There are two ways in which truth is presented to us, didactically, and in the living exhibition of it. There may indeed be a certain admiration of the character in which truth is embodied, without perceiving that it is the truth which molds the character. But for the most part we are much readier at learning truth didactically, than as presented to us livingly. In the one case it is often the mere exercise of the mind; in the other the affections are almost necessarily engaged. It is not however my intention to institute any comparison between the relative value of these two ways. God has been pleased to use them both; and it is generally found that where there has been the setting aside of doctrinal truth (because it has been systematically held by some, and severed from the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the great doctrine of God), there has been instability.
But it is exceedingly delightful to witness the progress of one who, having received the truth doctrinally, is led to connect it with Jesus in his own soul. The purpose of God, and all that flows from it, still have their proper place in his soul. He does not deny, but most fully avows, all the truth contained in the most rigid doctrinal statement. The electing love of God, His effectual calling, His predestination to sonship, the indefectibility of grace and perseverance of the saints, are no longer to him so many abstract truths, but become embodied in his own soul by the known character of God in redemption. It is thus the soul is delivered from questioning and debating about such points; it assumes them because it knows God; and it is this acquaintance with God which gives real peace. I believe that even the recognition of one's own personal election fails in giving peace, apart from the character of God revealed as love. There are jealousies and suspicions in the soul, as to God, even where the truth is most distinctly apprehended doctrinally, until God's perfect love as revealed in Jesus casts out all fear. There is no real boldness (doctrine never gives it) until we know that God's love has made us, even in this world, as Jesus is before Him in heaven. This is the result of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, to every one that believeth.
And such a knowledge of God as this is being eternal life, we find the soul unconsciously acting on, and out, those very doctrines which it had previously acknowledged as truth. But now they have become, as it were, its life and existence, and therefore without being mentioned are continually being confessed. It is surprising how much is necessarily assumed, when once God is known by the soul in the relationship of Father. Many a babe who has been brought to know Him as such through faith in Jesus, although he might be for a moment stumbled at a systematic presentation of the doctrines of grace, will be found to have the elements of them all in his own soul. As born of God, he really lives and moves and has his being in Him, and instead of questioning about God is happily living in Him. When this is the case, there is a beautiful ease in Christianity—it is not effort, it is life. And the true grace of God is as much traced in a precept as in a promise, because the precept assumes redemption and a new relation to God. The precept could only suit one placed in a particular relation. For example, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” assumes the knowledge of complete redemption: the soul is set completely at rest about itself, before it can possibly seek to carry out the precept; and in carrying it out is only learning more of the length and breadth and depth of the love of God. And thus we become practically acquainted with the grace of God, every step we are seeking to take in obedience to His will.
Now I believe that many parts of Scripture are neglected or slighted, because they do not appear to bear on doctrinal truth, while they are the exhibition of that very truth in living power. One such part of scripture is the Epistle to Philemon. It does not contain a single doctrinal statement, and yet could only have been written by one whose very soul had embraced the whole doctrine of Christ, so that his life and thoughts were all expressive of it. It ought to be matter of great thankfulness on our part to our gracious God, that He has chosen such engaging ways to bring His blessed truth to bear on our souls. And I would earnestly desire, whilst seeking to trace the mind of Christ in the apostle Paul writing to Philemon, that we might have fellowship with him in it.
In the Lord Jesus personally, we see the whole truth embodied and livingly presented: He is the truth. In the apostle we see the blessed result of communion with the truth, and the presentation of the mind of Christ. This is our portion. “We have the mind of Christ.” It is this which makes us know how we ought to walk so as to please God. The rule of Christian conduct is not “I say unto my servant Go, and he goeth,” without knowing the reason of the command; but it is the ability to recognize the propriety of the command itself as suitable to the condition in which we are placed, and therefore the obedience of the Christian is intelligent obedience. He is led of the Spirit, and this too in those very things which are most opposed to all that is natural. God, with all the power to command, treats us as friends; He informs us and shows us what would be well-pleasing unto Him, and thus we have fellowship with Him in carrying out His will into obedience, which we could not have had if He dealt with us as servants. But I would now turn for illustration of these things to Paul's Epistle to Philemon.
