Message Info:
- Text: Philemon 17-25, CSB
- Series: Philemon (2020), No. 3
- Date: Sunday evening, February 2, 2020
- Venue: Trinity Baptist Church — Seminole, Oklahoma
- Audio File: Open/Download
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⟦Transcript⟧ Now, tonight we’re going to finish the book of Philemon. The book of Philemon. I was about to tell you a chapter number, but there’s only one chapter.
You know, when I first started out on my own after I’d moved out and gotten married and all of that, I struggled financially for a long time, as a lot of people do, starting out. But I still remember one of the really generous gifts I’d gotten. One day I was struggling trying to figure out how I was going to pay all the bills.
Have you ever been in that situation? The numbers just aren’t adding up, and yet the bills have got to be paid. And then getting word that my electric bill, which is almost always the highest of everything, my electric bill had been paid.
Somebody else had come in and said, put it on my account. Take it out of my, I mean, you can’t really add it to their account, but you can take it out of their bank account. And I have my suspicions about who did it, but I don’t know for sure.
But that’s something that even 10 years later, I remember and appreciate the generosity. And then I got to be on the other side of that a few years later, When in a church that I was pastoring, there was a couple that had been, they were not members, but they had been really faithful in their attendance. And one of them had gotten very, very sick and was not able to continue working.
And several of us got together and contributed what we could. And it was exciting to be able to walk into those people’s apartment office. when they didn’t know how they were going to pay the rent and be able to tell the apartment manager, put it on our tab, we’re going to cover this.
That was exciting. I felt like the rent fairy. Getting to do something that was going to make a difference in somebody’s life, it was a blessing and it was a lot of fun.
Tonight we’re going to talk about, we’re going to look at the concept of putting something on somebody else’s account. When we don’t know how we’re going to pay a debt, one of the greatest things we can hear is for somebody else to say, put it on my account. And that’s exactly what Paul talks about in the end of the letter that he wrote to Philemon.
He talks about Onesimus’ debt being placed on his account, but more importantly, he talks about an even greater debt being placed on someone else’s account. So we’re going to pick up toward the end of the book here where we left off. We actually looked at verse 16 last night, or actually verse 15.
We looked at 15 and 16 last time, but I want to read 15 and 16 again to remind us of the context as we lead into verse 17 tonight and go through the end of the book. So starting in Philemon verse 15, it says, For perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a dearly beloved brother. He is especially so to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
And Paul has been writing to Philemon about the change that has taken place in the life of Onesimus because he met Jesus Christ. And we’ve talked a little bit about the concept of slavery and how it, From some of the evidence here in this book, it looks like Onesimus was probably someone who was in a position of authority and a position of trust in Philemon’s household. Somebody that would have been almost part of the family. And it appears that he has run off.
He’s possibly stolen from Philemon’s family. And he’s betrayed this trust. Now, again, we don’t agree with the concept of slavery, but it was reality in the Roman world. And Philemon felt as though Onesimus had betrayed the trust that had been placed in him.
And it was likely a source of pain to Philemon and his family. And Paul wrote back to Philemon, now that Onesimus has become a Christian, and now that Onesimus is growing in the faith, and writes about the change that has taken place in Onesimus, because Jesus Christ has changed him. He’s a new person in Christ, and so he begs for Philemon to receive him back, not just take him back as a slave, not just let him come back and be a slave in your house again, but to receive him as a brother.
And he says, this may be why you lost him for a short time. Because, you know, when somebody betrays us and we don’t see it coming, a lot of times we’ll ask, how could they do this to me? I don’t understand why this happened, how this happened.
Paul’s answering here, this might be the reason why your slave betrayed you, so that he would end up being your brother. Because it was a result of Onesimus going to Rome that Onesimus became a Christian and was able to come back to Philemon, a different man. So he said, you might have lost him temporarily so that you could regain him permanently.
