but he's doing so from the viewpoint of how we look at situations

So there's the sovereignty of God but then you can look at that from his viewpoint or for man's viewpoint and Paul is kind of doing the man's viewpoint version here

Because he's saying perhaps Maybe this is the reason why all of this happened in the first place maybe the reason you're in this mess and have been broken

I've been betrayed and your heart broken and the betrayal of a friend and A friend that not only left you but also stole from you.

Maybe all of this happened because You should receive him forever Not as a mere slave, but as a brother in the

Lord and so verse 4 15 is really really cool there We paralleled that with Genesis 50 starting in verse 18 when

Joshua, excuse me when Joseph is telling his brothers what you intended for evil God intended for good

That's kind of what Paul is getting at here. Oh Philemon I understand that a lot of what has happened has been bad.

You may even be bitter about it and There you have every reason the world from the world's standards even from the government's standards and the government's law to Punish Onesimus in any way that you see fit but Perhaps all of this happened so that you would receive him forever.

So it's it's a it's a not They're again at the sovereignty of God But from the human viewpoint in trying to in hindsight see how the

Lord was working even through situations that we may not understand Why they're happening as they're happening and then in verse 16

It says not now as a servant but above a servant a brother beloved

Specially to me but how much more and to you both in the flesh and in the Lord Philemon it needs to receive him back with open arms because he is now a worthy brother in the

Lord But he needs to do more than that. Paul is saying look Philemon because he is not just a repentant sinner and Is apologizing for again his betrayal and his theft and things like that.

He's more it's more than that He is also a brother in Christ and he understands all of it

He understands the big picture now just as you did after I witnessed to you and you came to know the

Lord Let's see here Yeah So he wants him it's kind of a plea there from Paul to not only restore him as a slave but to restore in and restore

Him to I guess what you could call his normal service But also restore him to more than that perhaps even a position in in Philemon's ministry

With as much as Onesimus at this point meant to Paul the Apostle How much more would he mean to Philemon now that he comes back?

Knowing that he has the assurance he's receiving back. Not only a servant but a servant with a Christian work ethic meaning that Onesimus as we said last time serves a higher master than Philemon now and Onesimus knows that So Paul is saying because of that truth think about the kind of person you're getting back

All right, so that's a little bit of review of what we covered last time And so we'll jump into 17 at this point

And move on from there and I'll just say this right off the top in our introduction I mentioned to you guys that while Philemon is an incredibly personal letter and that it is a great example of Christian Ethics morals

Lifestyle all of that all of the above in action In other words, you see somebody kind of living out what they preach so to speak both in Philemon and in Paul we also have

Some deep doctrine in other words, even though it's the it's a very personal letter in nature

Paul it's not lacking in some of the deeper doctrines that Paul Takes the liberty to dive into and a lot of his other letters and we're about to see that in these following verses

So let's take a look at verse 17 If thou count me therefore a partner receive him as myself

Pay really close attention to the way Paul words What he's telling

Philemon now if thou count me therefore a partner me the Apostle Paul partner receive

Onesimus receive him as myself if He hath wronged thee or oath thee ought

Put that on mine account Okay, so Paul Now wants to essentially cover his bases a little bit.

He's been doing a really good job of that throughout the letter so far As far as how he's approaching this with a close friend like Philemon.

He's being very compassionate very tender he's being very just very tactful and In making a point to be to approach this as kindly as he can

And so he's already done a good job at quote -unquote covering his bases a little bit, but he's doing that even more so here and Essentially what he's doing is

Paul is now bringing up the kind of elephant in the room so to speak Namely the fact that Onesimus no doubt owes

Philemon a debt a pretty great debt actually any debts that Onesimus would owe as a result of his theft or Anything else that would need to be paid back as a result of his runaway

Situation way back when Paul has already addressed this but he again is covering his bases even more at this point

What Paul does here is he's implying that he doesn't know for sure if this is the case, but if anything is owed

He that being Paul is willing to help in this particular area because he's essentially sending

Onesimus back into Empty -handed and Paul knows that think about it Onesimus stole and he left but where did he run away to the biggest city in the world at the time?

