Introduction to Philemon

The book of Philemon is unique in many respects. The shortest of Paul’s inspired writings, it is the only one of the prison epistles addressed to an individual. Although it does not reach the lofty doctrinal heights of the others (Colossians, Philippians, and Ephesians), it does deal with a vitally important practical issue. Paul takes the truth that Christians are to forgive each other (cf. Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13), first taught in the New Testament by our Lord Himself in the gospel of Matthew, and applies it to a specific situation.

The Bible clearly teaches the wonderful truth that God is a forgiving God. In Exodus 34:6-7, God described Himself to Moses as “the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin.”

That theme runs throughout Scripture (cf. Pss. 32:1; 85:23; 130:3-4; Isa. 43:25; 55:7; Jer. 33:8; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 John 1:9; 2:12), but it is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). A father had two sons, one of whom took his share of the inheritance and left home (w. 11-12). After living a debauched life until his money ran out, the one son was forced to take a menial job (w. 13-16). He finally came to his senses and exclaimed, “How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!” (v. 17). He decided to return to his father (v. 18), but apparently did not expect forgiveness. He hoped merely to be tolerated (v. 19). But the father did not wait for his sinning son to reach him. While his son was still a long ways away, he ran to him and embraced him (v. 20). Later, he threw a party to celebrate his son’s return (w. 22-24).

That story illustrates how God, represented in the story by the father, forgives: eagerly, totally, lavishly. We could say, in a sense, that God is never more like Himself than when He forgives.

There are two extremely important corollaries to that truth. If God is never more like Himself than when He forgives, man is never more like God than when he forgives. Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.”

The second corollary is that God’s forgiveness of us is based on our forgiveness of others. James wrote, “Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13). Our Lord stated that truth positively in Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” He taught His disciples to pray, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12). Then He warned, “If you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matt. 6:14-15).

The forgiveness envisioned in the above-mentioned passages is not the complete and comprehensive forgiveness that accompanies the event of salvation, because that already is done. It is rather God’s relational, continual forgiveness that accompanies the process of sanctification of believers. Paradoxically, Christians are already fully forgiven (cf. Eph. 1:7), but still need ongoing forgiveness (cf. 1 John 1:9). It is a sobering truth that believers will forfeit God’s blessing and invite His chastening in their lives if they fail to forgive others. That Christians are to forgive each other, as God has forgiven them, is the underlying theme of Philemon.

AUTHORSHIP

At only two periods of church history has the Pauline authorship of Philemon been seriously questioned. Some, embroiled in the theological disputes of the fourth century, questioned its authorship because it contains no doctrine. They were countered by Jerome, Chrysostom, and Theodore of Mopseustia. Some of the radical nineteenth-century critics, having rejected the Pauline authorship of the other prison epistles, felt compelled to reject Philemon as well. Their reasoning, however, is entirely subjective and has no factual basis. In fact, the very lack of doctrinal content makes it difficult to imagine a motive for forgery. If someone were going to create a forgery, they would certainly be motivated by a desire to corrupt some doctrine of importance to the faith.

The late second-century Muratorian Fragment, the earliest extant list of New Testament books, includes Philemon. The church Fathers Tertullian and Eusebius accepted Philemon as genuine. Even the heretic Marcion, who rejected the pastoral epistles, accepted the Pauline authorship of Philemon. The book itself claims Paul as its author in three places (w. 1, 9, 19). Not surprisingly, the Pauline authorship of Philemon is almost universally accepted today.

DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING

Philemon was written at the same time as Colossians, from Rome during Paul’s first imprisonment. For a defense of the view that the prison epistles were written from Rome, not Caesarea or Ephesus, see the introduction to Colossians.

OCCASION

Philemon had been led to saving faith in Jesus Christ several years earlier by Paul, probably during the apostle’s ministry in Ephesus. He had become a prominent member in the church at Colossae. Philemon was wealthy, owning a house large enough for the Colossian church to meet in (Philem. 2). He was obviously active in serving the cause of Christ, because Paul refers to him as a “fellow worker” (Philem. 1). He also owned at least one slave, a man named Onesimus (cf. Col. 4:9, which associates Onesimus with Colossae). Onesimus, who was not a Christian, ran away from his master to Rome. He no doubt hoped to lose himself in the multitudes that thronged the imperial city. While in Rome, through circumstances unknown to us, he met the apostle Paul. Perhaps he ran into Epaphras, who was also from Colossae. He may also have sought out Paul on his own. It is possible that he traveled to Ephesus with his master and met Paul during the apostle’s ministry in that city. He certainly would have heard Philemon and his household speak lovingly of the great apostle. Whatever the circumstances by which he met Paul, his life was forever changed, for through that great preacher he met Jesus Christ.

Onesimus quickly endeared himself to the apostle (cf. Philem. 12, 16). He then began to live up to his name (Onesimus means “useful”) by assisting Paul (Philem. 11, 13). Paul would have gladly kept him at his side to continue to minister to him. There was, however, a matter that needed to be settled. As a runaway slave, Onesimus was a criminal. In running away he had defrauded his master, Philemon, by depriving him of his services. He may even have stolen money from Philemon when he fled (Philem. 18). Paul knew that the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon needed to be restored. Onesimus had to return to his master and seek forgiveness and restoration.

