Philemon 1:1-7 - New Book and a New Background

Hey, welcome to Strength for the Day and a brand new study.

I'm looking forward to the study for our viewers and those that just listen. For our viewers, we have something special for you today. Since this is called Strength for the Day.

Bryon, why don't you introduce what's special on the screen for people today?

Yeah. So for our viewers, you can see we've got an orange backdrop. It's kind of like the sunrise coming up.

So we got Strength for the Day and got kind of a sun-risey setting.

If I was really bored and wanted to spend a ton of time on the video elements of Strength for the Day, I would put our green screen up behind us and then just have a sun-rise that would be up behind us.

But my Earthling Master has a few more tasks than just Strength for the Day for me to do. Is that Samantha? It is.

It is. It is.

So we just wanted you to know about the sunrise.

Yes.

It was actually, Bryon just introduced that to me right before we pressed record. And so I put him on the spot to share it with you.

Anyway, we are getting back into the Word of God and Strength for the Day, starting a new series in the Book of Philemon. I love the Book of Philemon. Actually, I'm going to be preaching a series at church next year in Philemon.

So this is kind of a preview, a little taste. And so, Bryon, why don't you introduce the Book of Philemon, and then read our first seven verses today?

Yep.

Why don't you do that?

Yeah. So the Book of Philemon. We just met Philemon in our last episode when we were going over some of the people that were in the church or churches that were in Colossi.

Yeah.

And we read his name, and we told those that made it all the way to the end of last episode that we were going to be here, and we're going to dive more into Philemon's story.

And Philemon appears to have met Paul possibly in Ephesus, as well as Epaphras, and both of them had interacted with Paul, had accepted Christ as a result of Paul's evangelism.

And then when they had gone back to their home where they lived in Colossi, they started some churches, and Epaphras appears to have been at least one of kind of those instigators in planting some churches.

And then Philemon has, as we can read over in verse number two, had a church that was meeting in his house. You might be able to speak in to some of that as well. I feel like I've heard some things from you as well.

But Philemon was one that was a Roman citizen. And as a result, had some land, had a larger house, obviously one that a church could meet in at that point. As well as during that time, you had what were termed slaves.

She could also read Bond Servant, those kinds of things. We wouldn't want to read into it. This is just like American Chateau Slavery that was like race-based.

Wasn't like that. It would be more equivalent to maybe some of the boss and worker relationship that we would have nowadays. It was a job.

But it was a job that had some extra cool stuff. It wasn't just you got paid. It was you also got fed and you got housing, and you got all of these different things that went along with it.

Yeah.

Well, wait, real quick, you can actually compare it to like England. Yes. In like the 1800s, 1900s, when they had servants that lived in a castle.

Yeah. And they were seen as part of, not necessarily part of the family, but an extension of it.

They would have celebration days, and they would honor their birthdays, and they would, you know, they just, it was kind of a, it was just a job with really cool perks.

Yeah. So, and that's not to say that every master in Rome was just, or during Roman times was like, oh yeah, I'm just a great person.

There were, there were definitely situations in which it was horrible, but it wasn't a uniform thing of, it was just always going to be terrible. In fact, slaves during that time could buy their freedom.

So they can say, hey, you know, I've saved up from my wages for the past couple of years and I'm buying my freedom. And now I'm a Roman citizen. I can't be owned.

I'm not a slave anymore. So very different in some ways from American. So Philemon had some of those workers, some of those slaves in his household.

And one of these was a man named Onesimus, who we'll learn more about in upcoming episodes. He doesn't play as much into this episode.

But Onesimus, we could kind of deduce from reading through the passage, had wronged Philemon, had possibly stolen from him as well, and had ran away.

Now, under Roman law, this could mean that he could be in prison, he could be beaten, he could possibly even, depending on the circumstance, be killed.

Depending upon what it was, he could be killed.

Yeah, especially if some stuff was stolen. Rome was big on punishment. And so Onesimus eventually made his way to Rome, where Paul is, just as we heard in the Book of Colossians, he's in prison.

He's under, at that point, would it have been under kind of his house arrest, where he'd have a Roman soldier chained to him?

Yeah, I mean, it's not house arrest like we think of house arrest, but that's what it would be, yeah.

Yeah, so you have Onesimus, he finds Paul, Paul leads Onesimus to Christ, and then he goes, okay, I know Philemon, now I know Onesimus.

They are now both brothers in Christ, but Onesimus strictly by what was legal, what was law at that time, could be in a lot of trouble if I just send him back to Philemon.

So he writes this letter to his friend Philemon, that's basically a call to Christian forgiveness in a way that was unheard of in the early Roman world.

Yeah.

