The complimentary colors that God has painted us with of being loving, and being faithful, are manifestations of Christ in us, out of us, as the people of the culture of Christ.
Love and Faith--our Complimentary Colors as the People of the Culture of Christ
Philemon 1:4-7
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)Please turn to Philemon 4-7. As we get started, I want us all to consider the Culture of Christ. We Christians (born of the Spirit, by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross and resurrection) are the children of Christ's culture. As such, it is difficult to say whether we color the culture of Christ, or whether it colors us. There is a sense where both are true. What I mean is that the Holy Spirit transforms us through a real miracle. In His transforming work, He uses all that is good in the good news which means both the message and the miracle in the process. After salvation, the good news continues to work in growing us in our spiritual change into the image of Christ. According to our new nature in Christ, according to the indwelling Spirit, in respect to the word, we manifest what God has established. It is the Christ-culture. As we live godly in Christ Jesus, we express it. So, in this sense, there is a seamless mosaic; Christ regenerates us, then He molds us in spiritual growth; and in this process, the culture of Christ is coloring us; and since we are part of it, we also color it. Two vibrant pigments that dominate this great tapestry are faith and love. Like the vivid rich redness of a rose blossom that is accentuated by the deep green complimentary color of the leaves that surround it, faith and love are a startling display of the vibrant sweetness that the culture of Christ is famous for. As we examine God's word this morning, we are going to look at various hues of truth concerning our culture. Please read our text with me now. Paul says,
"4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the set apart ones; 6 and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. 7 For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the set apart ones have been refreshed through you, brother." Philemon 1:4-7
Please prepare your heart to learn along with me, in this sermon titled,
Love and Faith--our Complimentary Colors as the People of the Culture of Christ
[prayer]
In the context of Philemon, Paul is interceding to reconcile Philemon, the Christian slave owner, with Onesimus, his runaway slave. We need to keep this in mind for understanding Paul's main theme of his letter. He wants to bring about reconciliation through grace, and forgiveness, according to the love of God. Paul appeals to Philemon for Onesimus in a Holy Spirit empowered manner of diplomacy. In doing this, Paul reminds Philemon that Paul is a prisoner for Christ. Paul is quickly showing what matters most in the big picture. Christ, and His culture--this is what matters most, and so the sense is:
"Our Lord is why I am a prisoner. Keep that in mind as you read my words my dear Christian friend."
Paul's chains demonstrate a life attitude of dying to self that forces us to set our minds back on the importance of the bigger picture. Paul's whole life is a demonstration of the Spirit. It comes out of self diminishing love and faithfulness toward the Lord, and the Lord's elect. Philemon, needs to recognize this; but so should we. The self sacrifice, and the persecution, are based upon the tension of the cultures. Paul also mentions, loving and faithful, Timothy. Paul also refers to Philemon as our beloved and fellow worker. The Spirit wants Philemon to be reminded early on, that he is considered to be a joint laborer with the apostles in the great thrust to fulfill the cause of Christ. We are all in this together. Paul also addresses more of the body: There is a woman in Christ named Apphia our sister, and there is Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in Philemon's house. It is all interconnected, and we are all important. This segment of the culture of Christ that we have entered into in history has been preserved for us to learn more about our own roles in the culture. This morning I want us to glean some important principles from our text for understanding the complimentary colors of being loving, and being faithful, as manifestations of Christ in us, out of us, as the people of the culture of Christ.
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The first principle is that God, in His sovereignty, is the one to be thanked for both the love and the faith we have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all people that God sets apart in Christ as the body of Christ;
"4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith [also translated as faithfulness] which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the set apart ones;" Philemon 1:4-5
We read this declaration of thanks, and we notice something that is stark. Actually it is stark if we submit to seeing what the Holy Spirit is saying. It is beautiful from the perspective of truth. It is invisible to those who refuse to see it. It is loathed by those who have bad theology. The Spirit confronts us with the fact that Paul does not thank Philemon, the man, for mustering up self-generated faithfulness, and love, toward Christ or toward anyone else. Paul's thanks could seem like he is thanking a human for something that the human has achieved. A wrong understanding of God's sovereignty in both salvation, and the new life lived out concerning the same salvation, is what will motivate someone to think this is what Paul is saying. But Paul is saying the opposite. What does Paul say?
