Philemon 1:2

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).