I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
Jesus had said repeatedly that if we love him, we would love one another, love our neighbor, even our enemies. Here Paul set up Philemon for a big test of that admonition considering his slave, Onesimus. It is estimated that between 40 and 60 percent of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves so this was bound to come up. The penalty for escape was death, if the owner desired. Paul’s appeal to the love of the saints in what follows is important and a bit tricky. Philemon’s love for Jesus and the saints applied to his escaped slave. Paul’s appeal for the life of Onesimus was most likely heeded as they were now brothers in Christ.
Is there anyone, a group of people or a nationality, that you find it harder to love than others? Perhaps this instruction is for you and me because we all have a least favorite person, don’t we? Let us remember how Paul tricked Philemon into loving Onesimus and fall for the same trick. If you love Jesus Christ, you love one another and your neighbor. If the hated Samaritan was a neighbor to the wounded man, we are certainly not above loving all people ourselves. This way, the sharing of our faith will become effective as Paul said. People will see something different in us and…
They will know we are Christians by our love.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church