"4 I thank my God ..."
@1 We give thanks to __________________ alone when someone has love and faithfulness toward Jesus and other Christians. Philemon 1:4-5
Paul's God is the God of everyone that exists, because He is the only true God. People may worship false gods; but so what? Paul's God is the One and only true living God. It might seem odd that Paul is saying, "my God," but Paul has a reason for wording it this way. Paul calls God "my God" because Paul is expressing a personal relationship of dependency upon the work of God in Paul's saved life as someone who was in opposition to God at one time, but not longer is. God sovereignly intervened and miraculously changed Paul while Paul was persecuting Christ, Acts 9:4-6. Paul was not serving the One true God in persecuting Christ. He would have told you that he was doing so, but Paul was deceived. Paul was in opposition to God, and so God was not Paul's God. Now Paul is no longer in opposition to God; and so for Paul, he relishes the great privilege; God is "my God." The point is that Paul thanks His sovereign God that He now knows personally. And Paul thanks His God because God has done something else.
What has God done here that moved Paul to thank Him?
It has to do with the faith and love that God has filled Philemon with by God's own sovereign determination; and how the Artist's colors have been manifested from His new creation:
"... because I hear of your love and of the faith [faithfulness] which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the set apart ones;" Philemon 1:4-5
If Paul was to thank Philemon for Philemon's love and faithfulness, then Paul would be making a huge humanistic mistake. Paul is someone who recognizes the sovereignty of his God in God's comprehensive determination of all things--especially in His special process of saving the elect. Paul is consistent on this fact in all of his epistles. Paul always affirmed this in His prayers to his sovereign God--always. It is important for us to understand that like the redness of rose petals, and the greenness of the leaves that surround them, our faithfulness to Christ, and our love for Him, are married together in a holy inseparable matrimony as a gift from God. Like Philemon, we need to have a sense of humbleness in respect to these things. You have love and faithfulness, but they are not from you. They are gifts to you. We did not generate the gift out of ourselves and then give faith and love to ourselves. We did not generate faith and love out of ourselves, and then make it our gift to offer up to God. Love and faith are gifts given to God's elect that He has determined to be in the culture of Christ forever. They must be a gift because we are all conceived and then born into the culture of the lost according to fallen Adam. We are conceived and born exclusively natural. This means, we start out spiritually dead. In our deadness, the spiritual things of God are foolish,
"a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." 1 Corinthians 2:14
@2 a ____________________________ man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot understand them. 1 Corinthians 2:14
The problem is that the natural body of Adam is the dingy pigment of darkness that taints the realm of all humanity, and there, in that realm of the lost world culture, all people are solely natural humans. The only supernatural people are those who are miraculously made that way in Christ. The point is that God must do a supernatural work in the living-dead (spiritually dead, yet biologically alive) of the lost world culture to enable them, beyond their natural minds, to accept the things of the Spirit of God, and to receive His gift of love for Himself, and likewise, love for the rest of His elect. In our salvation, God pours His love into us. We do not pour our own self-generated love out to Him first,
"and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:5
@3 The love of God is poured out into the hearts of all Christians through the Holy Spirit that is __________________. Romans 5:5
The person of the Holy Spirit is given to all who God elects to eternal spiritual salvation. Now, in salvation, all of us can say "My God" in describing our special relationship. With the Spirit comes the beautiful love that we possess in Christ. This is what motivates Paul to pray, and Paul wants Philemon to know this very early on. Our prayers, out of love for others, do not originate out of our own self generated love. Instead, our prayers come by the love of the Spirit,
"Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me," Romans 15:30
The love of Christ is what controls you,
"For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;" 2 corinthians 5:14
It is not a fruit of the flesh,
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, ..." Galatians 5:22
This love is in the Spirit, from the Spirit,
"and he [Epaphras] also informed us of your love in the Spirit." Colossians 1:8
The most comprehensive passage on this is probably in 1 John 4,
"7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit." 1 John 4:8-12
The point is that love is a miracle gift that comes from God's supernatural work that He does to us. Think about this love for a moment.