The salutation or address, brief as it is, contains in it the substance of the Epistle. It is all so pertinent to the subject on the mind of the apostle, that one might be led to think there was studied art in it. But I believe that no artificial arrangement can ever come up to the simple expression of the mind of Christ. And all the beauties of the sacred writers have not arisen from any studied composition, but are the necessary result of inspiration—the Spirit expressing by them the subject which He fully knew, and was therefore fully competent to teach. But to return to the address of the Epistle. We have Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ; Timothy, a brother; Philemon, one dearly beloved, and a fellow-laborer with the apostle; Apphia, the beloved: and Archippus, Paul's fellow-soldier. Now the mention of all these names is expressive of fellowship: those who had no natural fellowship one with the other, nothing in common one with the other, strangers in country, in habit, in language, had now by union with Christ, common relationship, common affections, common service, common warfare. Here is the wondrous power of the cross it not only brings the soul into peace with God, as Seeing His love to a sinner therein expressed, even in the judgment of that sin which would hinder fellowship with Him, but it brings men of the most opposite character, and most different condition in this life, into oneness also. How fully must the soul of the apostle in writing this address, have known nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified! He saw in the cross an end of all those distinctions which separate man from man; and a new union with a new head in a new creation in the resurrection. This true doctrine of the cross we need to know—this Paul would have Philemon to know. That the very same power which had slain the enmity between Paul a Jew, and Philemon a Gentile, “making them one new man, making peace,” the very same power by which they were engaged in the same work, would be sufficient to make peace between Philemon and his slave Onesimus, to give them a oneness of interest, affection, and service, which they had never had before. I need hardly state that this is the true doctrine of Christ as expressed in Eph. 2:13-2213But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:13‑22). There indeed it is stated in its largest principle, that God had introduced a power by which even the partition wall, which He Himself had placed between Jew and Gentile, was broken down, and they, so contrary the one to the other, brought into amity, not by the Jew becoming a Gentile, nor the Gentile a Jew, but by the twain becoming a new man in Christ Jesus.
I would not omit here to notice the mention of “the church in thy house,” as in strict keeping with the Whole subject. The church is the household of God; and how very blessed to have a small household here conformed to God's great household. Now Philemon and Archippus, who once had been far off from God, had now by the blood of Christ been brought nigh, and standing before God in Him, had become of the household of God. There was no difference before God on account Of their relative conditions here, in Christ Jesus theta is neither bond nor free. With what propriety therefore is the church in the house mentioned here, as that which would lead Philemon immediately to see the blessedness of receiving Onesimus in brotherly love, and regarding him of the household of God, and therefore of the church in his house. But if we enter a little more into detail, I think we shall be able to trace more of the living grace which is in Christ Jesus, for us, as well as the apostle Paul. “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus” — “a prisoner!” why not an apostle? Surely he was one, and could not give up the title and office, however grace might lead him to do that which his Master had done, that he might bring sinners to God, and lead on saints into obedience by love. His authority he most clearly asserts— “Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which was convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Paul dared not give up his authority as an apostle—he was responsible for its exercise to Him Whose servant He was. When the occasion came, he could use sharpness. But though the relation in which Paul stood in the church to Philemon was most distinct, yet his soul was resting much more on that which he had in common with Philemon than on that which distinguished them.
