Three-year Bible reading plan for 16 November 2024

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

Philemon, Chapter 1, verses 17-25

⁹ whom he desireth to forgive his servant Onesimus, and lovingly to receive him again

¹⁷If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.

¹⁸If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account;

¹⁹I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.

²⁰Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.

²¹Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say.

²²But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.

²³There salute thee Epaphras, my fellowprisoner in Christ Jesus;

²⁴Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellowlabourers.

²⁵The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

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1

1:17 If thou accountest me a partner - So that thy things are mine, and mine are thine.

1:19 I will repay it - If thou requirest it. Not to say, that then owest me thyself - It cannot be expressed, how great our obligation is to those who have gained our souls to Christ.Beside - Receiving Onesimus.

1:20 Refresh my bowels in Christ - Give me the most exquisite and Christian pleasure.

1:22 Given to you - Restored to liberty.

NOTES

Continuing the conversation about Onesimus, Paul recalls certain debts about which we know nothing because nowhere else in the New Testament books is anything said about them...

Continuing the conversation about Onesimus, Paul recalls certain debts about which we know nothing because nowhere else in the New Testament books is anything said about them. And he adds: count Onesimus's debt as my debt to you. Here the apostle continues the thought he expressed in the first part of the letter, the thought that in Christ there are no longer slaves and masters, and that relationships among Christians can and should be completely different. It is no accident that Paul speaks of himself as Philemon's debtor, taking Onesimus's debt upon himself.

The debt most likely arose from some expenses connected with Paul's apostolic ministry. But that is not all. The point is that Paul's work is not Paul's alone, but the work of the whole Church. And Onesimus, who took part in the work of the whole Church to the extent of his strength, owes Philemon neither more nor less than Paul himself would have owed him if Philemon had decided to make some claims against the apostle.

It is understandable that Philemon would hardly have dared to do that, not only because of Paul's authority, but also because he fully understood the significance of Paul's ministry. With Onesimus, however, things were apparently not quite the same. Onesimus is not Paul; besides, he is Philemon's slave, and although Philemon after his conversion had indeed begun to treat Onesimus differently than before, old habits were not so easy to uproot.

Indeed, relationships between people, especially everyday relationships, often remain only dimly conscious and, to a significant degree, continue to be shaped by the behavioral automatisms that belonged to their former life, even when it would seem that a person has parted with that former life. The force of behavioral inertia is great, and it cannot be overcome unless one recognizes that inertia as a spiritual problem requiring the most serious attention.

It was precisely this inertia that made Philemon demand from Onesimus what he would never have demanded, for example, from Paul. And Paul interrupts it by putting himself in Onesimus's place. He does this not only out of solidarity with his helper, but also for Philemon's own sake, because without overcoming behavioral inertia and the automatisms connected with it, his spiritual life will never become whole.

The form Paul chose for speaking with Philemon is very interesting. Let us look: Paul is an elder, as he himself...

Much has been said and written about Christian love, including by Paul himself. Yet the best way to understand what Christian love is may be from the example of those relationships which, though they are not even described, there is no talk of descriptions, are mentioned in...

Much has been said and written about Christian love, including by Paul himself. Yet the best way to understand what Christian love is may be from the example of those relationships which are not even described, there is no talk of descriptions, but are mentioned in the apostle's letters as if in passing, as something self-evident. "If you are in fellowship with me, receive him also." Of course, something similar is possible according to the laws of the untransformed world. One can present an ultimatum to someone who depends on you. One can try to manipulate those who love you. But here, clearly, there is neither one nor the other. Here there is simply absolute confidence that, if the issue is Christians, inhabitants of the Kingdom, the relationships of love linking him, Paul, with two different people will necessarily be established between these people too. Or, more precisely, have already been established; otherwise the apostle would not write with such confidence. But where does it come from, this confidence? Of course, one could say that it is a matter of Christian duty, that a Christian simply cannot fail to receive a brother who needs support, and much else of the same kind. But on "Christian duty" alone, as two millennia of Christian history show, one does not get far. Christian love, however, as the same experience shows, can work wonders. This is not surprising, for it is itself a wonder, like everything that belongs to the Kingdom. And the love of which the Savior spoke fills the Kingdom, forming its nature, its spiritual substance, the fabric of those relationships that bind the inhabitants of the Kingdom to one another and each of them to Christ, and Christ Himself to the Father. Then Paul's request becomes not only not at all surprising, but self-evident: the Kingdom knows no distances in our sense; here people spiritually close to one another turn out to be near in the most literal sense, and if we do not notice this, it is only because untransformed reality blocks the Kingdom from us. For Paul, however, as one can see, this barrier is absent, and he writes to his correspondent as if it did not exist for him either. Perhaps this is excessive optimism. Or perhaps simply hope and confidence. Confidence in the Kingdom, in the One who brought it into the world, and in those who followed Him.

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