You appreciate it, don't you?
There was a time when you did not have it. But, now you love God as your God. You love the body of Christ as your body of Christ, and you love all the things of Christ. Whenever you think about this love that you have, you must understand that God put this in you. We should thank God for it in pure humbleness.
Then there is that faithfulness to Christ, and also to others in the body. God's supernatural work is that we receive the grace of the gospel in faith, but it is not belief that we came up with on our own. We see the same miraculous gift enablement applied to Lydia (the seller of purple) by God, when
"The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul." Acts 16:14
Lydia, a natural sin filled member of the living-dead's culture, did not open her own heart to heed those things of which can only be spiritually discerned. This same door was there in all of us. God is the one who opened your heart, my heart, the heart of Philemon, Paul the apostle, and anyone who has been re-conceived, regenerated, and adopted. It is what is meant in Acts 18 concerning,
"those who had believed through grace," Acts 18:27
Anyone who believes the gospel does so through the grace of God Who supernaturally enables us to do so. It is the supernatural action of God that we read of concerning the saved people at Philippi,
"29 For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, ... to believe in Him," Philippians 1:29
The Philippians did not, and could not, grant God any belief. God granted to those unregenerated sinful-minded Philippians to believe in Christ. Further, in God's love, he did not grant to the Philippians to believe in Christ for the sake of the Philippians. God's previous grant, to the saved Philippians that Paul is writing to, was to believe in Christ for Christ's own sake. It is the supernatural action of receiving, where Peter speaks of
"... those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:" 2 Peter 1:1
This "kind" of faith is not a natural work out of humans, where God receives their faith, but rather it is a supernatural gift that is received from God, which is actually the same gift of faith that the apostle's received. It is the supernatural work of God in accordance with the same kind of miracle action of the great allotment spoken of in Romans, where we read, that
"God has allotted to each [Christian] a measure of faith." Romans 12:3
Unsaved people do not generate out of their sinful state of being, in the body of Adam, any kind of measure of faith, and then allot some measure back to God. Rather, God, as Jesus, is the author of all measure of spiritual faith which means that He creates our saving faith, and perfects it in the great miracle of His effectual call, where we read in Hebrews of,
"Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith," Hebrews 12:2
We also recognize, as is stated so well in John 6, that belief is not our work that we work, but it is God's work that He works in us,
"29 Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent'" John 6:29
@4 It is the work of _____________________ that people believe in Christ. John 6:29
PICK ONE: A) you, B) people, C) God, D) the preacher, E) salesmanship
In writing to his friend Philemon, Paul is straightforward about the fact that
A) both the love and faithfulness is from God,
so,
B) this is why God is to be thanked,
and,
C) both the Lord and those who are set apart in the Lord (saints) are the recipients of this love and faith that Philemon has been given.
At this point I want to bring out an interpretational problem concerning our text. Knowing about it helps to understand the depth of what Paul is saying in the flow. What I mean is that some people look at this verse, and they want to see a pattern here that separates the love and faith that Paul says that God gave Philemon:
"... because I hear of your love and of the faith [faithfulness] which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the set apart ones;" Philemon 1:4-5
They say that,
1) The love that God gave Philemon is for Christian people;
2) The faithfulness that God gave Philemon is for Christ.
