{"id":81,"date":"2011-04-21T21:46:06","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T21:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/articles1\/?p=81"},"modified":"2014-10-21T14:06:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T14:06:50","slug":"help-for-todays-pastors-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/help-for-todays-pastors-part-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Help for Today’s Pastors Part IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edward Donnelly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reconciling Believers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us come to Philemon. Our subject this morning: reconciling believers. This is of course the shortest of all Paul\u2019s letters, 335 words in Greek. I find it intensely depressing that a new commentary on Philemon has just been published which is apparently over 560 pages. This is evangelical scholarship gone mad. I mean that brethren. That strikes me as quite absurd. Paul was satisfied with 335 words. <\/p>\n

He must have written many letters like this. Perhaps dozens or hundreds of letters like this were written by the apostle. This is the one the Holy Spirit has chosen to place within the Scripture. It is often neglected because it is so small. Lenski says, \u201cIt is the loveliest epistle written by Paul.\u201d1 Rabbi Duncan said, \u201cIt is the most gentlemanly letter ever written.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Context of the Letter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul writes from prison, probably in Rome, to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and the church meeting in their house in Colosse. Philemon is Paul\u2019s spiritual son. Apphia is probably his wife and Archippus their son. Archippus may well be leading the church at Colosse during the absence of Epaphras. <\/p>\n

A slave of Philemon has run away, a man called Onesimus. Apparently he has stolen some property or money from his master. He has found his way to Rome, somehow he has come in contact with Paul, and he has been converted through Paul\u2019s ministry; and he has been helping his spiritual father, in some way. Paul is now proposing to send Onesimus back to Philemon. He is going to go with Tychicus, who\u2019s carrying Colossians. The appropriate reference can be found in Colossians, Onesimus is mentioned there also. <\/p>\n

This little letter is simply to pave the way for this runaway slave to be received back into his master\u2019s household; that\u2019s why Paul\u2019s writing. So, he is dealing with quite a complex, pastoral problem. It involves two believers, Philemon and Onesimus; and they are at odds with each other. There is something between them, and they need to be reconciled. Philemon has been wronged: he has been robbed. He has a legitimate grievance against Onesimus. Onesimus has been in the wrong, but he is now a new creature in Christ. Surely that must make a considerable difference to their relationship; and yet this may well be the first that Philemon has heard of Onesimus\u2019 conversion. <\/p>\n

Six Characteristics of Paul\u2019s Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

So how are these two men going to relate to each other? What will be the basis of their new relationship? They are master and slave. One has wronged the other. They are also now brothers in Christ. How are they going to live together in the fellowship of the church? <\/p>\n

I am not going to attempt an exegesis of the letter, but I want to look at it from a pastoral perspective and ask: what can we learn about shepherding people from the way in which Paul handles this particular case? This is a unique example we have to watch this pastor at work. Here is a case study dealing with two, real Christian people, and the pastor is dealing with the situation. It is surely valuable for us to sit beside this pastor, and watch him working with these people. What can we learn for our pastoral responsibilities? The implications of course are wider. <\/p>\n

A Positive Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us begin with one or two preliminary points. We note first that Paul\u2019s approach is positive. In other words, he does something about the situation. He takes action. The very existence of the letter is a witness to the importance Paul gave to this matter. Here is this great apostle. He has the burdens of many churches on his shoulders. He has lots of things to think about. He has great responsibilities. There are problems in the Colossian church. There is a heresy coming in, and he has to deal with that. He has all these matters to deal with; and yet what is he doing? I would suggest he is spending a large amount of time, effort, prayer and thought, resolving a difference between two individual believers. <\/p>\n

It would have been so easy for Paul to avoid the whole issue. It doesn\u2019t need to be dealt with in a sense. Philemon is in Colosse and Onesimus is in Rome. There are hundreds of miles between them. He could just simply have written to Philemon and said, \u201cYou\u2019ll be pleased to know that Onesimus has been converted. He\u2019s very useful to me, and I\u2019m going to keep him here to help me.\u201d Yet Paul apparently considers it vital that the relationship of these men be restored. He is not willing to let things drift, and he is not willing to leave it simply up to them. He does not say, \u201cWell now Onesimus, you\u2019re a Christian, you two go on home, and you and Philemon settle it between you.\u201d It is his responsibility as the pastor to do something about it. <\/p>\n