It was thus too, he would teach Philemon by his own example, how he should act towards Onesimus: their relation was that of master and slave, and the gospel did not the least alter it. Philemon was responsible as a master to his Master in heaven; but yet there was open to Philemon the she wing forth of the grace of the apostle, or rather of the Lord Himself, who never could altar by any humiliation that which He essentially was; but was enabled by it to bring to bear on the soul, that which otherwise He never could have done—His own gracious example. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for So I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.” For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” It is the joy of the heart of the Lord Jesus Himself to place Himself in that posture in which He can bring us in to share His own blessings with Himself. As Lord of all, He stands alone, and above us all; and this He cannot give up, for it would be the denial of Himself. But when He has all authority to command as Lord (and this is speedily to be revealed), He has, as humbled, been pleased to give us an example that we should follow His steps. He delights to come down to our level, in order to exalt us to His own glory. This is the way of grace. It would have been no grace in the Lord Jesus, had He not been an equal with God, to have made Himself of no reputation, and taken on Him the form of a servant, became the highest created intelligence is but a servant. But grace is God's Ability of preserving His own character, when He is not demanding of us His own rights; although He can never waive those rights. And the wonder of redemption is, that without any demand on the part of God on us, it shows us all His claims most amply satisfied— “a just God and a Savior.” Paul therefore could hot widen his apostleship, but it was open to him to act in grace, and to take his stand on that which he had in common with Philemon and the whole church—brotherhood in Christ Jesus. And here instead of authoritative command, he could “beseech.” And then with the full recognition of the relation in which Philemon stood to Onesimus, which Paul had no power to dissolve, although he might have enjoined what was “convenient,” he leaves Philemon in the place of exercising grace, and of taking his stand with Onesimus in the common brotherhood, valuing this new relationship above the old one, although that still continued. It is important to remark how our gracious Lord constantly affords us opportunities of showing grace. It is rarely that He addresses us in the tone of authoritative command, saying, “Go,” “Do this;” but it is, “here is my mind,” go and carry it out as far as you can—and every one that is perfect shall be as His Master.
Nothing more destructive of the gospel, than to assert a common brotherhood, apart from that grace of God which has given it, and that living grace in which it is to be carried out. It has not pleased God in giving to us a new and eternal, relationship, to alter our relative conditions whilst we are in the world. He allows the world to go on as it is, and does not interfere with its regulations now for the sake even of His own dear children. Paul continues high in the church as an apostle, Philemon continues a master, and Onesimus a slave, though God had made them one in Christ Jesus, Who by His blood had washed them from their sins, and made Onesimus as well as Paul, a king and a priest unto God and his Father. It would not have been grace in Onesimus, because he was a brother and an heir of God and joint-heir of Christ, to say he was no longer a slave. Neither would it have been grace in Philemon, because he was his master, to refuse to acknowledge Onesimus as a brother. It was the Lord Who had made him such, and it should have been the joy of the heart of Philemon to receive him as such. But it was left to Philemon to show how far his soul estimated his standing in Christ above any circumstantial difference of condition here. And therefore says the apostle, “that you might receive him forever, not now as a slave, but above a slave, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee both in the flesh and in the Lord.” Now I fully believe that any attempt to exhibit Christian brotherhood, apart from individual and personal grace, as that which alone can sustain it, must be most mischievous, and in the end lead to confusion and disorder if not to practical atheism. Men see by their natural understandings that there is a common brotherhood recognized in the New Testament; they assert it as if it were of nature, not of grace, and use it to the subversion even of the authority of God Himself. It is the very essence of lawlessness, to make that which is the blessed result of the riches of God's grace to be the natural right of man. It is this use of the blessed gospel itself which produces the worst form of evil—such as we see characterized by the apostles Jude and Peter.
God has not placed His children here to assert their rights. He has saved them according to His own mercy and grace, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost; and He leaves them here to learn obedience to Him in all things. It is in our several relations one to the other, that obedience to God is manifested, and the grace of which we have been partakers shown forth. If Onesimus had demanded as a matter of right, to be received as a brother, there would not have been given to Philemon an opportunity of skewing grace to him, and loving obedience to God. How beautifully does grace keep everything in its right place—surely it must do so, for it maintains the character of God. It is in us alway self-denial, never self-exaltation and it is equally shown in Onesimus, yielding all willing service, as in Philemon, not exacting it.