Let me repeat that again. They think that love toward people is one thing that Paul is talking about that Philemon has; Faithfulness toward the Lord is the other. This interpretation is not correct. The reason why I think some people make this error, is because they do not recognize that Paul is saying that Philemon is manifesting the fruits of the Spirit, of love and faithfulness, to both Lord Jesus and to the Christians (saints). Any attempt to separate the two is imposed upon the text. It is important for us to understand that this Greek word that Paul uses here to point out the fame of Philemon's "faith" is "piston" (pistis). Pistis is a Greek word that is also translated as faithfulness and fidelity. This is how we find it in Romans 3:3, and Galatians 5:22;
"3 What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness [piston in the Greek] of God, will it?" Romans 3:3
In respect to Christian people having faithfulness toward other Christian people, as a manifestation of the Spirit, we see this in Galatians,
"22 ... the fruit of the Spirit is ... faithfulness [pistis in the Greek]" Galatians 5:22
Some have wrongfully tried to argue that nowhere in the Bible are Christians said to have faithfulness toward other Christians, but this is also wrong. Both Philemon 1:5, and Galatians 5:13-25 show that Paul negates those arguments. In fact, the whole context of Galatians 5:13-25 demonstrates Christians having faithfulness toward one another as the fruit of the Spirit that Paul is talking about in the contextual flow, as is clearly seen when the text is walked through carefully:
"13 ... do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ... 15 But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, .. 19 ... the deeds of the flesh ... are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 ... enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, ... and things like these, ... 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, <faithfulness,> 23 gentleness, self-control; [toward one another] ... 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit [in respect to one another, which includes faithfulness to one another in godly commitment.]"
There is an important reason for this word meaning connection. Separating faith and faithfulness was completely foreign to the minds of the first Christians. Both faithfulness and faith were simply parts of a whole. Faith identifies us Christians with reality in Christ (the indicative) and faithfulness is our expression of that reality (the imperative). Paul's point is that Philemon's faith in Christ was demonstrated in his faithfulness to Christ and to all the Christians. For you, me and all Christians, authentic faith in Christ that He has authored results in faithfulness to the author. Or to make it simpler:
Authentic Spirit generated saving faith in Christ results in faithfulness to Christ.
This leads us to recognize the second principle we can glean from our text for understanding that love and faith are the colorful attributes of the people of the culture of Christ.
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Love and faith toward others, must be manifested out of us as fruits of the Spirit for others to know about them. Without the manifestations, you look more like the dinginess of the sin of Adam than the vibrant palette of the Spirit.
"4 I thank my God always, ... 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward ["for" ESV] all the set apart ones;" Philemon 1:4-5
Notice that Paul says he hears of these things being manifested out of Philemon as fruits of the Spirit. Paul says to Philemon,
" ... you have ..." the faith and love.
This verb that Paul uses is in the present tense. Philemon is known to continue to have, in ongoing consistency, both love and faithfulness. The questions each of us need to ask ourselves are:
"What am I really known for?"
"What am I famous for in my Christianity?"
Philemon is known for his famous faith. He has the reputation of showing love. This is the Christ culture stuff that really matters in your daily walk where you are out there where the cultures collide. It is what matters when you interact with other members of the body. When we consider this, we should ask ourselves what others are seeing in us.
What would Paul say about you?
What would Paul hear about you?
When someone thinks of you, do they immediately think,
"You really have noticeable love and faithfulness for Christ and for others?"
Or do they think,
"You used to be so loving--so faithful--now I don't know what happened. You act like you were never saved."
Or when they think of you, are they saying,
"I've never noticed that you have ever manifested love and faithfulness toward Christ and others. I think you are a fake."
There was no doubt about Philemon. What God did in Him was coming out for all to see and experience. We really need to consider this. These are things that Paul had been hearing while in prison. Evidently, Paul knew Philemon beforehand through Paul's circle of acquaintances in his early days of ministry (cf, vv. 17-19). We surmise that Paul already understood some things about Philemon's love and faith. Over the years, Philemon's fame as a faithful lover of God, and of the saints, has become famous. Paul describes Philemon, now, as a refresher of the hearts of the saints, (verse 7). He is known to be a giver of his household for the meeting of the church community (verse 2). Epaphras and Onesimus have more than likely shared details about Philemon's love and faithfulness. So, Paul is hearing about all of this, and Paul is saying that he thanks his God. This brings assurance to Paul.
Why?
Because Paul is sending Onesimus back to this man.