Now normally we don\u2019t go around looking for pastoral problems to solve. We don\u2019t wake up in the morning and say, \u201cWhat pastoral prob\u2026\u201d They usually come upon us unbidden. Issues arise, they claim our attention, and we can\u2019t ignore them; we have to deal with them. And you might think, \u201cWell, we have enough issues that we have to deal with without going around looking for issues to deal with.\u201d And so, we can tend to accept these sort of things as an unfortunate fact of life: \u201cIt\u2019s part of human nature. There are some people in our church that don\u2019t get along with each other. I have lots of other things to do. It\u2019s not causing much trouble in the fellowship at the moment. I hope they get it sorted out soon.\u201d <\/p>\n

Paul teaches us to apply different standards. He feels that it is a monstrous thing, that two followers of Jesus Christ should be estranged from each other. He feels the pain of it. He feels the damage it could do to the integrity of the church. We need to learn from him and see that it is our responsibility to become involved. Paul\u2019s approach is positive. <\/p>\n

A Credible Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secondly, Paul\u2019s approach is credible. One of the sub-themes of this letter is that Paul himself is in prison. In verse 1 he says, \u201c\u2026a prisoner of Jesus Christ\u2026\u201d Verse 9: \u201c\u2026now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ\u2026\u201d Verse 10: \u201c\u2026Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains\u2026\u201d Verse 13: \u201c\u2026in chains for the gospel.\u201d Verse 23: \u201cEpaphras, my fellow prisoner\u2026\u201d There are many, many references in a very short letter to his imprisonment. Why does he do this? <\/p>\n

Some respected commentators suggest that he is aiming at pathos. Lightfoot says, \u201cHow could Philemon resist an appeal penned within prison walls by a manacled hand?\u201d2 In other words that Philemon would feel sorry for Paul, and would then be likely to accede to his request. I think it is much more likely that Paul is reminding Philemon that he himself knows what it is to suffer for Christ. He is asking hard things of these men. He is asking Philemon to surrender his legal rights. He is asking him to sacrifice his pride. He is asking Onesimus to give up his freedom, and to return home at great risk to himself. And so he is saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t accuse me of glibness. I know that it costs to follow Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n

H. M. Carson comments, \u201cHere is a principle involved in any true pastoral work. The pastor can only appeal to his people for self-sacrifice and discipline if he knows the meaning of discipline in his own life. Otherwise, his call is empty and lifeless.\u201d3 So here is a man who suffers for Christ. And he is reminding Philemon of that, so that when he asks Philemon to do hard things, and when he asks Onesimus to do hard things, they know that he does hard things. <\/p>\n

Brethren, that is the challenge to us in our ministry. We cannot ask our people to live by a standard that we do not in great measure exemplify. We need to be able to say to them, \u201cI, too, am a man under authority.\u201d We need to watch our personal relationships. We need to watch against the flash of temper, the spirit of resentment, the attitude of pride. When we are corrected, can we take it? When we are criticized, can we take it? Can we forgive? Do we show a humble spirit? There is no point in expecting our people to live by standards that we are not prepared to live by. And so Paul, when he urges this among these men, has credibility and authority because he has exemplified it in his own life. <\/p>\n

A Tactful Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thirdly, Paul\u2019s approach is tactful. The commentators all remark on the skill with which this letter is composed. It is a very, very clever, subtle, persuasive piece of writing; not only in the argument and the way that the argument is built,\u2014we will look at that in a moment\u2014but in Paul\u2019s actual Greek style, his choice of words, and in the actual position in the sentence in which he puts individual words. <\/p>\n

Let me give one or two obvious examples to give the flavor. He relieves the rather fraught situation with gentle humor. The Greek word Onesimus means \u201cuseful.\u201d Remember the play on words in verse 11. He is talking about sending back \u201cuseful,\u201d and he says, \u201cFormerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to me. He didn\u2019t really used to be an Onesimus, but now he is an Onesimus.\u201d What is interesting is the words he uses for useless and useful. Useless is \u201cachre\u0304stos\u201d (\u03b1\u0313\u0301\u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2), spelt with an eta, not an iota; \u201cachre\u0304stos\u201d: useless. Useful is \u201ceuchre\u0304stos\u201d (\u03b5\u03c5\u0313\u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2), useful. So, he is playing with the word Onesimus. Onesimus means useful. He used to be \u201cachre\u0304stos,\u201d useless; he is now \u201ceuchre\u0304stos,\u201d useful. <\/p>\n