He was a vagabond in the city of Rome for who knows how long before he eventually ran into Paul he no doubt spent whatever provisions he had pretty quickly and When he met

Paul Paul's a prisoner. It's not like Paul has all that much to give to give Onesimus at this point

So Paul is sending Onesimus back With nothing more than a letter in hand, right?

He doesn't have he doesn't have money He doesn't have if he if he did if he did it was just enough to survive the trip back

Any provisions he had he would have consumed at that point He's going back empty -handed Paul knows that and he's addressing it just head -on right here in the middle of the letter

He's not gonna leave anything up in the air. And so he's sending him back in behind it again

He would have essentially Spent anything that he had while he was in Rome and Paul like I said a second ago

He wouldn't have had a whole lot to give him himself being a prisoner So Paul with a desire to take some of that pressure off Philemon again

He's reminded Philemon of his Christian character He is reminded of Philemon that he has the capacity to be a forgiver and to imitate that divine attribute

Attribute of God and he has given him all these reasons why it is possible

You can do this. You can receive him back and receive him even more than what he left as all of that is true and Yet Paul still wants to again take any amount of pressure that he can't off of Philemon to make it that much more easier to Forgive so what does he do just in case

Philemon is having some thoughts and like well Okay, I can receive him back. I can forgive him, but he sure does owe me a lot

Paul takes that off the table He doesn't want that to be any kind of barrier in regard to Philemon's ability to forgive fully or to have any kind of negative thoughts toward Onesimus after the fact

So Paul's like whatever he owes put that on my account and I'll take care of it for him

Now he's taking the pressure off of course Philemon as he's reading this letter verse by verse as we are was it verse by verse but line by line sentence by sentence

He would have been considering all of those implications on Onesimus's return Okay, he's coming back.

What should I do about it? Now? Paul's told me to forgive but he owes me a lot I mean the government of Rome would sure

It's my prerogative to punish him to maybe have him work for free labor

Without the provisions I would normally give him for however long it would take for him to pay me back I could be doing all these things who knows what he was considering in his mind as he's reading all this

So he's thinking about all that but Paul wants to take the pressure off and again He offers to pay anything owed himself though again

If you think about it Paul himself may have had to go into debt in order to pay off Onesimus's debt

Being a prisoner. I don't know He may we do know this we do know that a lot of the the churches that Paul founded and that wrote he wrote letters to They would provide him with money and Food and things of that sort while he was on his missionary journey

So he may have had some money that he could have paid all the debts off with right then and there But being a prisoner he may not have had that at the moment

So that's kind of speculation on my part there But there is a chance that Paul is saying I will cover all of it

Knowing that he himself might need to go into debt to cover Onesimus's debt totally speculation, but It's very very possible that that was the case at that point

Now all that is true The things that Paul wanted to make clear there were the the physical aspect of it to making sure the physical aspect of things were covered by him, but This is the cool part

Because in making the offer the way that he is in in saying that I will pay what's owed

Take what's his what he owes and put that on mine account and things like that Paul is essentially imitating one of the greatest acts of love and one of the most important aspects of Redemptive history part of our salvation experience a part of any believer salvation experience while he does this

So he's covering his basis He's making it known to Philemon that he will cover the debts But in doing so the way he chooses to word all of this

The way he decides to word these things and to make it clear to Philemon exactly what he's talking about He's doing so in such a way is to imitate something rather amazing and That is it's a clear nod to the doctrine of imputation

Which is we have learned numerous times here is an accounting term Well, look at the wording that Paul uses here if thou count me

Therefore a partner receive him as myself if he hath wronged thee or oh thee ought put that on mine account

So he the Apostle Paul is putting it in very very clear terms as well

He's saying that receive him as you would me So that is

Paul essentially imitating the positive side of imputation receive him like you would be receiving me

Count him as me and whatever he owes you put that on mine account.