And I was talking to a lady this week who was telling me about one of her sons and how he had gone and lived a little bit of a prodigal life for a while and it caused her and her husband a lot of distress. But she said, you know, if he had not gone through that experience where he hit rock bottom, he would not have come back and would not be as on fire for the Lord as he is today. And I said, we just talked about that Sunday night at our church that Paul said, you lost him temporarily so that you’d gain him permanently.
And sometimes people have to go through those experiences. Sometimes we have those experiences so that there can be a longer term reconciliation with somebody as they come to faith in Christ. So he tells Philemon, that could be why all this happened, so that you could receive him back as a brother. So he says in verse 17, so if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would me.
And if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you that you owe me even your very self.
I love that. I told you last week that there are some things in Scripture that are funny, and it’s okay to find them funny. I don’t know that y’all thought last week was as funny as I did, but this is another one of those instances where he says, if he owes you anything, I’ll pay you, to say nothing of the fact that you owe me a lot, you owe me your very self.
you owe me way more than he owes you and Paul also makes it clear that he’s the one making this promise this is not on some scribe we suspect that Paul may have had some issues with his eyesight where in a lot of the letters he would use somebody that he would dictate to and they would actually be the ones to write it down because in some letters Paul talks about I wrote this with my own hand And in some letters, the scribe will say at the end, and I also send you greetings and he’ll name his name. Now, Paul says here, this isn’t some scribe writing it. He said, I, Paul, have written this myself.
I will repay his debt. But I don’t think we need to have a conversation about how much you owe me. And we’ve probably all had conversations like that.
I have told somebody in the past, I don’t think you want to have a conversation about this because you’re not going to like where it leads. You don’t want to have a conversation about what you owe me because you’re not going to like what you discover there. He said, if he owes you anything, put it on my account.
And meanwhile, be thinking about everything that’s been owed and everything that’s been paid. So he says in verse 20, Yes, brother, may I benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.
He says, I know that as I write to you, as Christ has made you who you are, and as you’re somebody who’s going to refresh my heart in Christ, I know that you’re going to go above and beyond what I’m asking of you. And we could take this as a little bit of a guilt trip, although I don’t think that is. I don’t think Paul was that disingenuous.
I think if he said, I really believe that you’re going to do even more than I ask, I don’t think that was Paul trying to guilt the man. I think that was Paul really thinking. I know that once you sit down and think about this, you’re going to do the right thing.
I’m writing to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. Verse 22, Meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, since I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings.
And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. So what we need to see in this passage, in this latter part of the book of Philemon, is that Paul called on Philemon to receive Onesimus just as he would Paul.
As a matter of fact, in the way that Philemon was going to receive Onesimus, there really should have been no difference between Paul and Onesimus as far as Philemon was concerned. As far as Philemon was concerned, when you look at Onesimus, Paul wanted him to see Paul. Now, up to now, Philemon’s looking at Onesimus as somebody who’s hurt him.
He sees Onesimus as a betrayer, and he’s not wrong in that. The way that Philemon ran off, and again, he talks about what was owed, And so we assume it was more than just a field hand ran off. Somebody who was in a position of trust in the household probably violated that trust and may have even stolen things.
So Philemon saw Onesimus as a betrayer. How did he see Paul? He saw Paul as a beloved brother in Christ. But think about who Paul was too.
Now yes, Onesimus has become a brother in Christ, But if Philemon can’t get past who Onesimus used to be, how would that apply to his relationship with Paul? Because think about who Paul used to be. Paul said, Paul called himself the chiefest of sinners.
Now, I think each of us, if we’re honest, probably feel that way about ourselves, because we know our hearts and we know our sin in a way we don’t know other people’s. But Paul had some pretty legitimate claims to that title. Paul was a murderer Paul was a religious terrorist Paul hated Jesus Christ Paul was not always dear brother Paul and yet it was no problem apparently for Philemon to get past that he said well maybe Philemon didn’t know Paul made no secret about his past as a matter of fact he’s known in some of his letters to recount his past to the glory of God because he had been changed by Jesus Christ Now, I think people knew exactly who Paul used to be.