But those two Greek words sound exactly the same, as words which would mean \u201coutside Christ or without Christ,\u201d or \u201cwell with Christ,\u201d if it were spelt with an iota, instead of an eta. He used to be \u201cachre\u0304stos\u201d; he used to be useless, and he used to be without Christ. But now, he is \u201ceuchre\u0304stos\u201d; he is useful, and it is well with him and Christ. <\/p>\n

There are many other such puns. In verse 20 he says, \u201cI want some benefit from you\u201d; the verb is \u201conine\u0304mi\u201d (\u03bf\u0313\u03bd\u03b9\u0301\u03bd\u03b7\u03bc\u03b9). It is almost identical with the word Onesimus. It is an unusual word, and Paul is striking the verbal echoes. There is enough to show us that, in the words of one commentator, \u201cthis is a carefully crafted and sensitively worded piece.\u201d I ask you brethren, are our pastoral conversations with our people carefully crafted and sensitively worded? Is it not true that we often give attention to what we need to say, but we give comparatively little attention as to exactly how we are going to say it? We may even suspect that sort of thing as playing with words, rhetoric. \u201cI\u2019m a blunt sort of fellow. I call a spade a spade. I tell it like it is.\u201d But the apostle took great pains to express himself as persuasively as possible. <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t resist giving you a couple more examples. In verse 7, he leaves to the end, right out of place, the word \u201cbrother\u201d: \u201cFor I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.\u201d Do you see the power of it? He is thinking. <\/p>\n

People say, \u201cIt\u2019s what we say that\u2019s important, not how we say it.\u201d But Paul is concerned. He is supremely concerned with content, and that is precisely why he is concerned with how he says it. It is because what we say is important that we have to say it in the best possible way. Isn\u2019t that basically the argument of Dabney\u2019s, Sacred Rhetoric? Isn\u2019t that what Dabney is saying? We have to pay attention to how we say things. <\/p>\n

So in the pastoral work, when you are going to visit someone on a difficult issue, you have to sit down beforehand for an hour and you have to put yourself in their shoes, in their position. Imagine yourself walking into their house with your bible in your hand to deal with them about their sin, and if you were they, what would appeal to you? What would impress you? How would you want to be spoken to? All too often we go blundering in, and then when we have pastoral problems made worse, we say, \u201cWell that was because I was faithful.\u201d Well maybe it was because I was clumsy, or inept, or said things the wrong way. <\/p>\n

And here is this great apostle, dealing with this piffling, little incident\u2014two little nobodies. And I imagine him, whether rightly or wrongly,\u2014and I think it is congruent with the inspiration of the Spirit\u2014making drafts of this, and working at it, and changing it, and laboring over how he is going to say what he has to say. \u201cNo, I\u2019ll not say or put that word there\u2026\u201d It is to say it in the best way he can say it. Would that not help us in our pastoral work, if we tried to develop this sensitivity and tact? \u201cI\u2019ve something hard to say, but God if they\u2019re going to be offended, let them be offended at what I\u2019m saying and not at the stupid, insensitive way I say it.\u201d Paul\u2019s approach is tactful. <\/p>\n

A Christological Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now we come to the body of our study. Paul\u2019s approach is Christological; and this brings us to the basis for pastoral work. The basis for pastoral work is not psychological insights, it is not common sense,\u2014valuable though these may be\u2014it is theology; and specifically the person, work, and present activity of Christ in His body. Paul exercised a Christ-shaped ministry. I think the key verse in the letter is verse 6, where he says that, \u201c\u2026the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you\u201d \u2014or in us\u2014\u201cin Christ Jesus.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is a piece of very difficult Greek, and it is hard to translate; the versions differ. I want to stress that the most important word in the verse, and I think in the epistle, is the word \u201ckoino\u0304nia\u201d (\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03b9\u0301\u03b1). It means fellowship, and sharing. But brethren, I want to put before you that it means much more than that. It means, literally, a commonality. The Latin word would be \u201ccommunio.\u201d It means mutual participation. It means interchange. And I would paraphrase verse 6 as something like this: \u201c\u2026making mention of you in my prayers\u201d \u2014and here is the key phrase\u2014\u201c\u2026that the mutual participation\u201d\u2014that the interchange, the \u201ckoino\u0304nia\u201d\u2014\u201cwhich is appropriate to your faith, may become effective\u2026\u201d \u201cI want the \u2018koino\u0304nia\u2019 to become effective Philemon.\u201d That is Paul\u2019s goal. That is what this letter is about: the \u201ckoino\u0304nia\u201d becoming effective. What does he mean? Let us try to unpack it. <\/p>\n

