Summary:

When a Bible writer uses the word “yea” after saying something (v.20), it meant he was really pouring it on (Psalm 7:5; 68:3).  At the end of Verse 19, Paul reminded Philemon that he should do what Paul asked and be gracious to his runaway slave because Paul asked him to, and he owed him his very self, since Paul led him to the Lord.  Then after saying, “Don’t you want to pay your debt to me by doing what I ask,” he really pours it on and says, “Don’t you want to give me joy by doing what I ask?”

The reason you should care about that is that it illustrates how you owe your very self to the Lord for saving you, but you shouldn’t do what He asks just because you owe Him, but also because it brings Him joy.

Paul is a great illustration of this, for every time he tells us what brought him joy, it was that God’s people were obeying Him.  He told the Philippians it would bring him joy if they received each other graciously (Phil. 2:2).  That meant it would rob his joy if they didn’t.  Prison didn’t rob Paul of joy, for he rejoiced to see how God used it to get the gospel to Caesar’s household and “all other places” (Phil. 1:12-18).  Even the thought of dying didn’t rob Paul’s joy, for he knew it was “far better” to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23).  The only thing that robbed his joy was ungraciousness among saints!

And don’t forget who was asking the Philippians to fulfil his joy—the apostle who gave them joy when he led them to Christ, and who was living for the “furtherance” of their joy (Phil. 1:23-25).  So in asking them to fulfill his joy, ye was saying, “I’m living for your joy, can’t you live for mine?” In the same way, it was the apostle who brought Philemon joy by leading him to Christ, and who was now continuing to live for his joy as well as the joy of the Philippians, who was asking Philemon to let him have joy of him by doing what he asked.  And that illustrates how the Lord brought you joy by dying for you, and continuing to live for you (Rom. 8:34).

Back in Philemon 1:7, Paul said Philemon refreshed the bowels of the saints in his church by feeding them (cf. Ezek. 3:3).  But when Paul said he could refresh his bowels by being gracious to his slave, he was using the word “bowels” as heart (cf. Jer. 4:19; Lam. 1:20).  That illustrates how obeying the Lord refreshes His heart.

We know His heart needs refreshing sometimes because we read that after Satan fell after Genesis 1:1, it refreshed the Lord’s heart after He recreated the creation described in Genesis 1,2 (Ex. 31:17).  Well, when you get saved, it refreshes the Lord because suddenly you are a new creature (II Cor. 5:17).  Of course, when you don’t act like a new creature, it grieves the Lord (Eph. 4:30).  But then when you obey Him again, it refreshes Him again.  And we’re seeing all that illustrated here with Paul’s refreshment.

Paul was “confident” that the grace God had shown Philemon would get him to do what he asked and be gracious to Onesimus (Phile. 1:21).  His confidence in the carnal Corinthians (II Cor. 2:3; 7:16; 8:22) and the legalistic Galatians (Gal. 5:10) illustrates God’s confidence of how grace can fix whatever is wrong with us.

Paul was confident Philemon would do “more” than what he asked, perhaps set his slave free!  This illustrates how God is confident you’ll do more under grace than He told the Jews to do under the law.  The law said not to do evil (Ex. 23:2), grace says to avoid the very appearance of evil (I Thes. 5:22).  The law said to tithe (Deut. 12:11), under grace the Macedon-ians gave more than a tithe of their “deep poverty” (II Cor. 8: 1-5).  The law said to sacrifice animals (Deut. 12:11), grace says to sacrifice your own body (Rom. 12:1).

The law said not to eat meat offered to idols (Ex. 34:15), Paul said you can, but not to if it will offend a brother (I Cor. 10:27,28).  The Lord introduced New Testament grace by saying the law said don’t kill, but grace says don’t hate (Mt. 5:21,22).  The law said don’t commit adultery, grace says don’t even think about it (Mt. 5:27,28).  If you think it’s a good idea not to hate or lust, it is because your heart has been touched by God’s grace.  Grace makes you evaluate what you’ve been given and how much it is worth to you.

Summary:

When Paul tells Philemon to put Onesimus’ wrong on his “account” and that he would “repay” him (v.18), we know he “wronged” him financially.  Slaves often robbed their masters to finance their escape, figuring they owed them for all their free labor.  That sounds justified, but Paul calls it wrong, just as it is wrong when employees steal from their employer today because they’re not paid enough.  If you’re guilty of that, stop (Eph.4:28).  If you’re not, remember you might be someday (ICor.10:12).

If Onesimus did steal from his master, Paul says he owed him.  When you steal from a man, you owe him, and in Bible days you had to pay it back with interest (Ex.22:1).

Paul was probably offering to pay Onesimus’ debt because he was broke and couldn’t pay it himself.  He no doubt spent all his money on the 1200 mile trip from Colosse to Rome, so had to get a job at the prison where Paul was incarcerated.

If you couldn’t repay what you stole, then they imprisoned you (Mt.5:25) until you paid your debt, as prisoners pay their debt to society today, with the loss of your time and freedom.