And Philemon had no problem getting past who Paul used to be in order to see Paul for who he was now as this brother in Christ. So we need to understand that. When Paul says, receive Onesimus the same way you received me, it’s not just saying treat him like you would me. It’s saying the way you have chosen to view me for who I am in Christ in spite of who I used to be in sin, that’s the same thing you need to do with Onesimus.
You need to get past this hang-up of who he was over here in his sin, and even though it was against you, and even though you’ve been hurt in that, and learn to see him for who he is now in Jesus Christ. Receive him the same way you’re willing to receive me, in spite of all this, to receive him as a brother in Christ. This was a reminder to Philemon. And it’s a reminder to us too that we can’t look at people as being defined by what their sin says about them. Now, I also don’t mean, and the scripture does not teach that we’re supposed to ignore sin and, oh, it’s okay that you’ve sinned.
No, none of our sin is okay. But when we’re in Christ, we’re a new creature. Now, I know there’s going to be earthly consequences for our sins, and we can’t change that fact.
And again, I’m not saying that we should be quick to excuse sin and say it’s just fine. But what I’m talking about is when Jesus Christ has really changed someone, when he’s transformed someone, when they have been born again and they are that new creature, we cannot continue to define them by who they were when they were in their sins. How were before Christ. Not many of us, right?
Now, I’ve told you before, I came to Christ at an early age, so I didn’t have time to, I didn’t have a lot of time to get into trouble. And so it’s hard for me to say, well, this is who I was before, and this is who I am now. Stay with me for a minute.
I can also see the change that Christ has continued to make in me, and I can see where I was not necessarily before Christ, but less mature in Christ years ago, 10, 15, 20 years ago, I don’t want people to assume I’m still that guy when Christ has changed me into something else. And I’m going to say that’s especially true. That’s especially true for those who have come to Christ later in life, and they lived one life over here on this side of Christ, and they live something completely different now.
If I don’t want to be remembered for the judgmental, legalistic, obnoxious person that I was, and maybe still can be if I’m not careful, I don’t know. I’ll let you decide that. If I don’t want to be remembered for that guy, immature in Christ, because I realize what Christ has done in me, then it’s also unfair for us to remember somebody or to continue to treat somebody like the town drunk or the woman with a bad reputation that they used to be before Christ when Christ has made them different.
This also assumes that there’s really been a change, that Christ really has transformed them, and that they have repented of those behaviors. So this was a reminder to Philemon, don’t define him by what his sin was. Define him by what Jesus says he is now.
And it was a reminder to Philemon that if Jesus could transform Paul, he could certainly transform Onesimus. And so because of this, Paul reminded Philemon that whatever Onesimus’ debt to him was, Philemon owed a greater debt. That’s the whole thrust of that reminder of the debt.
And, hey, if he owes you something, I’ll pay it. That’s really to remind him of greater debts there. Because Onesimus owed Philemon a debt for whatever he had done.
Again, we don’t know the specifics. We can guess. And I think we can make some reasonable guesses, but we don’t know for sure.
I mean, Paul doesn’t list Onesimus’ rap sheet. It would be counterproductive because the whole idea is that he’s not what he used to do. He’s who he is in Christ now.
So he doesn’t list every crime Onesimus had committed, but certainly Onesimus had done some things, and he owed Philemon a debt for whatever he had done. But Philemon owed an even greater debt to Paul. Whatever Onesimus had done to Philemon was trivial in comparison.
He’d probably lost some stuff. He’d probably lost some money. His trust had been violated.
And so Onesimus owed this debt of stuff. But Onesimus was a debtor to Paul in spiritual matters. Paul had invested in this man spiritually.
Onesimus, excuse me, I’m worried about getting these names mixed up. Philemon was indebted to Paul for his ministry. Philemon was indebted to Paul for helping him grow closer to Christ. For all we know, Philemon might have been indebted to Paul actually for some material things as well.
We don’t know the exact nature, we don’t know the exact amount that Philemon owed Paul. But we know that whatever debt Onesimus owed Philemon, Philemon owed Paul an even greater debt. But Paul said, whatever Onesimus owes, charge it to my account.
