There’s a story told about an airman by the name of MacDonald and an unnamed Scottish chaplain, who had to bail out of their plane behind German lines during World War II. The two men were captured and separated at the prison; the chaplain went to the British side, and MacDonald to the American. While in the prison camp, the Americans jimmy rigged a radio and were able to get information about the war. Everyday, MacDonald would go to the fence and share the news with the chaplain by speaking Gaelic, a language the Germans didn’t understand. One day, MacDonald shared that the German High Command had given up. A few moments later, when the chaplain couriered the news the British side of the prison, the Brits erupted in shouts of celebration. Soon after, when the German guards found out what happened, they walked away from their posts, leaving the prison unguarded. The POWs were free. But in reality, they had been freed by the news, even though it took a little longer to be freed from their shackles (story told by Ray Bakke, the Executive Director of International Urban Associates).
It’s this kind of freedom, that brings us back to our final week in our study in the letter to Philemon, where we’ll be reading the last four verses of the letter. Over the past four weeks we’ve covered both the letter’s intent, and the implications of the letter. In our first week we saw how Paul approached the whole situation. He could have approached it by attacking Philemon and commanding him to do what Paul wanted, but instead, he saw Philemon as God saw him. As an image bearer of God, who, though is lacking in an area of his faith, had still done a lot of good for the kingdom of God. This gives us a model by which to deal with our brothers and sisters. Too often we see an area that needs to be addressed in a fellow believer’s life and we attack them on it. Instead, Paul shows us that we need to recognize the good things God has done through them. We are to see people as image bearers and to extend grace to each other.
Following that, we saw how Philemon was lacking in an area of forgiveness towards his runaway slave Onesimus, because of this, Philemon’s ability to share his faith was stifled. God used the situation of Onesimus to not only bring the slave into a saving faith, but to grow Philemon to be a better disciple. This showed us that God is calling us to restored relationships, which is a high calling of God. Even if it brings temporary discomfort, our goal should be God’s goal, of restoring broken relationships as far as it concerns our side of the situation.
From there, we dove into two weeks of addressing the issue of slavery. Where we found that God’s original design did not include slavery, and so he has worked and is working to elevate people. God does this elevation by giving us principles to live out as light to break the bondages around us. We are to seek God to break the bondages of sin that still hold onto us, as we do so, we are to point others to Jesus who is the bondage breaker, and we are to enact God’s principles into seeking how we can participate in that bondage breaking work.
All this brings us to the final four verses of Philemon, where we’ll pick up them up in verse 22. Let’s read together.
22 And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.
23 Epaphras (app-a-fra-s), my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. 24 And so do Mark, Aristarchus (air-a-stark-us), Demas and Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Paul ends his letter to Philemon as he ends a lot of his letters. Paul shares his desire to visit Philemon, something he would end up never doing. Not long after this letter was sent out, Paul would be set free and then re-arrested. That second arrest would then lead to his beheading by order of the Emperor.
Jesus had brought a self-righteous Pharisee, who had persecuted and shackled God’s people to a place of absolute humility. He had used Paul’s intellect to pen the majority of the New Testament. He had used Paul’s strengths and weaknesses as a model by which many other believers would look to. Paul’s words of, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ …(1 Corinthians 11:1)” are a call to us to see what God did through his life, and to imitate it’s ferocious desire to lay our lives down for the sake of the Gospel.
These final words teach us a lesson of what Paul learned so well. He didn’t know what his outcome would be, he hoped it would be that he would continue on in Christ’s work, as he said to the Philippians, “21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. (1:21-24)” And in that work, he hoped that restored relationships would continue. For Paul, he didn’t want to meet Jesus without having his temporal relationships being mended.
And so we see that very thing with the mention of Mark. A young man who Paul once rejected because of the man’s lack of endurance for the Gospel’s sake. Yet, Paul was glad to have that relationship restored.
But though Paul desired to return to Philemon, in his mention of others, he points his friend to the greater work. Epaphras (app-a-fra-s) was a fellow prison for the Gospel. Not just because proclaiming the Gospel led to his imprisonment, but because both he and Paul chose Christ over all things. The chains were monuments to a life dedicated to the Lord. All bondage from the world had been loosened, and the result was physical chains to quell the freedom these two men had in Jesus.
The mention of Mark, Aristarchus (air-a-stark-us), Demas and Luke show that Paul didn’t do the work of God in isolation. He worked alongside others, who cared for him. Two of which would write their own Gospels and add to the Scripture of the New Testament. It shows us that Paul valued them, and mentored them in Christ. Something we are also called to do. We are to pour what Christ has done for us into our own Marks and Lukes. Preparing the next generation of believers to walk the way of freedom not caring if it leads into the shackles of the world.
Why? Because we are satisfied with the grace of Jesus. There is nothing greater in this world than knowing we are in the presence of God, because of our Savior. We have done nothing to earn it, nothing to point to ourselves and say, “I did it.” We are only saved by the grace of God, and so understand that we hold no judgment over others, but we are servants of that grace, that we might be graceful, as we point others to the Saving Jesus. Then we will come to the same conclusion of Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)”
The letter to Philemon is a final moment in the life of Paul that shows us what really matters in life. Philemon stands at the cross roads of forgiveness and bitterness. Paul has chosen the path of forgiveness; so much so, that he would take on the burden of Onesimus if it meant that Philemon would walk the road with him. Paul proclaimed this when we wrote to the Romans, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. (9:3)” Of course he couldn’t, we’re all responsible for our own choice to accept Jesus as Savior or not. Yet, in Paul we see a model of Christ, who did lay down his life for others to pay the penalty of sin.
And knowing that consequences of sin, Paul desired that others might not face it, and so would willingly give up his own life. This example is the example that we are all called to. To lay down our lives for the sake of the Gospel. To forfeit ourselves for the sake of others. As Jesus stated, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)”
We are called to lay down our lives, that we may have many brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a call that brings temporary hardship, and eternal rewards. Not rewards of silver and gold, but rewards of God’s image bearers being snatched from an eternity away from God. And eternity of self-destruction in sin and death.
Paul’s final words, are a call to us as we close his final letter, to no longer be in the bondage of sin, and to seek forgiveness for both ourselves and the people around us. That we might walk in the way of our Savior, a path well treaded by the likes of Paul before us. God is calling us to shine with his forgiveness to the world. A forgiveness that was shown on the cross, and bought by the blood of God himself. The task wasn’t easy for him, and it won’t be for us, but the result is worth it. Jesus knew it, Paul knew it, and countless others who followed it knew it as well. As Polycarp, a second generation disciple of Jesus was heard saying when commanded to deny Jesus, “Eighty and six years I have served Him, and He has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior?” Let us show ourselves to be found in the long line of faithful believers that have gone before us.
My challenge for you this week, is to go before God in prayer with this one dangerous request, to be a faithful disciple to the end as Paul was. To lay down your will in every possible way, that Christ’s freedom would so break every tether that is on you, that it would lead you into cold shackles of imprisonment if need be. And that people would see your example, glorify our Father in heaven, and seek to walk the same path that you have tread.
Let us be imitators of Paul, who imitated Christ so well for us. That we might bring glory to our Savior. Amen.
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