That's Paul imitating Imputation the wording and the terms that are used here in these verses

Would have been very familiar to Philemon being the kind of guy that he was Not only was he hosting the

Church of Colossae in his house. He may have even been a deacon or We don't know for sure.

It never tells us what kind of role he played other than he hosted the church in his own home But he was no doubt one of the strongest

Christians in the early church because of all of the stuff Paul said about him earlier In the letter, so he would have understood imputation

He would have understood Paul's teachings on this up to this point and that's because again He was very familiar with the role that Jesus himself played between the sinner and God Philemon would have understood that he would have understood the role that Jesus himself played here in his death on the cross of course, the gospel message is that But it's right here in these not so subtle terms.

I mean, it's it's not like Paul is spelling out This is what

I'm gonna do now. Check this out Philemon. That is exactly what God did here He doesn't have to spell all that out. But it even with with that aside.

It's still In pretty clear terms you have the gospel message right here in the middle of this personal letter to Philemon from Paul It's right there.

It's within Paul's heartfelt offer to cover for Onesimus's debts Now imputation, of course is a divine transaction.

What happened was our sins were imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to us.

That's the transaction that took place That's what dad means when he talks about it being an accounting term because this was these were transactions that were taking place

But they were done on a divine level the thing about the whole of salvation is that each and every part of Salvation, of course is equally important as the rest of it.

So for example Well, let me give you a couple examples. Oftentimes we talked about getting saved, right?

well, what does that mean exactly if you If you're looking throughout the

New Testament and references to getting saved oftentimes that's not necessarily the terminology uses it does in Romans, but but there are other time even more than that talks about getting justified or being justified and that is the one and done act that occurs when we

Are regenerated and we throw our faith upon the Lord? Is we are justified in that moment and that is a one -and -done when we talk about eternal security when we talk about the perseverance of the

Saints when we talk about our positional righteousness and all of that that is done

Thanks be to justification Just as if I'd never sinned from the father viewpoint.

However Again when we talk about getting saved that may be kind of the main thing we're referencing, but there's other stuff to it

There's more to it than that. There is the one and done kind of past tense

Aspect of salvation which would be justification. There's a continual aspect of salvation

That would be sanctification. And of course, there's a future to it. We're not done yet. There's the glorification of our bodies

So all of that you it's all part of the big picture. All of it is equally important We talked a lot about the justification part, which is amazing.

We should I'm not saying that well Doesn't count unless you talk about all of it at the same time all the time.

That's not necessarily I'm talking about but my point is all of its equally as important and you should talk about each aspect of it at various times and This is one of them.

This is one of those aspects is just if you want to delineate the salvation experience imputation is a part of that and So when you talk about the whole of salvation

It is really important to understand that imputation is equally as important as other things that happen the other things that we may talk about more often for example if forgiveness of sins

Was the only aspect of salvation? But there was no positive righteousness that then

Came into the picture after the forgiveness the ultimate forgiveness takes place You essentially get

You eventually get put into this kind of strange You would get put into a strange moral neutral point where you're forgiven but there there hasn't been a positive righteousness that replaced your filthy rags and Therefore you're going to need to be forgiven again in a few minutes late a few minutes later

And by the way, the doctrine of imputation is a doctrine that is denied by the Roman Catholic Church hence confession

You have to be continually forgiven all the time. You don't have peace with God You can't have peace with God and there's a chance that even if you die in positive terms with God You still have to go to purgatory for a while for an indefinite amount of time some of the

Pope's even had to according to them, so What what peace is there with God if that is the reality which of course it's not

It's a fiction, but my point is They're one of the reasons we can't have peace with God now is because of the truth of imputation

Because in addition to our forgiveness remember that is just as important as any other part of salvation and we talked a lot about being forgiven but You can't leave it at that because you take the forgiveness you need to Include the positive righteousness that replaces the filthy rags

