The courtesy of the apostle's appeal is as striking as the deep ground of grace on which all is based, as ought to be in the dealings of saints one with another. The circumstances of the case we have seen enhanced this. For on the one hand the wrong done by Onesimus was great and manifest, and denied by none, least of all by himself or the blessed apostle. On the other hand, grace had wrought savingly and therefore with fruit of righteousness and peace in the returned runaway. God had intervened after the offense, not merely giving repentance and remission of sins through His Son, but as ever along with that boon the positive gift of eternal life and of the Holy Spirit. As one who had believed in God, and been justified by His grace, Onesimus came to place himself unreservedly in his master's hands, animated and strengthened doubtless to this by the apostolic instrument of divine blessing, who was no less jealous that divine grace might work as fully and freely in Philemon's heart. Believing masters and bondmen are alike debtors to grace, alike responsible to see to it that they pay diligent attention to good works. And the best of all works is to answer practically in spirit, word and deed, to the gracious Master of us all, whether free or bond.
To represent Christ's goodness aright in his ways is the daily problem that each Christian has to solve. Does it not demand grace every hour? Unquestionably; but did not His love provide for every need from the start? “Of His fullness we all received, and grace for grace.” But is not present and continual dependence needed? Beyond doubt: else the gift of abounding grace would make us independent of God, the greatest dishonor of Christ, the deepest shame of a Christian. Through Christ we have got and possess (ἐσχήκαμεν) the access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. It is a constant place of favor before Him as children of God, in pointed contrast with the most favored sons, not of Adam merely, but of Israel under the law with its necessary effect of bondage gendering fear of condemnation and death; but the fullness of grace possessed and known is only the more to draw out the clinging to grace, and wither up self-confidence, for every duty, for every call of love, hour by hour. Hence the word is, Thou therefore, my child (as the apostle impressed on another blessed by his means), be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:11Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:1)). It is there for us, but we always need to wait on Him for it. Dependence on and confidence in Him are the sinews of obedience. Otherwise we fail and have none justly to blame but ourselves for slighting that grace to which we owe everything boast, if indeed we may boast save in Christ and His cross, its deepest proof and most wondrous display.
With this sense of grace filling his own heart the apostle says, “If then thou countest me a partner, receive him as me. But if he wronged thee or oweth thee aught, put this to my account: I Paul write with mine own hand, I will repay; that I say not to thee that thou owest besides even thine own self. Yea, brother, let me have profit of thee in [the] Lord; refresh my bowels in Christ” (ver. 17-20).
These are burning words of the love that never fails; for it has its spring in God Himself; and Christ, as He was Himself the fullness of it, and not a mere stream or emanation, so has He made it to spring up in us who believe, and to flow out as rivers of living water. It is inseparable from the Holy Ghost given to us, Who energizes as the first man is judged that the Second may be magnified in us, as He is glorified on high.
And what did not Philemon feel, when he heard words which we may readily conceive he had never had addressed to him, as no occasion had occurred to draw them forth, though the same love was always there? It was not a magnate but a slave, once worthless and guilty, now the everlasting object of the love of Christ which stirred the depths of the apostle's heart, who in his turn would kindle the holiest affections of Philemon as never before. Yet to be Paul's imitator as he was of Christ had evidently been the saintly ambition of Philemon hitherto; and Paul would have it fired with fresh zeal now. “If thou holdest me [not an imitator only, great as this honor was, but] a partner.” What! Philemon reckon the great apostle partner with him! It was even so he read with his own eyes and from the apostle's own hand. It hung, it is true, on his receiving Onesimus, nay far more than this, on his receiving Onesimus as Paul! “Receive him as me.", O the wonders of grace! Receive the repentant runaway slave as the apostle! Yet if grace had its way, could it be adequately otherwise? What men, still worthless and children of wrath, falsely claim throughout Christendom to the shame of faith, the gospel, and Christ Himself given, Onesimus was in truth a child of God and a member of Christ. This the others are not, by any scriptural judgment however charitable, though they may be tares in the kingdom of heaven; for certainly they are not wheat. And charity would not bolster up false hopes, but warn them of judgment while preaching to them the grace of God in Christ if peradventure they might believe and be saved ere it be too late.
The poorest Christian, once the most depraved or guilty of men, is in Christ no less than the greatest of apostles. Of one as much as another is it written by another apostle: “Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because even as He is, even so are we in this world” (1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17)). It is not sentiment nor exaggeration, but the wondrous yet sober and certain truth. Onesimus even then was in virtue of God's love in Christ perfected, as Christ Himself in His eyes, and therefore to the eye and heart of faith. So it was with Paul; and so he would have it with Philemon.
And what more consummate than the address of his advocacy? What we love intensely we strive to do best; and here the Holy Spirit inspired all infallibly. “But if he wronged or oweth thee aught, this put to my account: I Paul write with mine own hand, I will repay; that I say not to thee, that thou. owest besides even thyself to me.” Could appeal of love be more irresistible? Grace does not, could not, deny the evils it forgives; even law does not condemn the sinner comparably with the condemnation of sin (root, as well as branch and fruit) in the cross of Christ. Grace proves sin to be so hopelessly bad that only God sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin [i.e., as a sacrifice for it], could surmount the otherwise impossibility (τὸ ἀδύνατον τοῦ νόμου). But evil has been perfectly met in the cross, and God there glorified even as to sin in the suffering Son of man; so that even righteousness has only the happy task of pronouncing the justification of them that believe.