In Christ we are one body; we are joined to Him, and we are therefore joined to each other. And at the very heart of our salvation is a \u201ckoino\u0304nia,\u201d a union, a mutuality, an interchange. We have received from Him and He has received from us. There has been an interchange. He has taken from us our sin and He has given to us His righteousness, what Luther called \u201cthe wondrous exchange.\u201d And that is at the very heart of our Christian living, this exchange, this sharing. \u201cAnd this \u2018koino\u0304nia\u2019 must,\u201d says Paul, \u201cpenetrate every relationship in the body\u201d; not only with the head but with every member. <\/p>\n

Let me try to show you how Paul works it out in a concrete situation. First of all, in verses 1-7 he identifies himself closely with Philemon. He puts his hand on Philemon. He says, \u201cI love you. I respect you. I honor you.\u201d \u201cBeloved fellow laborer\u201d: verse 1. He prays for Philemon. He thanks God for Philemon: verse 4. He hears of Philemon\u2019s faith and love: verse 5. In verse 6 some recent act of love in refreshing the hearts of the saints has brought Paul joy. He identifies himself with Philemon. In verses 10-16 he identifies himself with Onesimus. \u201c\u2026my son, whom I have begotten in my chains\u201d: verse 10. Verse 11: \u201c\u2026who now is profitable to me.\u201d In verse 12 he says, \u201c\u2026my own heart\u201d. Verse 13: \u201cwhom I wished to keep with me\u2026\u201d Verse 16: \u201c\u2026a beloved brother, especially to me\u2026\u201d He identifies with Philemon, and he identifies with Onesimus. <\/p>\n

Pastoral Influence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me step aside for a moment at this point. There is no doubt that you men often suffer from stress in the ministry; and there is a piece of advice I can give you, which I think will remove a lot of stress from you ministry: Don\u2019t get too close to your people. Keep a distance between yourself. Cultivate a degree of professionalism. Don\u2019t open yourself to them too much. And as we heard the other day, \u201cYour ministry is over.\u201d <\/p>\n

Because what comes out here is that the key principal in Paul\u2019s pastoral work is: influence depends on relationship. He has developed close, deep, strong friendships with these men. And when he talks about them, he uses terms of passion and intimacy; and they can hear them without laughing. \u201c\u2026my own heart\u201d, he says. That is how he describes one of his people: \u201c\u2018\u2026my own heart\u2026a beloved brother, especially to me…\u2019 I love you brother.\u201d This gives him their hearts. This opens the door for his influence to enter their lives. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it is easy for those who are younger men especially to depend purely on our status for our influence: \u201cI am the pastor. I should have influence with the people.\u201d Well theoretically that is quite true. You are the pastor and you should have influence with the people. We can hide our shyness, insecurity, and deficiencies under a cloak of professionalism, and keep people at a distance. That is very easy in the ecclesiastical culture in which we live; it is very easy from a \u201creformed\u201d view of the ministry: \u201cI am the preacher. I haven\u2019t time to get in and out\u2026I have to be in my study preparing.\u201d It\u2019s a far more comfortable way to live than Paul\u2019s vulnerable openness. But what do we lose? We lose any real influence over people. Influence depends, practically speaking, on relationships. <\/p>\n