So that we can have peace that we are forgiven in Perpetuity and not need to go seeking forgiveness again and again and again for all of eternity

Or in perpetuity at least in our lifetimes and even in the in some fictional state of purgatory as well it removes that and so that positive righteousness what it does is it replaces our sins and Allows us to be in a peaceful place rather than in a moral neutral point kind of like a restart button that we then have

To press again a few months a few moments later You'd fail over and over and over again if that is how it worked but Because of imputation it doesn't work like that the greatest command in the whole

Bible of course is to love the Lord with all of our soul heart Mind and strength and there's not a single person that has ever lived that has done that or can do that on their own

So, how can any of us then stand before God someday? With that mandatory commandment fulfilled.

How would that even be possible if no one can do it? But it's a mandatory command that we're supposed to do

And we're gonna be standing before God someday to be judged for what we have done in this lifetime and what we've done with his son how are we going to even handle that well, we can do it because a

Substitute who as we know loved his father perfectly Imputed his righteousness to us, which is what

Paul is nodding it in this little Aspect this little part of the letter to Philemon to just really really take the pressure off You know

Jesus lived his life on earth and We have the majority of his life.

It's not even really talked about we have There's some parts and one of the

Gospels that talk about of course his birth and then later on when he was 12 And then boom you fast -forward.

He's adult beginning his ministry. So you have roughly 30 years of just You know, what was

Jesus doing? And then there are even a lot of parts during his ministry that we don't that we aren't aware about And what has been revealed to us someday?

I believe we will know all of it At the moment we have very little information on what exactly Jesus was doing for 33 years give or take but one thing we do know without a doubt is that he was not wasting that time the

Every moment every second of those 33 years was being put to use for a very specific

Purpose and what that purpose was is it was living perfectly. It was living a perfect life in all stages of life childhood infancy childhood

Teenage years young adulthood a Man in the ministry. He lived every stage of life prior to being crucified and every one of those stages was him

Living out the perfect life on our behalf. So He wasn't wasting 33 years he wasn't wandering around in the backwaters of the

Roman Empire for no reason living in these small little towns and Living a life of how

I've mentioned this before but in most of his life is pretty obscure and based on today's scholarly standards

To be someone that is of any kind of significance. You did at least need to have a book published or something, right?

Jesus didn't do any of that. He had his 12 disciples Of course, he was seen by thousands, but relatively speaking that was a small amount.

He's in this tiny little speck in the overall geography of the earth and What is he doing well, he's living a perfect life so that when he was crucified that perfection could be imputed to us and It was put on our account and our sins

Of course our wickedness was put onto his account as he was being crucified so that is the picture that Paul is giving us in these verses as He continues to encourage

Philemon's forgiveness toward Onesimus I'll read it one more time because it's just so cool

If thou count me there for a partner receive him as myself There's the positive imputation or I should say a picture of the positive imputation

If he that wronged thee or if he hath wronged thee or oweth thee anything Put that on mine account.

That's the negative side of imputation. That's the part that Jesus took on for us. So Paul Being an example of Christ With Christ as his example is now giving us an example of how we can live out these divine

Attributes and actions on a much smaller scale, but still in a very

Divine way if you want to put it in those terms because we are it is imitating Christ. That's what he's doing

That's what Paul is doing here He understood it Philemon understood it If you think about Paul at the beginning of Romans 9 when he's saying if I could

I would sacrifice my eternal Well -being for the sake of all of my brothers if I could do that well, that's another little mini picture of him imitating

Jesus because that is what Jesus did Paul was unable to do it and It's not

God's will for any human being to be able to do that, but Paul still had those emotions

He still had those feelings They were written down in an inspired letter so that we could learn that it is possible to imitate

Christ in Great ways as Paul was able to at least it was possible for Paul He did it in Romans 9 at the beginning of that.

He does it here in Philemon Very very cool But in addition to learning more about Paul there and in his desire and an imitation of Christ We also learn get a little mini lesson there on the importance of that particular doctrine of imputation while we're at it

And so there you go Paul Philemon is a book is not lacking in doctrine.