What kind of man is Paul dealing with?--what kind of a "Christian" man? A man who manifests the vital attributes of Christ that are needed to receive back someone who has left behind hurt, abandonment, and loss, as a constant reminder of his swift evacuation. This is important as we think about our selves again. God wants the Christians that know you to have full confidence in you, and the only way they are going to do this is in knowing you as the "kind of Christian" who manifests faithfulness and love. This kind of famous love is love that nurtures others. I mean it is love that really helps others. It fights for the other members of the body of Christ. It stays with the other members of the body. It is love that forgives, then it forgives, and it forgives again. This is what the Spirit is talking about. It cares for other people's profit at the sake of care about our own gains. This kind of
"... love builds up." 1 Corinthians 8:1
This is what we want to be doing; and when we do it, it is not our own fame that is coming out. It is the fame of Christ in us coming out and ministering to our brothers and sisters for their benefit. Christ's work in the body is always for the goal of building it up to attain the full stature of the measure of Himself, Ephesians 4:13. One of the biggest manifestations of this (and Philemon was more than likely known for this) is showing kindness and goodness. This fruit of the Spirit is so easy to manifest, but amazingly there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians who rarely seem kind to others, and they seldom show goodness. You look at them and you think, "Where is the fruit?" When Paul identified the fruit of the Spirit as love, and faithfulness, he also said it is kindness and goodness,
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, kindness, goodness, faithfulness," Galatians 5:22
In Galatians 5:13, Paul commands the kind and good action of serving others,
"through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13
@5 God wants us to ______________________ one another through our Christian love. Galatians 5:13
The point is that when we serve one another, we are expressing the love that God has shed abroad in our hearts. We are being kind, and good, to others. This also means you are going to have to be faithful to the other members of the body. Faithfulness to Christ produces our faithfulness to others, and so faithfulness is manifested. This is how it was with the example in Philemon giving his house for the meeting of a church, and in his ongoing, relentless, love for other Christians through his refreshing them. We want to be manifesting the Spirit of our Christian culture. We want to be faithful to our brothers and sisters to the point that we are known for it. This leads us to recognize the third principle we can glean:
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God wants all of us to become effective in exposing our true colors by sharing our love and faithfulness with one another in practical Christianity through the knowledge of every good thing that is in us as Christians.
"6 and I pray that the fellowship [sharing ESV] of your faith [which can also be translated as faithfulness] may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in [us ESV] for Christ's sake." Philemon 1:6
At first, it may not seem like it, but this is a difficult verse. In fact, all the commentaries I consulted about this difficult to understand verse say the same thing:
"This is a difficult verse."
Consequently, there are about a half dozen interpretations of how to understand the Greek construction, and so this is why so many Bible translations render it differently from one another. In attempting to stick with the integrity of the Greek, and with the clear textual flow of appealing to Philemon to receive Onesimus in grace as a brother in Christ, I am going to explain some important considerations. At the outset this is going to seem a bit complex, but stay with me for a moment, and it will all make perfect sense. First I want you to remember that in the contextual flow, faith and faithfulness are both translation equivalencies. Both go with Philemon's love. All comes from the Holy Spirit within Philemon. Then here, in verse 6, the word the NASB has as "fellowship," is from koinonia. This word means to "share in commonality." This is why the ESV translates koinonia here, in verse 6, as "sharing." Keeping this in mind, Paul continues with his prayer wish for Philemon's faith-faithfulness that has just been mentioned in the flow of thought. Translating the Greek pisteos here, where Paul says that his desire is to see Philemon's faithfulness become effectively active (as applying to someone else) fits well here. Seeing pisteos as faithfulness at this point follows the same sense of the prior faith-faithfulness that Paul has been talking about, and grammatically is sound. For example, it reads like this,
"I pray that the sharing of your faithfulness may become active" Philemon 1:6