Paul\u2019s Argument<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us get back to the argument. Paul identifies himself with Philemon; Paul identifies himself with Onesimus; and so Philemon and Onesimus are reconciled in Paul. His argument is this: the welcome that Philemon would have given Paul, he should now give to Onesimus. He says, \u201cPhilemon, you love me. And I want to tell you that Onesimus has become part of me. If you love me, you\u2019ve got to love him, because he\u2019s my brother. There has been an interchange. You can\u2019t have me without him.\u201d And probably if we could know what he said to Onesimus, I would guess he said the same thing. Onesimus might have said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to go back home to Colosse.\u201d But Paul would say, \u201cOnesimus, you love me. I love Philemon. You can\u2019t have me without Philemon.\u201d Look at verse 17: \u201cIf you count me as a partner\u201d\u2014\u201ckoino\u0304nos\u201d (\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd\u03bf\u0301\u03c2). \u201cIf you count me as a \u2018koino\u0304nos,\u2019 receive him as you would receive me.\u201d <\/p>\n

The basis is this \u201ckoino\u0304nia,\u201d this mutual participation in the body of Christ. It is a package deal. You can\u2019t have a relationship with part of the body of Christ, or certain sections of the body of Christ. If you are in the body there is a \u201ckoino\u0304nia,\u201d there is an interchange, there is a relationship. There are no exemptions allowed. Paul appeals to the strength of his relationship with Philemon, and then he enlists all that strength in favor of Onesimus. Do you see what he does? He takes it out of his bank account and puts it into Onesimus\u2019 bank account. Look at his triple use of heart: verses 7, 12, and 20. Verse 7: \u201c\u2026the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.\u201d \u201cBrother, that\u2019s what you like to do. You like to refresh the hearts of the saints, don\u2019t you?\u201d Verse 12: \u201c\u2018\u2026receive him, that is, my own heart.\u2019 Philemon if you want to refresh the heart of this saint I\u2019ll tell you how to do it.\u201d Verse 20: \u201cRefresh my heart in the Lord.\u201d Paul is going deep down to the essence of the body of Christ. <\/p>\n

The Person and Work of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

That brings us to an even more profound structure in Paul\u2019s thinking: the person and work of Christ. Why is the church as she is? Why is there this \u201ckoino\u0304nia?\u201d It is because she is the body of Christ, shaped by Him in her very essence. And brethren, I will acknowledge to you that with this point I am struggling. Not in the sense that I have any questions about what I am about to say to you, but I am beginning to glimpse vistas of ecclesiology that are certainly new to me, and I\u2019m wondering, are there things that the Spirit is going to show us that I, for one, have never understood or grasped? The church is shaped by Christ in her very essence. You will have noted the soteriological echoes of that marvelous verse 18. It seems to take us back to the counsels of eternity, to the throne room of God, as if we are hearing God the Son speaking to God the Father about the covenant of redemption. \u201cIf he has wronged you, or owes you anything, put that on my account. If he owes you anything, I\u2019ll pay it.\u201d It is not accidental that this is the way Paul is thinking and working. He is reconciling these two men. They are estranged from each other. There is a difference between them, and he identifies closely with them both, with the offended party and with the guilty party. He puts his hand on the offended party and on the guilty party, and he mediates between them. He says to Philemon, \u201cPhilemon, I have a certain righteousness in your eyes. You honor me. You love me. You respect me. I have a righteousness in your eyes; and I\u2019m taking my righteousness and I\u2019m imputing it to Onesimus. I\u2019m giving all my righteousness to him. And I want you to regard Onesimus as if he were me, because he is me. He\u2019s my heart.\u201d Do you see what he is doing? <\/p>\n

And Onesimus admits that he has an indebtedness towards Philemon. He has wronged him. He has injured him. Paul takes that indebtedness and he says, \u201cPhilemon, I\u2019ll pay it.\u201d He gives his righteousness to Onesimus, and he takes Onesimus\u2019 obligation upon himself. He asks Philemon to deal with Onesimus in the light of this interchange, this commonality. Old Martin Luther understands Philemon better than any modern commentator\u2014and I\u2019ll guarantee better than 560 pages. Listen to what Luther says:<\/p>\n

Here we see how Paul layeth himself out for poor Onesimus, and with all his means pleadeth his cause with his master, and so setteth himself as if he were Onesimus, and he had himself done wrong to Philemon. Even as Christ did for us with God the Father, thus also doth Paul for Onesimus with Philemon. <\/p>\n

Luther says, \u201cWe are all Onesimi, to my thinking.\u201d Here we see the person and work of Christ. <\/p>\n