To send Onesimus back alone would have exposed him to the danger of being caught by the ever-vigilant slave catchers. The opportunity to send him back with someone came when Paul finished his letters to the Colossians and Ephesians. Because Tychicus would be delivering those letters, Onesimus could return to Colossae with him in relative safety.

If returning Onesimus to his master was a sacrifice for Paul, it was a grave risk for Onesimus. “Roman law … practically imposed no limits to the power of the master over his slave. The alternative of life or death rested solely with Philemon, and slaves were constantly crucified for far lighter offenses than his. A thief and a runaway, he had no claim to forgiveness” (J. B. Lightfoot, St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [1879; reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959], p. 314). Runaway slaves could also be branded with an “F” (for fugitivus) on their heads, or beaten. A large percentage of the Empire’s population was slaves, and the Romans lived in constant fear of a slave uprising. Although the last such uprising (the one led by Spartacus) had taken place over a century earlier, the Romans took no chances—they dealt harshly with runaway slaves. That Onesimus was willing to risk such punishment speaks of the genuineness of his faith.

Not content merely to send Onesimus back under the protection of Tychicus, Paul sends along a letter to Philemon. In that letter, he urges Philemon to forgive Onesimus and receive him as a new brother in Christ. Paul implores Philemon to put into practice the principle taught in Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13 and treat Onesimus as Christ treated him.

CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY

Slavery forms the backdrop to Philemon, and it is impossible to fully appreciate the book without some understanding of slavery in the Roman Empire.

Slavery was taken for granted as a normal part of life in the ancient world. Indeed, the whole structure of Roman society was based on it. “Slavery grew with the growth of the Roman state until it changed the economic basis of society, doing away with free labor, and transferring nearly all industries to the hands of slaves” (Marvin R. Vincent, The Epistles to the Philippians and to Philemon, International Critical Commentary [Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1979], p. 162). During the period of the wars of conquest, most slaves were war captives. By the time of the New Testament, however, most slaves were born into slavery. The number of slaves was enormous, making up as much as one third of the population of the Empire.

Slaves were not actually considered persons under the law, but the chattel property of their owners. They could be sold, exchanged, given away, or seized to pay their master’s debt. A slave had no legal right to marriage, and slave cohabitation was regulated by their masters. As already noted, masters had almost unlimited power to punish their slaves. The Roman writer Juvenal told of a wealthy woman who ordered the crucifixion of a slave and refused to give any reason except her own good pleasure.

By the New Testament era, however, slavery was changing. Treatment of slaves was improving, in part because masters came to realize that contented slaves worked better. Although not legally recognized as persons, slaves began to acquire some legal rights. In A.D. 20, the Roman senate decreed that slaves accused of crimes were to be tried in the same manner as free men (A. Rupprecht, “Slave, Slavery,” in The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. Merrill C. Tenney [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977], 5:459). In some cases, their wills were recognized as valid. They were often permitted to own property.

Slaves were often better off than freemen. They were assured of food, clothing, and shelter, while poor freemen often slept in the streets, or in cheap housing. Freemen had no job security and could lose their livelihood in times of economic duress. Many slaves ate and dressed as well as freemen.

Slaves could be doctors, musicians, teachers, artists, librarians, and accountants. It was not uncommon for a Roman to train a slave at his own trade. They had opportunities for education and training in almost all disciplines.

By the first century, freedom was a real possibility for many slaves. Owners often held out the hope of freedom to inspire their slaves to work better. Many shared deep friendships with their masters and were loved and cared for with generosity. Many slaves would not have taken their freedom if it had been offered because their employment was happy and beneficial. Slaves could also purchase their own freedom. Masters often designated in their wills that their slaves were to be freed or receive part of their estate after the master’s death. Manumission was thus widespread. One study indicated that in the period 81-49 B.C., five hundred thousand slaves were freed (Rupprecht, 5:458). By the time of Augustus Caesar, so many slaves were being freed upon the death of their owners that a law had to be passed restricting that practice (Rupprecht, 5:459). Estimates of the average length of time a slave had to wait for his freedom range from seven to twenty years.

It is significant that the New Testament nowhere attacks slavery directly. Had Jesus and the apostles done so, the result would have been chaos. Any slave insurrection would have been brutally crushed, and the slaves massacred. The gospel would have been swallowed up by the message of social reform. Further, right relations between slaves and masters made it a workable social institution, if not an ideal one.

Christianity, however, sowed the seeds of the destruction of slavery. It would be destroyed not by social upheaval, but by changed hearts. The book of Philemon illustrates that principle. Paul does not order Philemon to free Onesimus, or teach that slavery is evil. But by ordering Philemon to treat Onesimus as a brother (Philem. 16; cf. Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1), Paul eliminated the abuses of slavery. Marvin Vincent comments, “The principles of the gospel not only curtailed [slavery’s] abuses, but destroyed the thing itself; for it could not exist without its abuses. To destroy its abuses was to destroy it” (Vincent, Philemon, p. 167).

One writer summed up the importance of Philemon in relation to slavery in these words.

OUTLINE

Introduction (w. 1-3)

The Spiritual Character of One Who Forgives (w. 4-7)

The Spiritual Action of One Who Forgives (w. 8-18)

The Spiritual Motivation of One Who Forgives (w. 19-25)