Translating the verse with this nuanced faithfulness meaning follows a consistent point that is seen in the flow of Paul's stream of his contextual current. Then, when Paul says that his desire for Philemon's Holy Spirit fruit manifestations that Paul has petitioned his God for in prayer (the word "prayer" is supplied here in verse 6, but rightly so, because it is implied from the antecedent prayers for Philemon stated in verse 4 of Paul's long point) Paul is wanting Philemon's manifestation to be based upon every good thing which is in us who are saved. The Greek "en Hemin" is properly rendered "in us" as the ESV has it, and not "in you" as the NASB has it, though Philemon's spirituality in the body is included. I know that what I just said may be confusing. But remember, it is okay for now. Just stay with me, because I am just getting these preliminary technical points of consideration stated and out of the way. Like I say, it will all make more sense for our further edification in a moment. What I am wanting to do is show the cascading flow of where this is going. Right now, I want us to think about something else that defines the flow: Philemon's love and faithfulness toward the Lord, and toward Christians, is already effective. It has already been activated in the general sense. We remember Philemon's fame, right? Paul has heard about Philemon's love and faithfulness as already being effective. So, Paul already knows that this is true. Keep this in mind, because I need to get technical again. The word effective is the Greek word "energes." Energes is also translated "active" as it is in Hebrews 4:12,
"12 For the word of God is living and active [same Greek word, energes] ..." Hebrews 4:12
So, keeping in mind that Philemon's love and faithfulness is already effective, and active, according to his fame, the point is easy to see. So listen carefully:
Paul wants Philemon to apply both these manifestations of the Spirit toward Onesimus too. This is Paul's concern. Paul continues with this same concern through the rest of the letter. Again; Paul wants Philemon's love and faithfulness manifestation to come out concerning Onesimus as a new man in Christ, so that Philemon's faithfulness may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in us Christians--meaning, good things that are now in Onesimus too as a brother in Christ (as well as in Paul, Timothy, and by extension in introspection of Philemon's own self).
Do you see what Paul is doing?
Paul is appealing to the spiritual riches in the heart of Philemon to recognize the spiritual riches in Onesimus too; and then act according to the Christ-culture. Paul does not want Philemon to act according to the ways of the lost world culture. Paul fittingly ends the section by saying that this is all "for Christ's sake." By doing this, Paul is taking Philemon's actions away from being something personal between Philemon and Onesimus according to the culture of the Roman world in respect to Philemon's legal relationship with Onesimus as runaway chattel property. Paul brings this issue back where it is supposed to be which is where? In the culture of Christ. This is the arena that all of us need to deal with issues. This is the huge lesson for us this morning. In this arena, we are supposed to act according to the knowledge of every good thing that God has put in us. The main good that God put in us is the perfectly good person of the Holy Spirit. Love and faithfulness are in us too, and yet they come from the Holy Spirit. So, Paul places all of this under the love and faithfulness principle of the culture of Christ. It goes outward toward the saints, of which Onesimus is now blessed to be too as a new creation in Christ. With this in mind the passage is easier to understand, and makes sense contextually when translated in a dynamic equivalent this way:
"6 and I pray that the
[sharing]
of your
[faithfulness]
may become effective
[active, (activated, cf. D. Moo) Gk. energes; toward Onesimus too (in accord with the full context of the letter's thrust)]
through the knowledge of every good thing which is in us
[ie. "us Christians": Paul, Timothy and Onesimus, and by extension, Philemon too]
for Christ's sake." Philemon 1:6
Viewed in this way, I think this makes the most sense contextually, and stays with the grammar. Nevertheless, even if one interprets this passage slightly differently, the principles in it for displaying the colorful attributes of the people in the culture of Christ are the same. In other words, the knowledge of every good thing that is within you, in me, and within all Christians, as the regenerated spiritual people of the culture of Christ, is what the Spirit uses to help us to understand how to treat others. God does not want us to follow humanistic philosophies on how to win friends and influence others. God does not want us to operate out of emotional guilt feelings. God does not want us to treat each other the way the lost world culture treats each other, which is according to lostness. God wants us to no longer know any Christian according to the flesh, 2 Corinthians 5:16. Philemon had a legal right, in the world culture, to handle Onesimus according to Philemon's knowledge of the world's laws. Philemon could have handled this according to the way the world handles things, which is according to revenge, or according to lack of mercy, lack of love, legalism, or however the world culture chooses to do so. Any of us Christians can fall into this same trap when our feelings get hurt. It is easy to do when we become prideful--especially