Three Guiding Principles<\/strong><\/p>\n

How should we apply this to our pastoral work? Well certainly not mechanically. We are not likely to find ourselves in the same sort of situation, but let me briefly mention three important guiding principles. Christ reminds us of the importance of reconciliation. He came to reconcile us to God, to bring us together, to make us one; and His church is to be a living demonstration of that reconciliation. My brethren, we should hate and fear splits and division. We should loathe them. We should dread them. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s what haunts me. That\u2019s my nightmare: that my congregation may be divided. I see the devil, round and round, looking for a split. He\u2019s prowling around, looking for a chink. \u201cI\u2019ll separate some of these people from the others. I\u2019ll get in among them.\u201d <\/p>\n

And if we can\u2019t be reconciled to each other, what message do we have? What can we say to the world? Schaeffer said, \u201cLove is the final apologetic.\u201d \u201cBy this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another\u201d (John 13:35) [emphasis added]. Christ reminds us of the importance of reconciliation. <\/p>\n

Secondly, Christ provides us with the dynamic of reconciliation. What is the dynamic? It is the experience of salvation wrought into our beings. We are forgiven people. We have been redeemed. And when we urge our people to be reconciled with one another, we are urging them to act in conformity with that which has happened to them on the most profound level of their being. \u201cForgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors\u201d (Mat. 6:12). And when you go among your people who are estranged from each other, it\u2019s not just about the credibility of the church, it\u2019s not \u201cwhat people should think,\u201d it\u2019s not to make life happier in the fellowship. No. God forgave you, guilty sinner that you are. Are you going to forgive this brother or sister? Are you going to be reconciled with them? Because if you are not, how are you going to say your prayers tonight? It\u2019s as basic as that. And we can hope and pray that if they are true Christian people, when they go on their knees and ask for forgiveness, the Holy Spirit will say to them, \u201cYes, but you must forgive.\u201d <\/p>\n

And thirdly, Christ provides us with the pattern of reconciliation. We talk about a \u201cChrist-like\u201d ministry. By that we usually mean kind, pure, loving, patient\u2014all that\u2019s valid. But I think there is a more basic Christ-like ministry because we see that Paul here identifies with both parties, and he puts himself into the equation. He uses his own credit with these men. He says, \u201cDo it for my sake.\u201d And if you do that, you are going to get really, badly hurt. But I think that is a Christ-like ministry. Not at arm\u2019s length, get right into the situation, and become part of the situation. I leave that with you to think over. Paul\u2019s approach is Christological. <\/p>\n

A Liberating Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fifthly, Paul\u2019s approach is liberating. He never actually spells out what he wants Philemon to do, and that has caused comical and dogmatic differences among the commentators. Is Philemon meant to set Onesimus free? Is he meant to send him back to Rome? Is he meant to take him back as a slave? We are not told, and perhaps that\u2019s the whole point. Paul is treating Philemon as a responsible human being. <\/p>\n

He says, \u201cPhilemon, I could use my apostolic authority with you.\u201d Verse 8: \u201cI might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting.\u201d He says, \u201cI could tell you what I want you to do, but I\u2019m not going to tell you. I\u2019m not going to command you. I\u2019m not going to use my apostolic authority.\u201d Why not? Because he has a pastoral concern for Philemon, and he wants this to be a process of growth for Philemon. He could give Philemon an order and Philemon could obey, but he would not grow through that. Paul says, \u201cPhilemon, this is a complex situation. There\u2019s no clear, right answer here. I want you to think this through for yourself. I want you to face the issues. I\u2019m setting out the facts of the case and I want you to work through the conclusion which God would have you reach.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now we react a bit against this, I suppose. We think it sounds a bit Rogerian or a bit relativistic, but Paul wants Philemon to grow up. He wants him to mature. He wants the mind of Christ to be developed in him. He wants him to consciously reflect: \u201cwhat does the Lord want me to do?\u201d Look at verse 14: \u201c\u2026without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.\u201d And I would speculate that perhaps the final decision is not as important to Paul as the process through which Philemon passes to reach that decision. And ultimately it is not so important whether Onesimus stays a slave, or is set free, or is sent back to Rome, as that Philemon forgives him and embraces him and treats him as a human being. <\/p>\n