How without effort the apostle breathes and speaks nothing but grace, and grace reigning through righteousness! “If he wronged or owed thee aught, put this to my account.” Would Philemon answer in a spirit of law or grace? Were he indeed as merciless as the servant in the parable which closes Matt. 18, Paul stands forth with repeated personal emphasis in the spirit of substitution: “I Paul write with mine own hand, I will repay.” But he will not let Philemon go even here without a loving (certainly not a Parthian) arrow, however effectual, “That I say not to thee, how thou owest besides even thyself to me,” Here was a debt indeed, which Philemon would be the last to forget or to underestimate. And if the apostle had not reminded him before, as may well be doubted, he does not fail to allude now to good purpose however passingly. Even to say a word was more than enough for the heart of so good a man, in presence of a debt that never could be paid. What in comparison was any bad debt on the score of the poor slave? Philemon owed, gladly owed, himself to Paul. And all this is wound up by the touching close of this appeal: “Yea, brother, let me have profit of thee in [the] Lord: refresh my bowels in Christ.” As he began so tellingly with “brother” in ver. 7, so not less does he reiterate it here in ver. 20. It was not in vain for Philemon; it was earnest love, not condescension. The gain that he yearned after was Philemon's yet more than his own, without telling him so. Grace on his part in presence of the present need and all past provocation would be the most balmy refreshment to the wounds and sufferings of the aged apostle. Selfishness was excluded. All he sought was in the Lord—in Christ. Then the quality is never strained, and the blessing threefold. May we know, enjoy, and manifest it, for whom these undying words of God are given which were primarily addressed to Philemon and those concerned.
There is a beautiful supplement, by no means unconnected in purpose with the direct appeal now concluded, which we do well to ponder. “Having confidence of thine obedience I write to thee, knowing that thou wilt do even beyond what I say. But withal prepare me also a lodging; for I hope that through your prayers I shall be granted to you” (ver. 21, 22). Comparing this with Col. 4:99With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are done here. (Colossians 4:9) where Onesimus is introduced to the Colossian brethren in the most formal manner as “the faithful and beloved brother who is [one] of you,” I think he is not mistaken who infers that the apostle looked for more in the transformed bondman than a simple saint; and that he was therefore the more urgent for a new triumph of grace in Philemon, not only in taking back to his heart the wrong-doer, but in setting him free. Bondage could not annul that liberty wherewith Christ delivers; but if called to serve the Lord, in the gospel for instance, the circumstances of slavery must hinder activity not a little. The apostle does but hint at more than he said: Philemon, as well as the rest, and not least Apphia, would easily see more and correctly; for love divine love at least gives sharp discerning eyes. The apostle's announced visit too would not hinder all be desired for Onesimus, uttered or unexpressed. The lodging might be outside or within the house of Philemon, the language being purposely vague, the intent that nothing should be by constraint, but of a willing mind. The prayers of the saints then are sought as ever; for the apostle says no more than “I hope.” Prayers would help on more than his coming.
The salutations follow, which include with one omission several names that appear in the Epistle to the Colossians written and sent at the same time. Yet are there instructive differences to be noted. Here Epaphras takes the first place, as Aristarchus the Thessalonian in the longer Epistle; yet there Epaphras has much fuller mention, and such as would endear him to the Colossians. “Epaphras, my fellow-captive in Christ Jesus, saluteth thee; Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workers” (ver. 23, 24). It is not “fellow-soldier,” as said of Archippus in ver. 2, an expression applied to Epaphroditus in Phil. 2:2525Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labor, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. (Philippians 2:25), and best illustrated by the “soldier” of Christ Jesus in 2 Tim. 2. It is not exactly δέσμιος, “prisoner,” as Paul speaks of himself in this and in other Epistles. Nor have we sufficient reason to say that Andronicus, Junias, and Epaphras were literally bound in a chain as the apostle was for Christ's sake. Yet is it a word of force, and means a captive, or war prisoner. Certainly we hear of no external event in the conflicts of the gospel that furnishes a ground for such a title. Meyer after Fritzsche suggests the idea that certain of the apostle's companions voluntarily shared his prison by turns: and that it was the turn of Aristarchus when he was writing to the Colossians, of Epaphras when he wrote to Philemon. By this he would explain why Aristarchus is here συνεργὸς and there συναιχμάλωτος, whilst Epaphras is there σύνεργὸς and here συναιχμάλωτος. This is ingenious no doubt; but Rom. 16:77Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. (Romans 16:7) presents no small difficulty to receiving it.
Mark follows next, the first of those called simply “fellow-workers.” There is no such introduction of him as to the Colossians. Nor was it called for here as it was there, and in 2 Tim. 4 also, where the apostle confirms to the end a restoration of confidence referred to those in Colossae, in accordance with injunctions previously received.
The omitted name of “Jesus that was called Justus” was honored enough by the mention in Col. 4:1111And Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. (Colossians 4:11). There was no need of sending to Philemon the salutation of one so little known. Then cornea Aristarchus, of whom enough has been remarked already, followed by Demas, who appears in Col. 4:1414Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. (Colossians 4:14) without a word: a preparation in God's mind, it would seem, for a sadder mention in 2 Tim. 4:1010For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. (2 Timothy 4:10). Luke, styled “the beloved physician” in Col. 4:1414Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. (Colossians 4:14), here comes the last named of the fellow-workers: a clear proof that the order in no way marks, as men do, the spiritual value or the honorable rank of those brought before us.
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (ver. 25) is the final greeting of the apostle to them all. This is in the exactest keeping with the Epistle. It is the answer on the practical side (and what is the good of truth in which we do not live and walk?) to grace reigning through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The apostle does not fail to wish it to all saints, and in every Epistle of his, great or small. It may be more or less enlarged or abridged in its form; but it is found at the bottom everywhere; and in none is the wish more seasonable than here.