Philemon

Episodes

1. 19

   Love Before Faith

   Verse 7 closes the letter's opening section, and the small chiasm in verses 5-7 rewards patient reading. In verse 5 Paul places love before faith, an order easy to read past. The Bible's complexities draw readers more deeply into faith.

   Feb 28, 1999

   45m
2. 18

   Tomorrow's Bread, the Grand Goal

   Prayer's real, grand goal should be the End itself rather than merely present relief, a claim tested against Luke 11:3's request for 'this day tomorrow's bread,' read here as reaching toward that same end. Jesus, Paul, and James agree remarkably closely about what prayer is actually for, despite...

   Feb 21, 1999

   43m
3. 17

   Giving Ourselves Away Like Creation

   Paul's prayers open onto a heavenly life, and Romans 8:26 places that life within a groaning creation whose goal is the resurrection of the redeemed on the last day. Believers, like creation and like Christ, give themselves away. Prayer shares in that same self-giving.

   Feb 14, 1999

   32m
4. 16

   Philemon's Chiasm

   Paul's attitude toward prayer across the letter leads to its structure, since chiasm and parallelism shape the whole epistle to Philemon as one large chiasm. Seeing that structure changes how the letter's small parts relate to the whole. In this letter, form carries the argument.

   Feb 7, 1999

   33m
5. 15

   No Old Testament Thanksgiving Like This

   Christ's death and resurrection changed how Paul prays, and the Old Testament has no real examples of saints giving thanks for others the way Paul routinely does. Ephesians 1:18 shows the same pattern. Giving thanks for other believers is a distinctly New Testament habit of prayer.

   Jan 31, 1999

   45m
6. 14

   Becoming What We Already Are

   Paul's prayer is itself a gift of grace, and there Arminian and Reformed accounts of sanctification and prayer part ways. Sanctification means becoming what believers already are in Christ. All boasting belongs to the Lord.

   Jan 17, 1999

   33m
7. 13

   Incense and Perpetual Prayer

   The new day in prayer and the meaning of 'always' lead to the Old Testament's priestly incense offerings, which prefigure Christ's perpetual prayers. Thanksgiving for others belongs to the heart of real prayer. Prayer already takes part in the eternal realm now.

   Dec 13, 1998

   38m
8. 12

   Praying Always

   Paul claims to pray 'always,' and the word rules out both a literalistic misreading and a watered-down one. Paul's bond with Christ grounds that constancy, because Christ himself prays always for his people. Human prayer is possible only because Christ's unceasing prayer takes it up.

   Dec 6, 1998

   33m
9. 11

   A New Day of Prayer

   Christ's coming inaugurates a genuinely new day of prayer, marked by an intimacy and assurance 2 Chronicles 20's Old Testament prayer did not yet have access to. Paul's own prayers, overflowing with joy and thanksgiving for others, model what that new day actually sounds like. Even measured…

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   Nov 15, 1998

   36m
10. 10

    A Priestly Blessing

    Paul's salutation is deliberately heavenly, set against the pattern of an earthly king's greeting, and Numbers 6's priestly blessing supplies its real ancestor. Paul writes as a kind of apostolic priest, dispatched from God's own sanctuary to bless God's people. His own humiliation, patterned…

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    Nov 1, 1998

    35m
11. 9

    Grace and Peace Are Christ Himself

    'Grace' and 'peace' in Paul's greeting aim at perseverance as well as conversion, a point easy to miss once the words become routine. Grace draws believers from earth toward heaven, where perpetual peace already exists. Together, grace and peace name Christ himself.

    Oct 25, 1998

    35m
12. 8

    An Ambassador From the Throne Room

    Christ's Lordship and God's Fatherhood are inseparable in Paul's salutation, and the two titles stand or fall together. Paul writes as an ambassador sent from God's throne room. The salutation belongs to the church alone.

    Oct 18, 1998

    33m
13. 7

    A Salutation for All Ages

    Apostolic salutations belong properly to ordained ministers, and people have abused them often enough that the point needs restating. In Paul's greeting God becomes 'Father' and Christ 'Lord' in a way meant for every age since. Old Testament greetings show by contrast how new Paul's salutation is.

    Sep 20, 1998

    37m
14. 6

    Apphia's Individuality

    Paul's greeting names Apphia as an individual in her own right, part of the New Testament's unique revelation about women. A pattern emerges: Timothy relates to Paul as brother, Apphia to Philemon as sister, and the church to Christ as sons of God, three forms of one family relationship. Even a...

    Aug 30, 1998

    33m
15. 5

    Dearly Beloved

    Paul's affection for Philemon resembles the love between a man and a woman, the same intensity he shows the Philippians and that Song of Solomon 5 describes at length. 'Dearly beloved' makes a real claim about that bond. Service in the church runs on that kind of love.

    Aug 16, 1998

    37m
16. 4

    Exalting Onesimus

    Readers on the left and the right weigh church office differently, including the question of women preaching and teaching, and Paul's patience with two arguing Philippian women offers a test case. The letter's central demand is that Philemon exalt Onesimus, a runaway slave, as masters in general...

    Aug 16, 1998

    42m
17. 3

    Diminishing Himself, Exalting Timothy

    Even Paul's brief salutation carries spiritual discipline, as he names himself Christ's prisoner before anything else. Following Christ's pattern, Paul diminishes himself in these opening verses and exalts Timothy beside him. The way Paul introduces a letter already shows how he lives the gospel.

    Aug 2, 1998

    34m
18. 2

    Useful Only as a Prisoner

    Paul's imprisonment joins a pattern that includes the apostles and Christ himself, and it presses a paradox: Paul is useful to Christ precisely as a prisoner. True freedom comes only in being Christ's captive. Christian freedom and the freedom Judaism offered are two different things.

    Jul 19, 1998

    43m
19. 1

    Paul, Prisoner and Free

    Philemon's modest place in the New Testament canon hides how much theology fills its opening verses, starting with Paul's imprisonment in Rome and what 'captive' meant in the Old Testament. Paul glories in being a prisoner of Christ, even offers himself as a kind of sacrifice, and finds his real...

    Jul 12, 1998

    41m