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Philemon 4-7 (Part 2)
In the previous article that looked at the letter of Paul to Philemon, we were able to discuss the circumstances that Paul found himself as he writes this letter, as well as the character of Timothy, and what we know for certain about the named original audience in verse 2. Lastly, we looked at the type of greeting that is used in majority of the New Testament books, along with the care Paul had for Philemon, Apphia, and Archippus. In this article, we will cover vers-es 4-7, and I’d encourage you to have your Bibles open to this letter.
Paul makes mention of Philemon in his prayers (and I believe he did the same for Apphia and Archippus) and he thanks God constantly for them. Are we constantly thanking God for answered prayers, for hearing us in the first place, and relating to the context of these verses, thanking God for our brethren? It is such a blessing to have a brothers and sisters in Christ. There are people that like you and me are trying to live for Jesus and proclaim Him to others. There is a lot of odd things that come about from social media, but one beautiful thing is seeing the work done by other Christians and congregations for the furtherance of the gospel. Seeing brethren in lesser fortunate countries gathering in meeting places routinely that we would be hesitant to step foot in. People that are at risk of being persecut-ed for being a Christian and teaching Christ but do so anyway. See-ing the numbers grow at other congregations and the gospel being spread around the United States and here in Northern Kentucky. Do we thank God for those efforts? Do we mention each other by name in prayer for how thankful we are to have such great exam-ples in our lives?
Paul here is thanking God always for them and making men-tion of them in his prayers. Why? - Verse 5 gives us the answer, be-ing that Paul has heard the love and faith which they have toward Jesus and the saints. The love of Jesus and the love of the saints are so closely related, that they can’t be separated. In 1st John 4:12, it says “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God re-mains in us, and His love is perfected in us.” There are a lot of peo-ple who say they love God, but one way that is truly shown is the loving of our brothers and sisters, loving our fellow members of the body of Christ and even our enemies. Jesus told us to love our ene-mies in Matthew 5:44. In John 13:34, Jesus tells us to “Love one an-other; just as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” It’s important to note here in Philemon 5, that without the love of the saints, there is no love for Jesus and on the other side of that, there is no love for Jesus if there is no love for the saints. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” Je-sus has commanded us to love one another as we just noted, and therefore, if we don’t love each other, then we don’t love Jesus. The love of others and the love of Jesus are inseparable, they are one in the same, and we must have both to be pleasing to God.
Paul is also praying for the fellowship of their faith in V6. Paul wants their fellowship of their faith to become effective, but not in just any sense or in any way that could be considered effec-tive. Specifically, it’s through knowing of every good thing that is in
them is for the sake of Christ. To have effective fellowship in knowing every good thing that we have is for Him. Think about all the good things that we have as brethren. Think about all the good things that you have personally. You know what they all have in common? They are given to us by God and are to be used for the glory of God. It’s effective for us to realize this because when we realize all that we have is for God, we use it to serve Him and His people. We will be around each other and will be looking to benefit each other. Not only do Philemon, Apphia and Archippus have fellowship with each other and perhaps others meeting in their house, but also with Paul as note in v7. In verse 7 we see Paul has great joy and comfort in Philemon’s love, because of what it is being done for the hearts of the saints. The hearts of the saints have been “refreshed” through Philemon. Notice what loving your brethren can do here. It can refresh their hearts. I heard a brother call Wednesday night Bible study his “recharge portion of the week.” What he meant by that is that in the middle of the week, when about half of work week is over and he has been dealing with daily stressors for 3 days in a row, he was able to be amongst his brothers and sisters. He was able to be “recharged”, to be refreshed. The example and attitudes we display towards each other can be such a great refresher. This brother felt refreshed and energized by his Christian family and was ready to tackle the rest of the week. Do we have this attitude? The value in being together with our Christian family to encourage them. Do we take notice of the ex-ample of others and how they encourage people, like how Paul no-ticed Philemon’s refreshing of the brethren. It gave Paul great joy and comfort to see Philemon doing this. You and I can do and feel the same. We can refresh each other continually, to help each other push on to heaven. We can take notice of the example of others and take great joy and comfort out of their example. We can give others great joy and comfort from our example, as we imitate Christ. Phile-mon is a good Christian man as we can clearly see from the first 7 verses of this letter.