So with that background, knowing some of those things, let's read those first seven verses.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our dear friend and co-worker, to Afia, our sister, to Archipas, our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your home.

Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and faith toward the Lord Jesus.

And for all the saints, I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.

For I have great joy and encouragement from your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. So, Pastor, Philemon, we've got those first seven verses. He starts it off saying, Philemon, I'm so thankful for you.

What do you read in these verses?

So, I think there's, I mean, again, there's a lot that stands out to it. So, I want to go back to our study in Colossians for just a second. Well, first, I'll say this.

I think a lot of Philemon's character stands out. So, that's what I want to highlight, that's what I think we can look into.

One of the characteristics that I think is great is that Philemon didn't just have his own personal relationship with the Lord, but he led his family to do the same thing. Yeah.

When you look at Apphia, some, and I haven't done a big study on that, but maybe a wife or a daughter. But archipos or archipos there that's listed as a fellow soldier, I think that Philemon helped start the church that met in his house.

Yeah.

But I think that archipos went on to be the pastor of the church at Colossae. I know I mentioned that last time, but in Colossians, Paul wrote to him, take heed of your ministry and what God's called you to.

So I think if archipos is Philemon's son, which we would probably lean that way. Could very well be.

Which I think from context there in verse 2, where it says, into the church that meets in your home, Greek word there would be singular. So if you have one of the older translations, you would have thy, which would be singular.

Okay, this is your home. And so all of those people would live in that one house.

So whether it's a son or a servant or whatever, but I think son. And so I, real quick, just one thing that stands out to me is that Philemon, when he and Epaphras got saved, they went back and made a difference in their closest relationships.

And that stands out to me because for the listener and those viewers, you know, the number one place that Christ should make a difference should be our own home. And I, you know, I've been in ministry my whole life, raised in ministry.

My dad was a pastor and grew up that way. And I just think it's heartbreaking. You know, I could take you to dozens and dozens of people my age that want nothing to do with God who grew up in ministry.

And the reason is because their parents didn't make it real at home. You know, I was in conversation with someone just recently. And they said, Dennis, I didn't have what you had growing up.

And they said these words. They said, growing up, I had an angry mom and a dad who was absent. And this is a pastor's kid.

And they said, you, whenever we would come over to your house or be around your family, me and my siblings would say, we wish we had what they had. Because my parents were, they weren't perfect, but they were real.

And I'm just, you know, I'm challenged with that. Being a pastor, raising kids. And I don't ever want my three or my wife to say, you preach that at church, but you don't live it.

You know, and honestly, there have been times where Hannah has said, hey, babe, like, you know, you said this, what are you, and I have to step back and apologize to my kids and say, hey, like, you know, and I'm not talking something crazy, you know,

but just just living that living with that awareness. Yeah, that's my closest relationship should be impacted by my relationship with Christ first. So that stands out to me. First off, I don't know.

There's more of what stands out to you.

Yeah, I think one thing that gets mentioned a bunch at the beginning. And so you have Philemon is referenced as a dear friend or dearly beloved.

You have down in verse number five, Paul hears of Philemon's love down in verse number seven, I have great joy and encouragement from your love that there is.

And we'll see that again and again and again, as we go further down through the book, that Christ's love means that we have a responsibility to love other people. And that goes, it's very countercultural.

Back then as now, nowadays, if someone does something wrong, you have an obligation to have anger and wrath and just a very vindictive attitude towards everyone.

This can be seen in a variety of areas, but kind of the cancel culture that we can see from a variety of ways is as much as you can, as soon as you can, like just dogpile onto people and be angry with them.

I saw it even the other day where a person that is very vocal about cancel culture in kind of one specific area was doing something that some of their followers, it was speaking at a conference that some of their followers went, but this other person

that is part of our cancel culture is speaking at that thing as well. So now we're going to cancel you for speaking at the same thing that someone else that we've canceled is just this overwhelming kind of anger.

And to that end, what I see in these verses is, God's love ought to permeate every portion of what we're doing. Are you looking up what some of those loves were?

No, no, no. Go ahead. I'm listening to you.

All right.

Good. So Christ's love should permeate everything that we do. We'll see later in the book how that plays out in one specific circumstance.

But I think it's a challenge of when people think of us, do they think of our love for other people? Yeah. We can be very well known for, hey, you know, they stand for truth.

They're really involved in making sure that people's work ethic is great. They're very involved in politics. They're very involved in any number of things.

But if we aren't known by our love, that's how Jesus, you know, told the disciples that by this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have love one to another.

Yeah.

And I think that was very evident in Philemon.