when we have been wronged and we think we have a legal right to exact revenge on someone. But God wants us to turn our backs on all of that. He wants us to open the eyes of our heart to acknowledge the good that is in all of us Christians, which is the Holy Spirit. With all of this in mind, then, we see that Paul is specifically bringing this point out concerning his desire that Philemon receive back his runaway slave Onesimus, now as a brother in Christ (yet still a slave) where Philemon manifests all the fruits of the Spirit out toward Onesimus according to what is within God's people. Onesimus is now a partner in Christ that has been set free from the slavery of sin and death of the lost world culture. Philemon should love his slave Onesimus with the love of Christ with the faithfulness that he is famous for. Listen to me very carefully, because the main point for all of us to take with us is: God wants all of us to become effective in sharing our faithfulness with one another in practical Christianity through the knowledge of every good thing that is in us for Christ's sake. God does not want you to be driven by the bad of the outside. It is in us to look at one another as being better than ourselves; but we need to do it. It is in us to be faithful to the family of God; but God wants us to demonstrate it. It is in us to be builders; so we need to build one another up for Christ's sake. Our regenerate nature is made to look past each other's failures in the same way that Christ does with us. We were made to look past each others irritations. We were made to look to Christ in one another as our hope of glory. These are the colors that everyone should be seeing and experiencing from us. This leads to the fourth principle to glean for understanding that love and faith are the colorful attributes of the people of the culture of Christ.
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God wants all of us to become effective in sharing our faithfulness with one another in practical Christianity for Christ's sake. The sake of your Lord is the primary issue. Paul says,
"... for Christ's sake." Philemon 1:6
The Greek actually has "unto Christ." What this means is that in the culture of Christ, we are not merely trying to look religious, or holy, or pious. Christ saved us for His reasons. He saved us for Himself. Of course it would be silly to say that we don't get the blessings of being saved. Of course we do; But (and this is very important) Christ primarily saves us to bless Himself with us forever as objects of His love and faithfulness in His grace. What does this say about our love and faithfulness? We have both for the glory of Christ. God does not want us acting like we love Christians, or that we are faithful to Christians, merely because we think that this will make us look good. This is not what Philemon was supposed to do. We don't do this so that we can get a reward. Our love and faithfulness makes the Lord look good. Why? Because it expresses what He has done through His work in creating a people to declare His glories, where He manifests Himself out of us. God wants all of us to become effective in sharing our faithfulness with one another in practical Christianity in the culture of Christ, so that Christ gets His reward in His grueling work of purchasing us on the cross in His own love and faithfulness. The love and faithfulness that you express is your spiritual service of worship. Remember, the sake of your Lord is the primary issue. This leads to the last principle.
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The love and faith that we manifest in the culture of Christ for Christ's sake brings comfort to others, and refreshes the hearts of God's people who are set apart in Christ
"7 For I have come to have derived much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the set apart ones [saints] have been refreshed through you, brother." Philemon 1:7
"Refresh" here means to have an encouraging effect. This word was a term that was used by the Roman military. After they would march on foot for miles and miles they would stop to be refreshed. Philemon was someone who brought Christians into refreshing peace, and rest, by ministering to them in love and faithfulness to their needs. Philemon was a comfort to Christians--an encourager. God wants us to be comforters and encouragers too. As we comfort and encourage one another, we are demonstrating unmistakable love and faithfulness. This is such a great calling. How beautiful it is for others to experience the ministry of the Sabbath rest of the Holy Spirit when they experience you. When we refresh one another, then others are experiencing, in a sense, Jesus. There is nothing worse than someone who claims to be in the culture of Christ, and yet they are a pain to other Christians. They are marked by their bad attitudes; even unforgiveness. They are marked by their lack of care. Pridefulness is one huge problem. It can even be manifested when a Christian thinks he or she is more spiritual than others. I knew a man who would criticize churches and decent Christians. He would slander them because he said that when he was with the saints, he did not "feel" the presence of the Holy Spirit. He would irreverently say,
"The Holy Spirit wasn't there."