Brothers is this not our real pastoral purpose? It is to develop maturity in our people, to free them from our apron strings, to encourage them to depend on Christ alone. Many evangelicals want a little pope, and many pastors are happy to apply for the post. In some respects it is much easier. When I look at these zombies in the cults I sometimes think, \u201cI wish I could have a few zombies.\u201d Just people who would do whatever I would say, without any question or discussion whatsoever! <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not what we are at. If you want your child to cross the road safely, the simplest, quickest way is to take her across by yourself. The only thing is that you have to keep doing that for the rest of your life. A better way would be to teach her to cross the road safely by herself, and when she has done that she has something. <\/p>\n

And I would suggest to you that the fact that this letter is preserved in Scripture suggests to us that Philemon reached a good decision. It is interesting to me that Ignatius, writing at the start of the second century, mentions a bishop of Ephesus named Onesimus. Is it the same man? We would like to think so. <\/p>\n

I would say brethren, if we treat our people as kings and priests, they will often pleasantly surprise us. The Spirit of God is in them, and He is guiding them. We don\u2019t need to fanatically watch over them and in a paranoid way think, \u201cIf my hand\u2019s not on them, they\u2019ll go wrong.\u201d That is nonsense. They are Christ\u2019s sheep. Paul\u2019s approach here is liberating. <\/p>\n

A Realistic Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n

And lastly, Paul\u2019s approach is realistic. One of the vexed questions in this little letter is asked by modernists: why does Paul not just write a one-sentence letter? Why doesn\u2019t he just say, \u201cPhilemon, keeping slaves is wrong\u201d \u2014or\u2014\u201cSet Onesimus free and don\u2019t ever keep slaves again\u201d? Why does he not launch a wholesale attack on slavery? Just tell Philemon to set Onesimus free, end of story. How do we answer that? <\/p>\n

I want to be careful when I say this. I hope you won\u2019t misunderstand me. I think it is probably true to say that first century slavery was not as hideous or as evil as we sentimental modernists like to think. I hope I am not offending anyone in saying that. I am not minimizing the awfulness of owning a human being. But the fact of the matter is that many slaves were well-cared for and well-treated. They were provided with a home, work, shelter, and clothing. There was no social security in those days. There were no safety nets. People were starving to death. And perhaps Paul is seeing this in context. <\/p>\n

Others argue from a pragmatic point of view. Derek Tidball in his Introduction to the Sociology of the New Testament says that it simply was not pragmatically possible to argue for the abolition of slavery then, as much as Paul would have liked to. He pictures Paul as saying, \u201cI wish I could argue for the abolition of slavery, but there would be wholesale starvation, no employment, and no housing for these people. It\u2019s just not a practical necessity.\u201d I don\u2019t feel happy with either of those reasons. <\/p>\n

I think the answer is to be found in Paul\u2019s pastoral realism where back in 1 Corinthians 7, where back in the \u201cnot yet,\u201d Paul is very aware of the stage of redemptive history in which he is called to minister. The fact is we do not live in a perfect world. We live in a fallen world, and we have to live and suffer in an evil world system. In this world people are going to exploit their fellow men, and they are going to oppress their fellow men. We cannot escape from social structures that are being unjust and unequal. We are called to change that situation. <\/p>\n

But how do we change that situation? Paul would say to us, \u201cWe do not change it by grandiose schemes of public reform. We do not change it by high flown, idealistic rhetoric. We do not change it by great schemes, by rhetorical denunciations of evil. We change it by living the life of the new age in our homes and in our families and in our churches, piece by piece and bit by bit and stage by stage.\u201d Paul aims to change the world by appealing to two men in a little house church in Phrygia\u2026and he did change the world. Where is slavery now? <\/p>\n

Biblical Realism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brethren, we need this biblical realism. It will keep us from heartbreak, from discouragement, and from depression. There is no point in having unattainable ideals. We are serious men and we have work to do for God. We are not dreamers, we are not visionaries. You and I have to go out tomorrow into our churches and do it. There is no point in me living in the never-never land. There is no point in fancy rhetoric that sounds good to our audiences and shows how noble and spiritual we are. What does it accomplish? It doesn\u2019t accomplish anything. Some of the people who have most bitterly denounced slavery in history have done absolutely nothing. In fact, they have exacerbated the situation; they have made it worse. They have, in effect, proved themselves as selfish and cruel and wicked as the system they denounced. It was mouthing off. <\/p>\n