Because as believers, we’re not going to be in the business of holding each other strictly to these accounts and making the other one pay regardless, no matter what. Now, by the way, I’m not saying don’t do business with your fellow Christians. Don’t expect them to pay their bills.
That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about holding somebody to a debt that they can never pay. I’m talking about treating genuine brotherhood as it matters more than somebody’s personal debts or what it’s going to cost you.
That’s sort of Paul’s approach here. We’re brothers. We’re not going to hold each other to every nickel and dime here.
We’re not going to make this a thing that comes between brothers. So he says, if he owes anything, just put it on my tab. I will take care of it.
I would rather be out the money or whatever else it is than let this become something that stands in between you and Onesimus in the long term. So he told Philemon to charge Onesimus’ debt to his account. I’ll pay it.
If that’s what it’s going to take to get you to reconcile, because that’s the main thing. If that’s what it’s going to take to get you to reconcile, to bring peace here, then I’ll pay it. But again, I love that he brings up, you have an even greater debt.
And we do that. That’s our human nature. We tend to hold others to their debts while forgetting that we owe even greater debts.
And Jesus told a story about that. He told a story about a man who owed a huge debt to the king. He owed more than a lifetime’s salary, and he couldn’t pay it.
When the note came due, he had no way of paying the debt. And so he begged and he pleaded with the king, I’ll pay, I’ll pay, just give me more time, I’ll find a way to do it. All of this is a paraphrase, by the way.
I’m not, if you’re wondering, what version is he in? where Jesus tells the story, I’ll pay, I’ll pay. I’m paraphrasing.
He tells the king, I’ll pay, I’ll pay, give me more time. And the king is so moved by his pleading that he just forgives the debt. And Jesus told how this same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him just a pittance in comparison, just a little bit of pocket money that he couldn’t pay.
And when he tried to collect, the other man said, I’m sorry, I’ll pay, I’ll pay, just give me more time. And hand on his throat up on the wall and saying, you’re going to pay, I’m going to squeeze it out of you right here. Again, that’s a paraphrase.
And the king gets word and says, I don’t think so. That’s not how this is going to work. Did you forget the debt you were just cleared of?
So if that’s how you’re going to act toward those who are debtors to you, I’m going to throw you in prison until you pay me every last red cent you owe me. We tend to hold others accountable for their debts when they’ve done something wrong to us. you may be sitting there saying well I’ve never lent anybody any money this doesn’t apply to me we’re not just talking about money somebody’s done something to you you’re never going to forget and you’re never going to forgive sometimes that’s our our attitude you don’t know what they did to me no I don’t what they did to you probably was wrong tell me your story I’m probably going to agree with you had people come in for counseling recently and I pretty much agree that hey you’re right And what the other person did was wrong.
But even if it was wrong, we tend to hold people to their debts when they’ve wronged us. We forget that we’ve been forgiven of an even greater debt. We need to remember we’ve sinned against the Lord.
We think somebody’s wronged us. We’ve sinned against an infinitely holy God who did nothing but create us and love us and provide for us. And we’ve rebelled against him, not once, but constantly.
If we consider the debts that other people owe us for the way they’ve treated us, if our standard is here and we’re going to hold them to it, folks, how much of a debt do we owe to him? We’re just like the story of the servants, where somebody owes us a pittance, and we owe the king a lifetime amount, more than a lifetime amount that we can never pay off. We have absolutely zero hope.
And the only way we can get free of our debt, just like Onesimus, just like the servant in Jesus’ story, is for someone else to put it on his account. See, when Paul talked about what Philemon owed him, I think it was also a reminder of what Philemon owed. Because we can’t read this and not get the idea that, hey, we need to forgive these small debts because we owe an even greater debt.
Our debt is only cleared. The debt that we owe the king, the debt that we can never pay, is only cleared because Jesus put it on his account. You know what?