Since Philemon is a book of illustrations, we know that this illustrates how when men sin against their master God, He considers it a “debt” that they owe Him (Mt.6:12-14).  And it’s a debt they cannot pay, for sinners are spiritually broke.

They can’t pay their debt to God because they don’t have anything He wants.  So they have to go to prison till they’ve paid “the last farthing” (Mt.5:25).  You know that verse is about hell, because that’s how the Lord introduced it (v.22).

Men in hell must pay for their debt with more than their loss of time and freedom.  They are “delivered to the tormentors” (Mt.18:34) until they’ve paid the last farthing of their debt.  But sin against an eternal God demands an eternal punishment!  Hell has to be eternal because men can never suffer enough to repay God for the enormity of their sin.  Men say that’s not fair, but it’s fair because men don’t have to go to hell.    The Lord took their torment on the cross.    All they have to do to be saved from hell is to believe that.

This shows it is wrong to say, as some are saying, that the sins of unsaved men are forgiven.  People go to hell “because” of their sins (Eph.5:6).  Their only hope is to let Christ pay their debt, something else we see illustrated when Paul tells Philemon to put his slave’s debt on his account.  That’s what the Lord did for us, put our sin on His account.

An “account” is a registry of debits and credits.  Sin debits a man’s account with God, but he has no way to credit it, since God doesn’t accept good works as credit (Isa.64:6).  But God counts faith for righteousness (Rom.4:5), faith in the fact that God made Christ to be sin for us so we might be made righteous (IICor.5:21).

Paul usually dictated his letters (cf.Rom.16:22), but made his offer to pay Onesimus’ debt with his own hand (Phile.1:19).  He did this to give Philemon something he could take into court if need be and insist he pay the debt if he wanted to.  That’s an illustration of how, when it comes to your sin debt, you have it in writing that Christ paid it in the writing of the Word of God. 

Of course, Philemon would never make Paul pay his slave’s debt because he owed Paul his own self (Phile.1:19).  He led him to the Lord and saved his eternal life, and perhaps saved him from a life of sin and degradation in this life.  In bringing this up, Paul was implying he owed him a debt he couldn’t repay.  That illustrates how you should feel about the Lord!

After all Paul had given to Philemon, he would never expect Paul to give him more by paying Onesimus’ debt.  After all the Lord has given you eternally in the next life, do you really expect him to give you more in this life?  By giving you health and wealth, and solving all of your problems?

Paul says you should live for Him who died for you “and rose again” (IICor.5:14,15).  If a man saves your life, you feel like living for him, right?  But if someone dies saving your life, you can’t live for him—but you can live for the Lord who died for you and rose again.

Summary:

Paul wasn’t saying Onesimus wasn’t a slave anymore just because he got saved (v. 16).  Salvation doesn’t deliver you from your problems, it helps you accept them, knowing God can use you more powerfully in your problems than He can if He delivers you from them because His power is made perfect in your weakness (II Cor. 12:7-9).  Paul was saying Philemon shouldn’t receive him as a slave, but as a brother.  Like how Paul’s words were the words of a man, but the Thessalonians didn’t receive them that way (I Th. 2:13).  He was a man, but the Galatians didn’t receive him that way (Gal. 4:14).  This illustrates how God receives us not as sin-ners but as saints, and expects us to receive others that way.

How far “above” a servant should Philemon receive him (v. 16)?  The Lord told the 12 they were no longer servants but friends, after He told them all that the Father had told Him (John 15:15).  A friend is above a servant.  But after He died and rose again He called them brethren because they were one with Him (Heb. 2:11).  So are we, so we should receive one another as a brother, as Paul told Philemon.

When Paul told Philemon to receive Onesimus as a “beloved” brother (v. 16), God said that Christ is His beloved (Mt. 3:16,17), so he should receive him as Christ, since he was now “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6).  God later repeated that Christ was His beloved when they didn’t “hear” Him (Mt. 17:5) say He had to die (16:21,22).  So to receive Onesimus as “beloved” means to hear what Christ says in Colossians 3:11-13, where He says that we are His beloved, and so should forgive others as He forgave us.

Onesimus was “special” to Paul because he led him to the Lord, even though they didn’t have much time together.  Paul probably wasted no time teaching him to obey his master (Col. 3:22) and sent him back to Philemon for further Bible teaching.  But Onesimus was “more” (v. 16) special to Philemon for he had known him a long time.  And he would be special to him “in the flesh” (v. 16) since saved servants were often better servants than unsaved servants.  And since Philemon had probably witnessed to Onesimus, and prayed for him, and taught him the Scriptures in their home church, he was also special to him “in the Lord.”

A “partner” (Philemon 1:17) is someone who’s part owner in a business.  Three of the apostles were partners in a fishing business (Luke 5:6-10).  Philemon considered Paul his partner in the ministry, as Paul considered Titus (I Cor. 8:23). Paul’s not pulling rank by asking as an apostle (cf. 1:10), but as a co-worker in the ministry.

But if Philemon is a book that illustrates Pauline doctrine rather than teaching it, what is being illustrated here?  It is illustrating that you should receive others in a forgiving way because Paul is your partner in the ministry.  What do I mean by that?

