Bible Commentaries
Philemon

A COMMENTARY

ON THE New Testament Epistles

BY

DAVID LIPSCOMB

EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES,

BY

J. W. SHEPHERD

VOLUME V

I, II Thessalonians,

I, II Timothy,

Titus, and Philemon

GOSPEL ADVOCATE COMPANY

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

1942

INTRODUCTION TO PHILEMON

Paul may have written many private letters during his long life, but only one has come down to us, and that one is very brief and weighty. It was addressed to Philemon at Colosse, one who had become obedient to the faith through the labors of Paul. He was a zealous Christian, in whose house the church met. The Epistle was written and sent at the same time as that to the Colossians.

It was a letter of commendation of a slave of Philemon, who had run away from his master on account of some offense which he had committed. By some means he fell under the influence of Paul in Rome, who taught him the gospel, to which he became obedient, and then desired to return to his master.

The Epistle is purely personal, yet very significant. Paul omits his usual introductory words—“an apostle of Jesus Christ”—and substitutes the touching designation, “a prisoner of Jesus Christ,” thereby going directly to the heart of his beloved friend and brother in Christ.

The Epistle introduces us into a Christian household con­sisting of father (Philemon), mother (Apphia), and son (Archippus), who was at the same time a fellow soldier, a Christian minister, and a slave (Onesimus). This shows the effect of Christianity upon society at a crucial point where heathenism was utterly helpless. It touches on the institution of slavery, which lay like an incubus upon the whole heathen world, and was interwoven into the whole structure of do­mestic and public life.

The effect of the gospel upon this gigantic social evil is that of a peaceful and gradual cure from within, by teaching the common origin and equality of human beings, their common redemption and Christian brotherhood, by emancipation of them from slavery unto spiritual freedom, equality and brother­hood in Christ where “there can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28.) This principle and the corresponding practice wrought first an amelioration and ultimately the abolition of slavery. The

process was very slow and retarded by the counteracting influence of love of gain and power and all the sinful passions of men; but it was sure and is now almost, if not complete, throughout the Christian world, while paganism and Mo­hammedanism regards slavery as a normal state of society, and hence do not make even an attempt to remove it. It was the only wise way to follow in dealing with the subject. A proc­lamation of emancipation from them would have resulted in a bloody revolution in which Christianity itself would have been buried.

Paul accordingly sent back Onesimus to his rightful master, yet under a new character, no more a contemptible thief and runaway, but a new man in Christ Jesus and a beloved brother, with a touching request that Philemon might receive him as kindly as he would Paul himself, yea as his own heart. (16, 17.) Such advice took the sting out of slavery; the form remained; the thing was gone. What a contrast! In the eyes of the heathen philosophers, Onesimus, like every other slave, was but a chattel; in the eyes of Paul, a redeemed child of God and an heir of eternal life which is far better than freedom.

This Epistle was written from Rome some time in the year 62 at about the same time that Ephesians and Colossians were written.