Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow-workman,
The letter opens with three names and no titles of rank: a prisoner, a brother, and a beloved fellow worker. Behind the greeting stands Onesimus, whose future rests on how Philemon reads it. So why does Paul, who could have commanded, introduce himself in chains?
Paul had every right to sign himself an apostle. Here he sets that title aside.
Paul does not introduce himself here as an apostle, but as "a prisoner of Jesus Christ." Here we may notice the wisdom and delicacy of the Spirit of God. When writing to Timothy and Titus, Paul was careful to bring forward his apostleship, for obvious reasons. Authority was as valuable there as leaving it out is precious here. Paul would rest the matter of Onesimus entirely on the ground of divine grace, which he was sure reigned in Philemon's heart. He was not alone in his appeal; he brought Timothy in with himself to give it more force.
The word "prisoner" does two things at once. Older translations read "a prisoner of Jesus Christ," and Paul does not name Rome as his captor.
"Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." In this he showed Philemon two things. First, that he was a sufferer, and not someone who had kept his place in the world by his confession of Christ. Second, that his prison lost all its misery, because he could see that men were only the hand of the Lord. So he was content to be there, for he was the Lord's prisoner.
This way of seeing his chains is more than a fact about Paul. It shows where a settled heart comes from.
It is very blessed to notice the way the apostle looked beyond men to Christ. He was His prisoner. He did not fret under the tyranny and unrighteousness of the Roman authorities, but looked at the Lord. It was His will for him, and that was enough. Christ was his jailer, as it were. He who sent His angel and released Peter could have done the same for Paul had it suited Him. The heart never finds rest when it looks at second causes.
Philemon was not in prison and could not share that experience with Paul.
Philemon had no fellowship with Paul as a prisoner; but here comes the link — "our brother" connects him both with Paul and Timothy. And if the Lord of all is not ashamed to call us brothers, how it will delight the soul of His servant! The Lord put Himself on this standing, where He was one with every saint. It stood on far higher ground than any natural relationship, for they were only brothers to one another because each of them was the brother of Jesus.
Philemon was no stranger to this work. His home and his hands were already open.
Philemon was a man of means at Colosse, who with his wife Apphia was an heir of the grace of life. He was a worker for the Master as well; so to Paul and Timothy he was dearly beloved, and a recognised fellow-labourer. In his house a company of the saints met, and he refreshed the hearts of the saints. He had received, and he gave.
Calling him a "fellow worker" was no flattery.
Paul describes Philemon as the fellow-worker of himself and Timothy. Can we imagine such honour without a powerful effect on his soul? It came from a man who was as far as possible from careless speech. Flattering talk was as far from him as covetousness or self-seeking in any form. What a cheer for a man serving God in the middle of all kinds of trial and discouragement!
As a list of names, verse 1 looks like a formality. As a set of ties, it is Paul's case.
The greeting or address, short as it is, contains the substance of the letter... Now the mention of all these names expresses fellowship. These people had no natural fellowship with one another, nothing in common with one another. They were strangers in country, in habit, in language. By union with Christ they now had common relationship, common affections, common service, common warfare. Here is the wonderful power of the cross: it not only brings the soul into peace with God... it also brings men of the most opposite character, and the most different condition in this life, into oneness.
- Chains, not rank. Paul opens as a prisoner, not an apostle. He rests the whole appeal on grace, not on his apostleship.
- Christ, not Rome. He calls himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. He saw men as only the hand of the Lord. The heart finds no rest while it looks at second causes.
- Brother, the link. Philemon could not share Paul's prison. But "our brother" joins all three, on ground higher than any natural tie, because each is the brother of Jesus.
- Beloved, then asked. Paul honours Philemon as a fellow worker before he asks for anything. It was a cheer, not flattery, from a man who never flattered.
- Names that make the case. The short greeting holds the substance of the letter. The cross makes one people out of strangers in country, habit and language. That is the ground Paul stands on for the matter of Onesimus.
and to the sister Apphia and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the assembly which [is] in thine house.
Paul's short letter is a personal appeal about a runaway slave. Yet the greeting also names Philemon's wife, a fellow worker, and the believers who met in his house — so why bring them into a private matter?
The names belong to one home in Colossae, and Paul picks each one for a reason. One writer explains why he names the wife in a matter about a servant:
Paul addresses his wife as well — "our beloved Apphia," or perhaps "the sister Apphia." This was gracious and wise. Such a matter concerned the mistress as much as the master. Perhaps her feelings about it were stronger than her husband's. Paul would have both act together in this, as heirs together of the grace of life.
The two ways of naming her come from differences in the manuscripts, and the oldest copies give the wording the ESV carries:
Philemon is addressed as "the beloved" according to his known character (v. 1), and honoured as a fellow-labourer in the Lord's work. And, most unusual of all, he includes his wife in the address. The Authorised Version and the later copies read "the beloved," but the ancient and best manuscripts read "the sister." It was most fitting in the circumstances to address her, and the way it is done is just as becoming.
Who was this third person, and why does Paul call him a soldier?
Then Paul adds one more name, after those who stood at the head of the house: "and to Archippus our fellow-soldier." This is the same man that Col. 4:17 tells to take heed to the ministry he had received in the Lord, and to fulfil it. There is no ground for thinking he was Philemon's son, or his "chaplain" either. But Scripture makes clear that he worked in the assembly there as elsewhere. One cannot escape the conviction that courage and endurance in spiritual warfare led the apostle to call Archippus a "fellow-soldier," as he did Epaphroditus. He uses terms like this with the utmost precision.
The word ties Paul and Archippus together:
They were fellow-servants and comrades-in-arms, having the same Master to obey and the same Captain to follow. Their hearts and hands were united.
The phrase is not another way of saying "your Christian family."
This does not mean only the Christian members of the household. It means those who met there regularly, gathered to the Lord's name. That seems to be the force of the phrase wherever it occurs (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15). There were many Christian households. But "the assembly in a house" implied a meeting held in that house, as here in Philemon's.
Still, this meeting was not the only one in the city:
It was "the church at Philemon's house." It could not be the church in Colossae, or it would have been called that. One or more other gatherings existed there.
Onesimus was coming back to a master and to a whole gathering:
The apostle, in sending Onesimus back, addresses the whole assembly. This is why we have "grace and peace" here, without adding "mercy," as the apostles do when they address individuals only. His appeal on behalf of Onesimus is to Philemon; but the whole assembly is to take an interest in this beloved slave, who had become a child of God. Their Christian hearts would be a support and a guarantee for Philemon's conduct.
The verse also names no building at all.
Notice that no special building and no special place is mentioned. It is no longer a particular spot down here, but the place where Christ is in the midst. It is a PERSON, not a place, to whom we are gathered now. We never read in the Epistles of "sacred buildings," more holy than others. We read of "the church in your house" (Philemon 2).
- House. Philemon opened his home, and believers of the area met in it. Christians gather to a Person in the midst, not to a sacred building.
- Wife. The oldest manuscripts call Apphia "our sister." Paul writes to her because the case of the servant concerned the mistress as much as the master.
- Soldier. Paul calls Archippus a fellow soldier. The title points to courage and endurance in spiritual warfare under the same Captain.
- Assembly. "The church in your house" means the people who met there, not only the Christians living under that roof.
- Guarantee. Paul greets them all, so a private act of forgiveness becomes a shared one. Their hearts are a support and a guarantee for how Philemon will act.