But yet, I happened to know that the Holy Spirit was there in every single one of those church fellowships in the very people he maligned. Why? Because I recognized the good within them, as Paul says. But this man was a man marked by pride in his views of spirituality. Paul the apostle did not appeal to Philemon's pride. Paul did not teach some nebulous meaningless feeling and call it discernment. Paul did not say,
"When Onesimus gets to you, I want you to stand next to him and see if you think you can 'feel' the Holy Spirit's presence. By the way, I am asking him to do the same with you too. Hopefully you both will have the same feeling so you will know for sure whether you are truly recognizing the good Spirit that is within you both."
Of course Paul does not say that--either here, or in any of his epistles. Instead, Paul says, that he prays that the sharing of your faithfulness may become effective through the knowledge which is according to real facts concerning real spirituality of every good thing which is in us for Christ's sake. I have seen it over and over again, especially in our current age. People who are prigs with their claims to deeper life experiences, and higher height attainments of revelation, often leave a throbbing sense of pain in other wonderful Christians because of their judgmental pride and narrow agendas. They are smug in their spirituality. They are not colored as peace makers. They do not have the fame of Philemon of being loving and faithful to the body. They fail to acknowledge every good thing that is in the true body. They are not shining as refreshers who heal, and love, in real faithfulness. They foster restlessness among the body. They are the ones who claim to manifest the Spirit, yet the irony is that they are the ones who are not really doing so. Then also, there are the other kinds of fault finders. They look for faults in other Christians like this is their calling in life. They set up a standard of perfection that they can not attain themselves, and then they tear others down for not holding up to their standard bearing. None of these people are painted with love, and especially not by the manifestation of faithfulness to the saints. Instead of being peace makers, and refreshers, they are evacuators who will turn away from brothers and sisters in Christ in the blink of an eye. Listen to me, we want to be committed refreshers who are consistently manifesting the kind of love that Paul recognizes God has given Philemon. This is what the real Spirit really wants. This refreshing love is love that you choose to apply out of your heart in obedience to the actual Spirit of God. It is love that you decide to do, and then you do it. It is humbleness kind of love. It is nonjudgmental, forgiveness, kind of love. It is self self-sacrificial kind of love that looks at others as being better than yourself. This is what Philemon was going to have to do because He had been hurt. Philemon could have had Onesimus put to death according to his rights under Roman jurisdiction. But his love had to be the kind of love that is not emotional and contingent under the Highest jurisdiction. It had to be authentic. It had to be volitional where it comes from the Spirit, and is based upon the word. In the culture of Christ, this is what everyone should expect from us.
Let us not forget the principles. God, in His sovereignty, is the one to be thanked for both the love and faith we have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all people that God sets apart in Christ as the body of Christ. He is the focus. Then there is that second principle: Love and faith toward others, in the culture of Christ, must be manifested out of us as fruits of the Spirit for anyone to know about them. We don't want to hide our lamps under our beds. I urge you to remember the third thing too. God wants all of us to become effective by sharing our love and faithfulness with one another in practical Christianity through the knowledge of every good thing that is in us as Christians. Then the fourth thing. It is who gets glorified. We must be effective in sharing our faithfulness with one another for Christ's sake. Again, the last principle is that what we are doing is bringing comfort to others as refreshers who refresh one another in the Spirit. amen
@1 We give thanks to __________________ alone when someone has love and faithfulness toward Jesus and other Christians. Philemon 1:4-5
@2 A ____________________________ man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot understand them. 1 Corinthians 2:14
@3 The love of God is poured out into the hearts of all Christians through the Holy Spirit that is __________________. Romans 5:5
@4 It is the work of _____________________ that people believe in Christ. John 6:29
PICK ONE: A) you, B) people, C) God, D) the preacher, E) salesmanship
@5 God wants us to ______________________ one another through our Christian love. Galatians 5:13