We need to be willing to work in an imperfect situation; in an untidy, messy, confused situation. We need to accept that there are gray areas. I didn\u2019t used to think there were. I thought there was only black and white; and now many is a night when I go to bed and say, \u201cLord, I may have done the wrong thing today. I may have made the wrong decision today. But Lord, you know my heart. I tried my best, and if I\u2019ve been wrong, overrule and forgive it.\u201d We need to set limited goals. <\/p>\n

I was helped by something that William Still once wrote. He said:<\/p>\n

When some of the Lord\u2019s people are saved they\u2019re very odd, and they stay very odd all their lives; and they\u2019re very odd when they die. When they\u2019re in glory no doubt they\u2019ll not be odd anymore, but you\u2019ll never straighten them out. <\/p>\n

That may sound defeatist. I think it is realistic. <\/p>\n

There are some people that we are not going to be able to help much. That doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t try, but we have to be realistic. There are some people who have just been so crippled and damaged that all we can do is love them, put our arms around them, and help them along, and be thankful for every little bit of encouragement we get. That is the way to sanity. Here is this realistic man who wants to help, who wants to make a difference. <\/p>\n

I find this enormously encouraging; because the fact of the matter is that most of us pastors will spend our lives in the backwaters. Brethren, you and I at times we will be overwhelmed by a sense of futility at the limited scale of the work we are doing; and the devil will come to us and say, \u201cHere you are, with a couple of college degrees, and all your experience, and all your ability, studying, working, preaching deeper, better, more biblical sermons than 99% of men who call themselves ministers, and you\u2019re preaching to 30 people, week after week, in the back of beyond\u2014nowhere. What are you doing with your life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Men, we are not going back to the mountain tops when we return to our churches. We are going back to the nitty-gritty. Here we have one of the greatest and most gifted human beings who ever lived; a genius. And what is he doing? He is trying to fix a relationship between two anonymous little nobodies. How big an accomplishment is that? Well, maybe it is bigger than we think. Jesus says that the gift of a cup of cold water will be remembered to all eternity, and there is joy in the angels of heaven for one sinner who repents. Let us get back to the Philemons and the Onesimi. Let us do the pieces of work God has given us to do. Amen. <\/p>\n

Let us pray:<\/p>\n

Father, your servant Paul was taken up to the third heaven. He had vistas of your glory and majesty. He had a genius and a power which outstrips ours like the sun a candle. He was a man of such gifts and talents. We have seen him here in this study, trying to bring two people together, and happy to do it. Lord, who are we that we should turn up our noses at any piece of work which you should give to our hands? So, each of us here thank you today. We thank you now from the bottom of our hearts for our churches, and our people: our silly, unreliable, irritating, straying people; and all the confused situations we have to work in. We thank you oh God that you have preserved us from the perils of greatness; that it has been given to us to give cups of cold water and to bring the sinners by ones and twos into the kingdom. Lord, if we can bring one sinner to heaven, our whole lives will be worthwhile. Help us then, to be good pastors of the sheep you love, for Jesus\u2019 sake. Amen.<\/p>\n

1. Richard C. H. Lenski, Interpretation of St Paul\u2019s Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Augsburg Fortress, 2008, pp. 974
\n 2. Joseph B. Lightfoot, St Paul\u2019s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: A Revised Text with Introductions, Notes, and Dissertations, Macmillan, 1880, pp. 333
\n 3. Herbert M. Carson, The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians and Philemon, Eerdmans, 1983, pp. 104<\/p>\n

Posted with Permission. All Rights Reserved. <\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edward Donnelly Reconciling Believers Let us come to Philemon. Our subject this morning: reconciling believers. This is of course the shortest of all Paul\u2019s letters, 335 words in Greek. I find it intensely depressing that a new commentary on Philemon has just been published which is apparently over 560 pages. This is evangelical scholarship gone … Continue reading Help for Today’s Pastors Part IV<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-help-for-todays-pastors","tag-edward-donnelly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heraldofgrace.org\/biblicalexpositions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}