The Book of Philemon is a radical book that the Holy Spirit inspired to be in the Bible. The reason is that the book of Philemon has one main idea... Forgiveness! Forgiveness is easy to talk about, but difficult to implement into the life of a believer. However, the Holy
Spirit must have thought that this is an important issue or He would not have had an entire book of the Bible devoted to forgiveness. Let's talk define forgiveness and its usage in the Bible, we will have a
Christo-logical understanding of forgiveness, and then we will walk through the book of Philemon.
The word forgave (5 times) in the Bible, forgive (48 times), forgiven (45 times), forgiveness (18 times), forgive (2 times) and forgiving (6 times). This is used with 126 direct references and many more indirect references to forgiveness and forgiving in the Bible (358-359)1.
The Old Testament had a few common Hebrew words for forgiveness:
1. Hanan=To Show Mercy.
2. Kasa= To cover, conceal, hide and protect.
3. Nasa=To lift, to bear and to help carry.
4. Salah= To pardon or release.
The New Testament also had a few common Greek words for forgiveness:
1. Aphiemi=To leave, to allow, to divorce and to abandon.
2. Charizomai= (From the word Charis=Grace) To forgive graciously.
3. Aphesis (noun form of Aphiemi)= Idea is forgiveness of all sin in one occurrence.
4. Apolyo= To let go, release or to send out.
In the book of Philemon, this word is not used at all. Forgiveness is the the thread that weaves in and out of the entire book! Forgiveness is a Gospel term. It finds its root in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ! It is flat out impossible to understand what forgiveness is without understanding the profundity of the forgiveness given at the Cross!
Forgiveness is closely related to the grace of the gospel. For this setting, let's define grace as the "heartbeat" of the gospel. Without grace the gospel would be heartless and lifeless. The same is with forgiveness. Without grace forgiveness would be heartless and lifeless.
Forgiveness is rooted in grace! Grace is the a gift from God almighty (Ephesians 2:8-10). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus slams the Jewish culture with the Beatitudes and in Matthew 5:2-12 with a picture of Vertical (God and Man) and Horizontal (Man to Man) forgiveness. Jewish culture is rooted in pride. It is like, I have it all together and I would never stoop to give or receive forgiveness. Jesus confronts the culture by giving the Jewish people the Kingdom message of forgiveness.
The truth is that we are just like the early Jewish culture. We do not spread the Kingdom message of forgiveness to a lost and dieing world. Even worse than that, we do not spread the Kingdom message of forgiveness in the Church of Jesus Christ. R. Albert Mohler states, Civilizations thrives when individuals and groups seek to minimize unnecessary offendedness, while recognizing that some degree of real or perceived offendedness is the cost the society must pay for the right to enjoy the fee exchange of ideas and the freedom to speak one's mind (32)2. His point is that we are too easily offended and it is stunting our growth as a society. This is certainly true when it comes to the Christian society. Francis Schaeffer was right when he said, The spirit of the age is the spirit of the church.3 When it comes to forgiveness, the church should be all over that. However, churches are splitting left and right over just about anything. I once served at a church where a family left the church due to the color that the kitchen was painted. This kind of thinking has pervaded the doctrine of forgiveness and has made the church of Jesus Christ out on the whole forgiveness thing. That is why under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul wrote Philemon. So, let's get the background of the text, literary value of the text and then exegete the text.
Philemon was written around A.D. 60-62, about thirty years past the death of Jesus Christ. It has one chapter and 25 verses, it only has 334 words in the Greek text thus to note that it is the Apostle Paul's most brief letter. The Author was the Apostle Paul. The recipient of the letter was Philemon a leader of the church in Colassae (Colossians 4:9). He had a church which met in his house (2). Philemon had been saved under Paul's ministry (19), he was most likely doing OK in the Benjamin Department, do to the fact that he had a home large enough to have a church and slaves.
There are three key people in the letter to Philemon:
1. Onesimus=Someone who needs forgiveness.
2. Philemon= Someone who needs to forgive.
3. Paul= Someone needing to encourage forgiveness
There are three key doctrines and themes in the letter to Philemon:
1. Forgiveness
2. Equality in the Person of Jesus Christ
3. Biblical Community
God in the letter to Philemon:
1. God is a forgiving God (16-17).
2. God is not a God of partiality (16).
Christ in the letter to Philemon:
1. Paul is a picture of Christ, in that he acts as a mediator (II Corinthians 5:17-21).
The Holy Spirit in the letter to Philemon:
1. The aim of the letter is trying to picture a Triune relationship as in relating to one another (Philippians 2:1-11, Ephesians 5:21).
Outline of the letter:
1. Hey what's up? (1-3)
a. Hello (1).
b. Brother in Christ (2).
c. The Heartbeat of the Gospel (3).
2. The application of the Gospel. (4-7)
a. Biblical Community of the Gospel (4-6).
b. Refreshment from the Gospel (7).
3. Here is the point. Get it right!!! (8-25)
a. Getting it right by an appeal through love (8-12).
b. Getting it right by an appeal of equality (13-20).
c. Getting it right by an appeal of confident obedience (21-25).
Literary value of the book of Philemon is called a return story. A return story in which individuals or groups return to a place from which they have been absent. The return is so often accompanied with a sense of restoration of what had been lost.
Literary Intentions:
1. Enables us to see what the Christian Gospel and the Christian Morality looks like in a real-life difficult situation.
2. Displays the rhetorical persuasive skill of the Apostle Paul.
3. Gripped with a dramatic force of the situation.
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1.William D. Mounce, "The Crossway Comprehensive Concordance of the Holy Bible English Standard Version," Copyright @ 2002 by Crossway Books, a Division of Good News Publishers, 1300 Crescent Street, Wheaton, Illinois, 60187.
2. R. Albert Mohler Jr., "Culture Shift" Copyright @ 2008 by Multnomah Books, 12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80921.
3. Francis Schaeffer, Heard quoted at Straight Up Pastor's conference in 2004.
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Other sources consulted:
1. Leland Ryken, Philip Graham Ryken and James Wilhoit, "Ryken's Bible Handbook," Copyright @ 2005 by Tyndale House Publishers, INC. 351 Executive Drive, Carol Stream, Illinois, 60188.
2. John MacArthur, "The MacArthur Bible Handbook," Copyright @ 2003 at Thomas Nelson, Inc, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee, 37214
3. Stephen D. Renn, "Expository Dictionary of Bible Words," Copyright @ 2005 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 3473 Peabody, Massachusetts, 01961-3473.3.
4. William D. Mounce, "Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words," Copyright @ 2006 by Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49530.