That is certainly true Even though it was very very personal letter. Well with that we'll begin our third and final section of the book

Which we've talked about thus far the character the

Christian character of One who has the capacity to forgive what does it take to be a forgiver in God's eyes?

Well It takes a specific character. It takes a specific spiritual character and We covered that in verses 4 through 7 and that was our first section after we introduced the book in section 2

Which we just finished it's talking about the actions of one who forgives. What are the things that a person can do?

to put their To put into practice that which they preach and of course

Paul is the one preaching here But Philemon had no shortage of these truths in and of himself that he could have preached at any point

And so Paul is laying out. Here's what the action steps look like For you to do this.

We covered that in verses 8 through 18. So now in verses, I'm sorry in section 3 We're gonna be talking about the motivations in other words

What are some motivating factors to make a person even want to forgive someone in the first place? so The first step is to be a

Christian we've covered that the second step is to lay out What does it look like in action you need to receive them you need to put them back into service

You need to do these things But you need to have the motivation to do those things too

And that's kind of what Paul leaves us with in the final section of this book Now what's interesting is that Paul takes a turn at the very end of this letter here, which

I'll get to in a moment but first Before I forget does anyone have any thoughts they'd like to share before I keep going on for the rest of our time

Like I like the concept of looking at such a huge doctrine on a smaller scale

Yes Is it really if you take that throughout the rest of Scripture you start to see it?

And a lot of the commands that we receive so like Jesus Says you've heard, you know, love your neighbor.

I say of your enemy love those who spitefully abuse you right and That is a picture of imputation as well because you're going to take on in a sense the negativity

That you receive from others And you're going to return it with positive blessings goodness

Perhaps just a picture or Something I don't know that you could say it's exactly the same because the imputation that we receive from Christ justifies us

Whereas it may not justify You're going to lose when you're doing like what

Paul's doing for a missing this year is he's essentially giving pessimism a

Justification because his debt is paid Right, but even in your daily walk with other people you can mimic the the dynamic of Receiving evil and returning good

That is a good thought and you can see I like those examples you use because you could certainly see the concept there and you're

Right. It's not exactly the same but even this example in Philemon, even though it's put in pretty clear terms that it's a parallel It's not close either which you know, this is one of the reasons why

I really don't like it when I I don't like the need even though it is needful sometimes to use analogy to try to explain scriptural truths

Because they're just never going to they're always going to be lacking in a severe degree

Interestingly Jesus himself and the Apostles do use analogies to explain spiritual truths So obviously we can feel safe using those because those are inspired analogies that are pretty close

To getting it in our minds, but when we start coming up with our own analogies They fall on their face nearly every time

Because they're lacking so much in describing what the spiritual truth is actually like but the example you just gave

Kind of proves that Because what you're saying and what I agree with is that even what we do have in Scripture It's great and they're amazing.

We should do it such as forgiving our enemies regardless of what they do with us That is perhaps a picture of what happened in the imputation process as well as what

Paul used here But it's still not even close because Jesus's imputation actually justified us eternally

And and I would just add as well. They're not meant to Do what he did they are meant to just be pictures

There's one other thought I had Loved us while we were yet enemies. He died for us

So you have that same sort of picture going on, but then it just takes it to the end right? I agree.

