Philemon

Over the past week I’ve worked my way through the book of Philemon. It’s been good to put up nuggets of truth from this short book of the bible.   To consider the people that Philemon spent his time with and the love he held for fellow believers.  It’s good to see that love and to be reminded that we too should have a great love for our fellow believers.

Then to see Paul’s heart… oh… he loved Onesimus and yet he chose to send this loved helper back to Philemon. He also had the confidence that Philemon would do what was right, take him back and love him as a fellow believer.   Paul closes off Philemon reminding me that we are not to be believers in isolation, but a people working together. 

Philemon 1-3  Paul’s Greeting in Philemon.

Philemon 4-7 Paul’s Prayer for Philemon. 

Philemon 8-22 Paul’s Confidence.

Philemon 23-25 Not In Isolation.

I regret not being able to get to these verses yesterday, I had plans to do so, but then life intervened.  Anyways, today we read the last three verses of Philemon.  Last time we met we talked about a request Paul had of Philemon. 

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24 and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

These last three verses are Paul’s closing greetings.   Greetings from other people who are with Paul in prison and elsewhere.  Epaphras is a fellow believer in prison.  You can learn more about who he was at this link. 

Fellow workers are Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke.   These men are not prisoners but share in the work of the Lord, helping others know the Lord. 

I find this verse interesting: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.  I might be, being nit-picky but I wonder if there is significance in saying with your spirit instead of just saying be with you. 

I have to admit that I don’t know what I can take away from this passage.  I know that other people helped Paul while he was in prison, and that they helped him minister the gospel to others.

That he wasn’t the only believer imprisoned for his faith, is nothing new to my ears.

Recognition is there, that Paul often closed his letters extending grace to those reading the letter. 

But what is there for me today?   I fear I do not see it.  Maybe it’s just as simple as this. We are not believers in isolation. Paul called for Philemon to keep a part of his heart.  Giving him Onesimus back to care for as part of his church and household.  Others were there to help Paul as well so he was not alone. Being alone in grief is not a good thing, it wasn’t easy for Paul to give Onesimus back to Philemon depending on him as he did.

Let us then remember to not be in isolation.  To remember our larger family.  A good thing that eh?

Last time we meet we discussed the first three verses in Philemon.   Today we will cover the next four. 

4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Isn’t it lovely when people thank God as they remember you in their prayers?   Isn’t it?  Just think of how comforting that must be, to know that God is being thanked FOR YOU.   At least I feel that way.  🙂   But I know that sometimes I’m a touch odd.  🙂

But listen here… listen to the reason Paul is giving things for Philemon and the others.   He has heard about Philemon’s love for God’s people and for his faith in Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that be neat?   It’s like talking about a person about someone you really, really appreciate and you are just saying all the good things you know.   That’s what it feels like Paul is doing here. I wonder if these thoughts made Philemon’s heart smile. 

Paul goes on to say that his additional prayer for Philemon is that he may have a “deepening” of his “understanding of every good thing we share“.  Oh, for Philemon faith and understanding would deepen.  Isn’t that a marvellous prayer to have for someone? 

Philemon’s love for the people of God fills Paul’s heart with great joy and is a source of encouragement for him, knowing that Philemon has refreshed the hearts of God’s people. 

Oh.. I need to pray this for people that I know.. Like Lori and Kym and Deb and Carol and for my hubby and my son.  To pray prayers of thanksgiving, thanking God for their faith, and their love of the people of God.  It’s an important thing to do, and an encouragement for the people of God.   Oh and to pray that their faith and their understanding God will grow deeper and stronger!   That’s a great prayer!

Who do you need to pray this prayer for?

Oh.. while I’m talking about Prayer I need to tell you about this prayer app my hubby has been using lately.  It’s called PrayerMate.   I was looking at it this morning, and if I have room on my phone I think I’ll download it as well.  Sample prayers, prayer lists that can be personalized, and more.  It’s a rather cool app and also available for i-phones as well. So give it a boo and let me know what you think eh?  🙂

I have been pondering what to do for my next devotional time since I finished Ezra.  I was commenting to hubby and he said “just do something short until you figure out what you should do.”  He suggested Habbukuk since it’s only three chapters but I kinda wanted a break from the Old Testament until I was more sure what I should study next.  I started going through New Testament books thinking maybe I’d do James (and I still might later) when Philemon leapt off the page.  So I’ll take the next few days to go through Philemon.

We’ll start off with Philemon 1:1-3.

1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon is a one chapter book written by Paul along with Timothy to Philemon, Apphia and Archippus and the house church they are part of.

You know, I’ve always thought this letter was written just to Philemon.  I have NO CLUE who Apphia and Archippus are.   Time to do some research!

Philemon in introduced as a beloved worker.  Paul must have thought well of Philemon to call him a beloved worker.  He may have been the leader of the house church Paul referred to. 

Okay, most people think, due to historical records, that Apphia was Philemon’s wife.   There are those that disagree. Her name means “that which is fruitful”.

It is thought that Archippus was related to Apphia in some way.. possibly a brother or son.  The general thinking is that somehow all three of them are connected in some family way.  But we don’t know for sure.  What we do know is that Archippus was a fellow soldier in the church. Exactly what his ministry was we aren’t sure.  He is also mentioned in  Colossians 4:17 with the injunction to do the ministry he was called to. 

When Paul wrote this letter to them, he was a prisoner for Christ Jesus.   Timothy was with him at this time, not a prisoner, more there to just be an aid to him.  This helps with the timeline of writing being before the writing of 2 Timothy.  Mentioning Timothy’s name when writing about a private matter may have been helpful to Philemon.

Paul extends a greeting “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.   It’s an often used greeting by Paul to people he is writing. 

Did you notice that Paul calls himself a prisoner and not an apostle in this letter?  Makes me wonder if being a prisoner was weighing on him a bit as he wrote this letter.  Or it was it was linked to the word he had for Philemon.  It’s hard to know eh?   It’s just a step out of the ordinary for him.