CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Philemon 1:8. Though I might be much bold.—R.V. better, “though I have all boldness.” St. Paul feels that his relationship to Philemon might warrant the casting away of reserve in speech. To enjoin thee that which is convenient.—R.V. “befitting.” To lay down what would be proper.
Philemon 1:9. For love’s sake I rather beseech.—Such a gentleman as the apostle was (Coleridge). The love that “hopeth all things” seems here to be intended. Paul the aged.—So R.V. text. R.V. margin, “Paul an ambassador.” Ambassadors being generally venerable men, perhaps the apostle meant to convey the double idea of age and office.
Philemon 1:10. My son Onesimus.—The R.V., like the Greek, holds back the name that might raise some feeling in Philemon’s’ breast. Whom I have begotten.—If Philemon had been a cynic, he might have said the pain had been his (Philemon 1:18), whilst Paul seems to have had only the joy over this child of his captivity.
Philemon 1:11. Unprofitable … profitable.—We have here a play on words. Christus was often pronounced by Pagans Chrçstus, so that the adjectives ἄχρηστος, εὔχρηστος, would suggest the meanings of “non-Christian” and a “good Christian” (Farrar).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Philemon 1:8-11
A Plea for a Delinquent Slave—
I. Is not enforced by mere authority (Philemon 1:8).—Paul here acknowledges that what authority he has is not in himself, but in Christ. He prefers to beseech where he might command. It is never wise to use all the power we have. Force should be the very last resource. There is a power in gentleness that rarely fails, and it is always best to try that first.
II. Is urged on the ground of personal affection.—“For love’s sake I rather beseech thee” (Philemon 1:9). To deepen the pathos of his entreaty, Paul appeals to his age and to his condition as a prisoner of Christ—two considerations that could not fail to quicken the love of Philemon towards the friend to whom he owed more than he could repay. “The rocking-stones which all the storms of winter may howl round and not move can be set swinging by a light touch. Una leads the lion in a silken leash. Love controls the wildest nature. The demoniac, whom no chains can bind, is found sitting at the feet of incarnate Gentleness. So the wish of love is all-powerful with loving hearts, and its faintest whisper louder and more constraining than all the trumpets of Sinai” (Maclaren).
III. Recognises the closeness of spiritual relationship (Philemon 1:10).—The slave for whose restoration Paul pleads is a new man. Coming under the influence of the apostle’s preaching in the very city in which he was in hiding, he repented and embraced the truth. The man in bonds was the instrument of the slave’s spiritual freedom; and Onesimus is now recognised as a son of Paul, and therefore a brother of Philemon. This tender spiritual relationship intensified the plea for kindly and considerate treatment.
IV. Strengthened by the fact of genuine conversion.—“Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me” (Philemon 1:11). Paul does not excuse the slave’s past conduct. He may have been the worst of his class, the cause of more loss than profit to his owner, and ending a worthless career by theft and flight. But his conversion was real, and Paul had proof of it in the valuable service he had rendered to him. The changed life and well-tested qualities of the Christian character of the slave would render him of real value in the future service of his Master. “Christ does not need to be besought to welcome His runaway good-for-nothings, however unprofitable they have been. That Divine charity of His forgives all things, and hopes all things of the worst, and can fulfil its own hope in the most degraded.”
Lessons.—
1. Entreaty is more potent than command.
2. The gospel can transform the worst characters.
3. Christianity recognises the true brotherhood of man.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Philemon 1:9. The Christianity of Old Age.
I. In the two most marked characteristics of old age—the obtuseness of immediate perception and the freshness of remote memories—may we not discern an obvious intimation of the great future, and a fitting preparative for its approach?
II. The veneration for old age which Christianity inspires comes not from the past alone, but rather from the future.
III. Christianity teaches the aged disciple how to regard the world and himself as leaving it.
IV. The aged, ere they depart, are able to report to us something of the exactitude of the Divine retribution.—Martineau.
Philemon 1:10. A Plea for Onesimus.
I. In Philemon’s house.—His privileges. His dishonesty.
II. At Rome.—A large city and strange, and full of temptations. Yet it was the place of his spiritual birth.
III. Under Paul’s preaching.—A hearer, a convert.
IV. Attendant on Paul.—Reality of his conversion proved by his desertion of evil companions and courses, by his services to Paul, and by his willingness to return to Philemon. Paul’s affection for the slave, and his uprightness to his owner.
V. In Colossæ again.—Return, reconciliation, joy, Faint picture of the joy in heaven.
Lessons.—
1. Adore the riches of Divine grace in the conversion of Onesimus.
2. Do not presume on his case.
3. The advantage of living in a religious family.—G. Brooks.
Paul and Onesimus.
I. Here we see the providence of God at work.
II. The power of Jesus Christ to save.
III. We learn how to become peacemakers.
IV. We learn how to make restitution.
V. We learn how to forgive.
VI. We learn that all men are one in Jesus Christ.
VII. We learn what it is to be diligent in season and out of season.—W. Galbraith.
Philemon 1:11. The Christian Solution of Social Problems.
I. Of problems like slavery.—
1. Its method—disintegration, not revolution.
2. The reform of the individual.
II. Of the problem of employers and employed.—By imbuing employers with a Christian spirit.
2. By imbuing employees with the same spirit.
III. Of the problem of the lapsed masses.—
1. By their evangelisation.
2. By continued brotherly oversight.—S. E. Keeble.