Yes, ma 'am love and forgiveness or That it gives us it imputes justification to us, but it also brings conviction

For sin upon those that he is not forgiven and the same happens when we return kindness

To someone who has warned us We can't we may forgive them we may

Be kind to them and that it doesn't give them justification, but it can bring conviction

I Would agree with that I certainly think that living a Christian life in other words having the

Christian character that Philemon had having the Christian actions that Philemon had which by the way, this goes back to the point

I made several weeks ago and that I believe it It you're it's only possible to truly forgive from the heart if you are a

Christian Because how can a non -believer emulate God's divine attribute if they aren't at least in him in Christ, which

We know is the case in Philemon with Philemon and with Paul and with on this miss at this point

To your point they will see that they'll see it's different and that can ping their conscience

Because they're like they don't expect anything in return They're forgiving me. They're being kind to me and I'm being a total jerk and I'm gonna continue to be a total jerk

But whoa, they don't care There there's something there's something different about them and it may be years later that that is reminded they're reminded of that they remember your testimony in that and it pains their conscience and could be

That could have been the seed that brings them to salvation Oh That's an interesting way to put it so in a sense there's salvation and condemnation to edge sword to edge sword idea and I would agree with that they okay, so The answer is absolutely because what will happen is now

Let's talk about this linearly for a second not from God's viewpoint but from what we can see you have a person over here being a meanie head and You have you

Working really hard internally to imitate Paul as he is an example of Christ and of course

Christ himself. You can use the Apostles as your example. You can use Jesus. They were exhorted to do both

You're sitting there you're having this internal battle where you're saying Lord, please help me through this

This is really hard But help me get through this and let me exhibit your kindness your forgiveness all of these things to this person

Even though from the world standards, they're not deserving of it, and I know they're not going to reciprocate it

But let me do it. Anyway, so you do that. The person continues to be a meanie head. So fast forward

Decades later one of two things will happen that could have been a seed that was planted You were the ordained means by the

Lord to plant a seed that hit fertile soil and that eventually sprung up or Again I'm talking from the human viewpoint that person never comes to a saving knowledge of Christ.

He never He never receives him he never calls upon the name of the

Lord in The day of judgment comes he will be judged and condemned by the way.

He treated the believer in that same context so God knows of course what's going to happen what the end result will be with that in that person's life, but to your point

You are an instrument either way because it's a two -edged sword still a singular sword, but with two

Different ends, which is really interesting one last quick thought we'll move on because we still have a few minutes left is

Obviously Paul lays out the doctrine of imputation in doctrinal terms in Romans chapter 4

And a few other places Romans chapter 4 maybe even in 5 as well as what's coming to mind He lays out the doctrine of imputation clearly as well

But to Dave's point going back to that for a second in Philemon He's teaching it in terms that are easily understandable for anybody

Because even though he lays out the doctrine in clear terms in Romans and in other places as well

And Peter talks about imputation as well and the either first or second Peter It can still be a hard thing to grasp

It's like what exactly does that mean like our sins were imputed to Christ and his righteousness imputed to us

I'm not righteous. I'd sinned yesterday. I sinned five minutes ago. What is this really talking about? Well, we can take an example like Paul uses in Philemon where Paul is the one imitating

Christ It's like oh, so that's how it works He's saying receive him like me and I'm the good guy or Paul's the good guy in the story

So Philemon you need to receive on isthmus as if it's me and then give me on isthmus his debt

So Paul is explaining it in in very human terms in a way that we can understand it on a smaller scale like they was saying so that we can

Maybe grasp the grandeur of what? The actual imputation was like So that's really interesting.

We have about maybe five minutes. Let me see if we can get into this just a little bit so again, as we start this third section

Paul takes a really interesting turn at the very end of this letter because He's essentially about to cap off all of the positive things that he's had to say about Philemon All wonderful things all these wonderful commendations, but he's going to round it out with reminding

Philemon of a very important aspect of the Christian faith at large and that is accountability

Accountability from brothers and sisters. What time is it Dave? Just make sure my watch is up, right? Okay, just making sure

So we got about five minutes left, okay, so accountability from the brethren accountability from brothers and sisters in other words even as Awesome of a person is

Philemon was and is in is we go through the story Paul understands the flesh and in fact

Paul understood the flesh more than just better than just about anybody Romans chapter 7 comes to mind

Oh wretched man that I am Paul understands that even as good as Philemon is he's still going to have some fleshly temptation and it's still going to be hard for him to live out this act of forgiveness even with the positive commendations even with the

Blessings that Onesimus will bring as a brother in Christ. There's still a chance that Philemon will come up short

Because of the weight of the dead man that he's dragging along with him all the time Paul understands that and he's going to give

Philemon some quote -unquote checks and balances here to just round things out He's gonna he's going to put some things in place so that he's not doing this by himself.