And I think to what's mentioned there, love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, your participation in the faith, the hearts of the saints have been refreshed, that there was a motivation on Philemon's part that the gospel wasn't

just going to reach him. It wasn't just going to reach those closest to him, like his family, but it was going to reach out to everybody. It was going, this is a group effort. Jesus is in me, but he doesn't just want to stay with me.

He wants to be in everyone around me. And so I'm going to do my part in showing that love, sharing the faith and helping and refreshing other people.

Yeah, it's those two words, love and faith, that are intermixed throughout that. What I was looking up is just verse number seven, when he says, I have a great joy and comfort in your love because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you.

And I just looking up that word, refreshed, it's an easy word. But I was like, I think I'm going to, this is going to be deeper. It means one of the meanings could be to give rest.

Yeah.

That's like really a deep thought.

Because you, the hearts of other believers have been given rest by you. Yeah. Like that's, to me, that's a really cool thing.

We've all been around people who they're, and this is maybe where I just kind of bring it into an application and close out, is we've all been around people who have provided just clear encouragement to us.

They're people that even though you're around them and you have conversation and you may be working, you leave that day, that conversation, and you're like, man, I just feel so good. They're such a blessing. They're so encouraging.

And that's what Philemon was. And he had reason, right? Number one, he had a relationship with God that affected not just him, but people around him, closest people around him.

He let love, God's love shine through him. The point you just looked at. He lived out his faith.

And all of those things combined caused him to be somebody that just people around him and left almost rested. Like, I was refreshed by you. And he says, all the hearts of the saints, Paul writes, everybody that you're around is encouraged by you.

So I think there would be maybe a challenge where we can wrap up today is just those maybe three thoughts. Number one, is my relationship with God, is it affecting me and impacting the relationship, closest relationships around me?

Number two, my love, my faith, excuse me, my love, my faith, is it real? Is it genuine? Is it something that would be commended in my life?

And then, and in that third part, I think really just kind of encapsulates everything is, you know, what, what type of Christianity am I living? Am I living out of a Christian life that people are encouraged by me? And are they refreshed?

Are they finding rest because of a good relationship with me? And I just, I think there's a great challenge in that thought right there.

This week, today is you and I go throughout our day and our week, are we living out of faith, a love, a relationship with Christ that, that other people are encouraged by and helped by? Yeah. And today, that'd be a good challenge.

So, I don't know, what are your last thoughts?

Yeah, I, I totally agree with that, with that last thought. It's kind of fun, the, the word there for, for hearts is the Greek splagiknon, which I remember because it just totally stuck out to me in Greek class.

The splagiknon, it's again, in some of the older translations, you'd have vowels, it's your innards, it's your innermost core.

So, how we would now use hearts, but it's the deepest parts of other people can be touched and refreshed and put to rest by what we do and say.

Which that's so cool because it means that we don't have to be, you know, Philemon wasn't necessarily the pastor at Colossi. And so he was just a person who was hospitable, who opened up his home so that others could come hear the gospel.

But his faith and love that he lived out meant that the very core of who other people were could have hope, could have rest. And so I think that brings comfort to you today. Like no matter who you are, you can encourage other people.

You can help them in their Christian walk. You can help them know you're forgiven. You are loved.

You have purpose. You have mission. And I think that can be just such a cool motivation for today.

Yeah, and how that happens is like, you just said something that made me think, like, how do we do that?

Yes. How it happens is by our demeanor with people, our words to people, the way by which we care for people. You know, we've talked about this often.

You can be in a conversation and someone's checked out, and you know it. And we've all been there. We've been on both sides of it.

But how encouraging is it when someone comes up to you and says, hey, Bryon, hey, how are you doing? And they wait for you to respond, and they're not waiting for you to ask them. They genuinely want to know, what's going on in your life?

And what can I pray for? And a friend texted me this morning, and he had seven things he listed out. And it said, how can I pray for you in these areas?

And it was like spiritual, physical, emotional, family, financial, you know? And I just thought, that's a real friend. Because I know this guy, and I know he loves me and he will pray for me.

So having that mindset, that it's not just this, okay, I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna refresh the innards of somebody today. But what does that look like? What is the legs to that look like?

And today it's by taking time for people. This week, genuine conversations with others, really praying for someone. So that's a great thought.

I love that. Yeah.

Refresh your splaggiknon.

Splaggiknon.

Splaggiknon for the day.

That's the word for the day. Splaggiknon. That's the title of this episode.

I love it.

Great. Well, we'll see you next week. And we will dive into the meat of Philemon.

Paul gets down to, there's his first part.

Don't tell him yet.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. You gotta, don't read the next verses. No, you can read them.

You can't just meditate on it, think on it. But thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next Monday.

All right. See you later.