Onesimus probably didn’t have a prayer of trying to pay Philemon back. He needed somebody to put it on his account. He needed Paul to come say, I’ll pay it.
Folks, we need somebody to pay our debt. We have no hope of paying it ourselves. Our only hope is that Jesus puts it on his account.
That’s what he did for us at the cross. Now, when we recognize this, when we recognize that how much He has forgiven us, when we recognize that He died to pay for our sins in full, this horrendous string, this pattern of rebellion and sinning against God, and He wiped that debt out in full through what He did on the cross. When we realize how much we’ve been forgiven, how can we stand there looking at our brother with the wrongs they’ve committed against us, which are minuscule in comparison, and continue to hold that against them?
How can we continue to refuse to forgive our brother? How can we persist in refusing to see them as Christ has declared them to be a new creation in him, while at the same time recognizing how he’s forgiven us and how he’s transformed us. And that’s ultimately what Philemon was being confronted with.
And with all of this in mind, our job as Christians becomes to receive people not for what their sin says they are, but for who they have become in Jesus Christ. To not hold things to their account when their account’s been paid by Jesus Christ. Now again, I’m talking especially in the context here, specifically about brothers and sisters in Christ, people who like Onesimus were going to come back and try to be reconciled. Dealing with people who are not seeking forgiveness is a message for another time. And by the way, the answer is not to hold it against them either.
But he’s dealing specifically with people who would see somebody as a brother in Christ, See them come back and repent over the wrong that they’ve done to another brother in Christ and have the brother who’s been wronged say, No, are you kidding after what you did to me? That’s what Paul’s dealing with here. As believers, we need to receive people as though Christ has cleared their account.
Not for what their sin says they are, but for who they’ve become in Jesus Christ. Now again, does that mean that they erase all the earthly consequences of what they’ve done? No. I think of the ways this principle has been misused and people who have been hurt when those earthly consequences have been erased.
What I mean, let me give you an example or a couple of examples. Because we’re hearing about all kinds of misconduct in the church, outside the church. Somebody comes into a church and uses it as an opportunity to abuse children.
they genuinely repent does that mean we let them run the nursery again? absolutely not if there’s genuine repentance if there’s a genuine coming to Christ it does become the responsibility of the church to minister to that person but it doesn’t mean we ever let them around our kids again there are earthly consequences but we also don’t look at somebody and shut them out of the body because of who they were. I know a man, one of the kindest, most mild-mannered people I’ve ever met.
I was shocked when I found this out. But that man, before he came to Christ, was a ruthless drug kingpin. That was a generation ago and before Christ. I’m sure there are some people that would still hold that against him.
But it’s not our job to hold that against him and say, well, you can’t be part of us. It’s our job to receive him for who he is in Christ rather than who his sin says he was. So we need to seek reconciliation with our brothers, even when they’ve hurt us, especially when they’ve hurt us.
We need to seek reconciliation. We need to forgive people when they repent. And here’s the bottom line.
Here’s the bottom line of all this. Never underestimate. Never underestimate or ignore the complete change that Jesus Christ can make in the greatest sinner.
Onesimus had betrayed Philemon, but apparently he wasn’t that man anymore. Paul used to be a murderer and a terrorist, but he wasn’t that man anymore. And I think of the song, whenever I think about this concept, I think of the song that probably a lot of you know.
Brother Ken, I can’t remember if you’ve sung it or not. I think of it sort of as the signature song of my friend Ed Jordan from Arkansas, now lives here in Oklahoma. He comes and visits our church about once a year.
I remember him singing several times that song, Thanks to Calvary, I Don’t Live There Anymore. And the song talks about how I’m not the man I used to be. Folks, never underestimate the ability, the power of Jesus Christ to completely transform somebody’s life, to make them into somebody that you never would have thought.
And he doesn’t just do it with the respectable people on the good side of town. Jesus can take the people that you’d look at and say, Him? He’s the worst person I know.
He can take them and he can transform them into something completely different. Never underestimate or ignore the change that Jesus Christ can make in the greatest sinner.
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