But still to return to the salutation— “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” In this he showed Philemon two things: first, that he was a sufferer, and not one who had maintained his place in the world by his confession of Christ; secondly, that all the irksomeness of his prison was removed, by his ability to see that men were only the hand of the Lord, so that he was content to be there, for he was the Lord's prisoner. And when he comes to the special point of his writing to Philemon, he then presents himself “such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.”
And what had Paul the aged been learning in his long course? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; and his claim on Philemon is not the authority he might have used, but his experience of the blessedness of the ways of grace in his own soul, and his present suffering for preaching the gospel of that grace to Philemon and other Gentiles (compare Eph. 3:11For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, (Ephesians 3:1)). But just as he was content to be in bonds, because he was the Lord's prisoner, so was he delighted to recognize those bonds in which Philemon was eternally one with him. Speaking of Onesimus, he says, “whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel.” Here is the very mind of Christ. He (Jesus) was content to suffer alone, and for us; He called none in to share all that He had to do in atonement: none could have stood with Him in that. But what was the end of it, but that we might be united to Him in eternal bonds? And the present end of this union is ministry to Him, in the person of His saints, and confession of Him in the world which has shut Him out. Paul stood forth as the elect vessel to bear the name of Jesus. He speaks it to the credit of one, he “was not ashamed of my chain” (2 Tim. 1:1616The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: (2 Timothy 1:16)).
Here then was the opportunity for Philemon to show that, notwithstanding the degradation of Paul 3n the eyes of men—a prisoner, yet he reckoned him as the choicest servant of the Lord, and his present condition would only render his obedience more prompt. But how deeply must his soul have tasted of the spirit of Christ, whose obedience was always both willing and intelligent, when he says, “but without thy mind I would do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly!” “The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.” He delights that our obedience should be intelligent and willing. How gracious is this—how unlike the hard master and austere man that our foolish and wicked hearts are ever disposed to believe Him to be! He shows us His own gracious ways; He informs our understandings and makes us to see the fitness of that which He desires, so that walking in the Spirit is going along with the Lord in the path which He points out. And although it must really be constant death to the flesh, and therefore constant suffering, yet in the intelligence of the new man we can say, “His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace.” “Not of necessity,” —how often do our poor hearts ask, Is it necessary? must it be done? He does not address us in that way, though He cannot deny His Lordship, but He shows us what is convenient, and we have the renewed mind to discern it; and He tells us what is pleasing to Him, that He may engage our affections, and then, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
How deeply must that soul have known of fellowship with Christ, which could thus say, “not of necessity;” and how little do our souls know of His grace when we are putting our obedience on the principle of duty, instead of seeing it as the development of the life within us! It was the life in union with Christ, which Paul knew to be in Philemon, which he sought to actuate; and then obedience would be willing, natural, and easy. There is always, if I may use the expression, an awkwardness in Christian conduct when it proceeds from necessity—it is like being turned out of one's way, instead of walking in the Spirit. How needful then for deep personal intercourse with the Lord Himself, that we may know His thoughts, and learn His ways! And then obedience, though learned in suffering, will be willing obedience.
But there is a little point further to notice, and it is just where discipleship turns: there may be things, and there are many, which Jesus as Lord does not command, but yet which as Master He teaches. I believe the greater part of inconsistencies are justified on the principle that they are not forbidden, or that a particular line of conduct is not systematically laid down in the word. The apostle says; “that thy benefit (thy good thing, verse 6) might not be of necessity.” Now I believe that a great many of the good works, by which the gospel is adorned, are not pressed on us by positive commandment, but are learned in the school of Christ; for He is our one Master, and we are His disciples. The Lord and servant are correlatives, and so are Master and disciple: every one that is perfect shall be as his Master.