He's not doing this in isolation He's not having to feel like he has to rely on his own power

Or his own ability even as a strong Christian man to live this out And this is a very important lesson, especially for American Christians Because Americans can be prideful

Across the board That sense of individualism that has permeated the

West for centuries at this point and was just magnified in the United States Even as Christians so so then you take all

Americans and they all have a sense of individualism, but then you take Christian Americans and They at least are willing to say

I rely on Christ But other than that, they're still I can do this

I've got this under control I'm a strong person. I can handle this. I can handle the situation.

I can be tough. I can get through it That is a struggle that any one of us in this room and any any of our brothers and sisters out there anyone that lives in the

West really Maybe even in Europe, but certainly in the United States in the Western world we struggle with what can be a negative in individualism and Paul What he's about to tell if I Lehman is very applicable to all of us today

Especially in our cultural context someone say something Are you talking to Winston? Okay.

Sorry. I'll just make sure what a question or an amen or something And so checks and balances are about to come into play here and Let me just read verse 19

Because this is this is an interesting part to beef up the importance of what's about to be read and then we'll get into what's going to be read

We're told to file him in next week, but verse 19 says I Paul Have written it with my own hand

I Will repay it. So he right there is affirming the debt that he will pay in verse 18

He's saying I will absolutely do that pressures off. Don't worry about that. Okay? But notice at the very beginning of the verse

I Paul have written it with my own hand Albeit, I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me any

Excuse me. I'll be it. I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides It's a little bit awkwardly written in the

Old English. We'll flesh that out next week. What exactly he's talking about there But the thing I want to focus in on as we in today is

Paul this thing that Paul says I have written it with my own hand Well, we're about to read for the remainder of the letter from verses 19 through 25

Was written by Paul's own hand now you'd think well, he wrote the whole letter What's interesting is that Paul's normal procedure was to dictate his letters to what we

I guess what we'd call a secretary Someone else would be the penman and he would be dictating it as he spoke

That was kind of his essential thing and then at the end of Not his essential thing his normal procedure and then essentially at the very end of the letter

He would take the pen himself or he'd take the quill and he would sign his own name on it just to Make sure the authority was there

This was this was him speaking even though he was dictating he would sign his own name and an example of that is actually in Colossians I'll just read it really really fast just to give you an example of what

I'm talking about in Colossians 4 18 he says if I can ever get to it when

I press for time I fumble around more He says the salutation by the hand of me

Paul remember my bonds grace be with you He writes the salutation at the very end

Now in Philemon, he takes up the pen a little earlier than he normally would That would be his normal procedure so these but To sign off on it, but here he's going to be taking it for his final thoughts so these final thoughts starting at verse 19 and on Were so important to Paul in order to again round out the letter to kind of cap things off that he stopped dictating

To whoever it was that was writing for him and he picked up the pen himself and he finished it himself

And so what Paul's about to tell us is really important Everything up to this point has been very important, but there's one last

Aspect of all of this that he wants to throw in there and he wants to highlight He wants to make sure

Philemon gets it And of course through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is Paul was being carried along as he wrote these final verses

The Holy Spirit wanted us to know it. He wanted us to get this He wanted us to put what we're about to read into practice ourselves

But we'll get into that the next time we're together. So and then that'll be it. That'll be the end of the letter

So we'll close it out for today And if anyone has any other final thoughts, they'd like to throw in there really quick feel free

And I will ask pop pop back there if you're okay with it to dismiss us in prayer We just thank you today for your work.

We'd love that you show the examples that you set for us For what you do for us and lead us along the way and protect us

Be with us as we go into the service and open our hearts and our minds And I thank you for your services