Consider that after James and John and Peter left their fishing partnership, they became partners in the ministry.  The problem with most Christians today is that they think they are part of that partnership instead of being partners with Paul in the ministry!  That means they are fishing for men with the wrong net, the net of the kingdom gospel (John 20:31).  Some are even using the net of the Law and partnering with Moses, saying you have to keep the Sabbath and the rest of the Law to be saved.

Now when you tell people you’re partnering with Paul they say you should be partnering with Christ.  But this epistle is all about Paul giving Philemon reasons why he should forgive his runaway slave.  The Lord would say to forgive him to be forgiven by God (Mt. 6:14).We must be Paul’s part-ner in this, not the Lord’s in His earthly ministry, for Paul says we should forgive because we are forgiven (Eph. 4:32).

Even the “return policy” of the 12 was different.  In saying men should forgive others seventy times seven times (Mt. 18:21,22), the Lord was telling them they had to keep forgiving till the end of Israel’s next period of 490 years (cf. Dn. 9:24) which will end in the Tribulation.  After that, they won’t need to forgive others since all their persecutors will die at Armageddon.  Only Paul’s return policy says to allow others to return forever and keep forgiving them!

Summary:

To “retain” something (v. 13) means to keep possession of it (Job 2:9).  Before returning Philemon’s runaway slave, Paul thought about retaining him (v. 13) to “minster” unto him in prison.  In those days, prisoners were literally fed bread and water (I Ki. 22:27), but in some cases they were allowed friends or servants to “minister” to them (cf. Mt. 25:43,44).

The Book of Philemon doesn’t teach Pauline doctrine, it illustrates them.  When Paul says he thought of keeping Onesimus in Philemon’s stead, that illustrates how we are here “in Christ’s stead” (II Cor. 5:20).  That means we should be beseeching sinners to be reconciled to God as He would.

Slaves were a man’s possession, however (cf. Lev. 25:45,46), so Paul wouldn’t keep him without Philemon’s permission (Phile. 1:14).  He told him he would “benefit” for it at the Judgment Seat of Christ if he let him use his possession, as people today will benefit for letting missionaries use their cars, etc.  But he explained he’d benefit more if he gave Paul use of his possession “willingly” and not “of necessity.”  This illustrates how God will someday reward all of the money we possess that we give to the Lord, but we’ll benefit more at the Judgment Seat of we give in a “willing” way (II Cor. 8:12) and not “of necessity” (II Cor. 9:7).

If Philemon had retained Onesimus, he could only have had him as a slave until he died.  But now that Paul was retaining him after leading him to the Lord, Philemon could have him back as a brother for all eternity (Phile. 1:15,16).

When Paul says Onesimus departed “for a season” (v. 15), that should remind you of the Jew who was blinded for a season when he tried to keep Paul from giving a Gentile the gospel (Acts 13:11).

So when Onesimus departed for a season so Philemon could receive him forever as a brother, that illustrates how Israel departed from God for a season so God could receive her forever in the kingdom.  They “departed” in Acts 28:28,29 and their “receiving” will come in their kingdom (Ro. 11:15).

Paul can’t be saying Onesimus ran away so he could return to Philemon for ever.  And he can’t be saying Philemon let him run away so he could return forever.  No, it was God who wanted him to leave so he could get saved (I Tim. 2:4).  But we have to be careful, for God says servants should obey their masters, not run from them (Eph. 6:5), so running away is a sin, and God never makes anyone sin.

But God knows how to use men’s sins to accomplish His will.  God didn’t make Joseph’s brethren sin by selling him into slavery, but when He saw they hated him (Gen. 37:4) He gave him a dream saying he’d rule them, making them hate him enough to sell him (Gen. 37:8).  That’s how Joseph could say God sent him into slavery (Gen. 45:7,8), using His Word in a dream.  They just reacted sinfully to His Word.

And God used His word to get Onesimus to run away, His word through Philemon.  He was a faithful Christian (Phile. 1:4-6), so was no doubt witnessing to Onesimus.  He just resented hearing it from his high and mighty master, so reacted sinfully to it.  But when he heard the gospel from Paul, someone beneath him in prison, he believed it.

So why does Paul say “perhaps” that’s what happened?  Because there was an element of chance involved.  God could make Onesimus want to run by giving him His word, but he couldn’t make him run 1200 miles to Rome and bump into Paul.  The “hap” part of perhaps means something hap-pened to happen (Ruth 2:3) by chance (II Sam. 1:6).  There’s such a thing as chance—luck (Ecc. 9:11).  Moses believed in it (Deut. 22:6), as did the Lord (Lu. 10:31).  God is not orchestrating our every move, He gave us free will.

So Paul is telling Philemon not to look at it as his slave running away, but to look at it all as God using sin and His Word and chance to “work together” for good (Ro. 8:28).

God also works through His people though.  If Philemon didn’t forgive Onesimus, then all those things wouldn’t work together for good.  It all comes down to you.  If you’re not happy with your life, begin to obey God’s Word through Paul.