SHARING PROPER GRACE, PEACE, AND LOVE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother.

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon 1-3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When the world would say a person has every right to condemn another, the Lord will always oppose such overtures.

Why?

Because it isn’t the right of anyone to judge for that exclusive right belongs to the Lord and Him alone.

No one has the latitude to trump the Lord when it comes to anything because only He is sovereign over all things. All are subordinate to Him and only He is perfectly righteous and just, able to administer proper and fair decisions flawlessly in regard to human behavior. This includes the matter of grace which He lavishes on us liberally, the end result being that we rarely get what we really deserve in regard to the transgressions we have committed, particularly when we show remorse and repentance for our actions.

Why go into this matter of judgment versus grace?

Because it is the central theme of this next series of messages as we look at Paul’s letter to a Colossian slave owner named Philemon, a letter he composed while imprisoned in Rome.

You see, a slave belonging to Philemon, Onesimus, had fled to Rome, no doubt to try and just blend in and escape the captivity he was under. We don’t know how he ended up with Paul but the important thing is that he did and while with the Apostle, Onesimus committed his life to Jesus.

With the intent of reuniting Philemon and Onesimus without a resulting punishment was Paul’s main reason for penning this letter and we’ll be getting into this in depth over the next week or so.

We open up this series with Paul’s greeting, a greeting that follows a standard format he liked to use.

First, we find him identifying himself to his reader.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother.

Note here how Paul only describes himself as a “prisoner of Christ Jesus”, the indication that he was currently incarcerated at the time he wrote. It’s interesting to me that Paul doesn’t say a prisoner of the Romans here, rather making sure his readers knew that he was first held captive by Jesus, the King and Savior that he faithfully served. Any removal of freedom by the Romans was a direct result of Paul’s service for the cause of Christ and His Gospel. It was the sole reason he was in chains.

Next, we find Paul clearly delineating who he was writing to.

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker—also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier—and to the church that meets in your home.

Before I get to Philemon, the primary target of Paul’s letter as mentioned, let me tackle the other two parties mentioned.

We only find Apphia’s name in this letter to Philemon but she’s obviously a Christian believer as Paul refers to her as a “sister”. As for Archippus, he shows up in just one other place, predictably in the closing to Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In chapter 4, verse 17, Paul writes:

Tell Archippus: “See to it that you complete the ministry you have received in the Lord.”

This affirms Paul calling Archippus his “fellow soldier” for the cause of the Gospel in Colossae.

Now to the relationship with Philemon. It’s believed Paul met him during his third missionary journey when he was in Ephesus, Philemon having traveled to Ephesus at that time. It was then that Philemon accepted Jesus as Savior, becoming a “dear friend” and “fellow worker” for the cause of the Gospel. We read where Philemon even hosted church meetings in his home. The close camaraderie between Paul and Philemon in Christ Jesus plays an important role in what’s to come later in this letter.

After the “To” and “From” sections of this letter, we find Paul extending a special wish for his readers. He writes:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

These words could easily just be glossed over but they shouldn’t be because they carry an important point of truth we need to constantly remember.

You see, none of us can grant grace or peace to someone on our own merit because none of us have the ability to properly, and even more so, perfectly impart either. In the end translation, true grace and peace only comes to us from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” and then we, in turn, get to be conduits of their grace and peace in our dealings with others.

And I would throw the matter of love in there with them.

Paul isn’t sending his grace and peace. Rather, he sends grace and peace from the only legitimate source of both and he does so out of the love he holds for them.

As we move through this new calendar year, let all learn from this opening greeting from Paul’s letter to Philemon and wish everyone we address - whether in person, on the phone, or in writing whether through email or handwritten correspondence – the amazing grace and peace of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, doing so out of our their love that we also get to share.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.