Philemon 1:1-21

Preacher, have you ever preached from Philemon?

Yeah, me neither…

Maybe you’ll be able to glean some preaching help from this commentary, but I’m deviating slightly from the telos of this project because I believe Philemon is used better as a pastoral reflection than as a homily.

With this in mind, let me change the audience.

Pastor, when was the last time you had to have a hard conversation with one of your most faithful and generous parishioners? How do you address difficult situations with those who have not only great influence and wealth, but those who are genuinely spiritual leaders and disciples in your congregation?

In this brief, undisputed, letter we see a side of Paul that can sound kind of unfamiliar. When we think of the apostle Paul we think of one who was not afraid to acknowledge his role as apostle to influence readers. Of the undisputed Pauline epistles, Philemon and Philippians are the only two where Paul does not appeal to his apostleship. (See Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 1, Galatians 1, and 1 Thessalonians 2.)

Also, we tend to think of Paul as a “straight shooter,” perhaps lacking in diplomatic skills all pastors today employ. He’s been willing to use profane language (skubalon from Philippians 3), to say that agitators should castrate themselves (Galatians 5), or to even intimate that when Christians sleep with prostitutes a member of Christ has been united with a prostitute (1 Corinthians 6). So often Paul says these hard things that many pastors only wish they could say to their congregations and still keep their jobs.

In this lection, though, we see a different Paul. Perhaps we see a different side of Paul than is stereotyped because Paul is not, primarily, addressing a congregation, but a person. This is one of those rare occasions where we have a personal correspondence, not an ecclesial address. Included in this letter to Philemon are two others, Apphia and Archippus, as well as the church that meets in his house. We may presume, then, that Philemon was a wealthy man, owning land and slaves. He would have been held in high esteem my the congregation as the one with a compound capable enough to hold a church.

When Paul appeals to him, though, he does not appeal to him as a man with wealth or a man of influence. He is not trying to butter this leader up before he asks him a very challenging favor, he is appealing to him as a faithful person; as one with love for the saints and faith in the Lord. He appeals to this one who has been an encouragement both to himself and to the saints.

Then Paul makes a challenging plea, a plea that Philemon receive back his former slave. Not to be his slave again, but to be his brother. This was a bold thing to ask. We don’t know why Onesimus is no longer Philemon’s slave, he may have escaped for one reason or another, but we do know that Onesimus has become a Christian. Probably, Onesimus has become a Christian under the ministry of Paul for Paul calls him his child.

There are many grounds for which Paul could have made an appeal for Onesimus. Politically, Paul could have functioned as an advocate for Onesimus. Roman law permitted free men to legally defend slaves.

Ecclesiastically, Paul could have appealed to Philemon as an apostle. He could have interceded for Onesimus on the grounds of his status within the church. He says that he could invoke this authority, “though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do you duty.” Instead, he appeals on the “basis of love.”

He makes a plea, perhaps a plea that would have been met with justifiable frustration on the part of Philemon, out of mutual love for both Philemon and Onesimus. He doesn’t “come down” on Philemon, but still pleas on Onesimus’s behalf.

So, pastor, how do you handle confrontation? For many of us, confrontation is a four-letter word. We’d rather not deal with it, or if we do, we often make heavy handed appeals based on our merit or our office. This is one instance where Paul feels that to be inappropriate. Philemon does not have malicious intent regarding the church, he has been a faithful leader and disciple, therefore it would be incongruent for Paul to deal with him as a usurper. Philemon is a man who loves the church, has lived faithfully, but needs to make a change regarding the acceptance of Onesimus.

How do you deal with those who have great love for the church yet need some correction? How do you confront those in positions of leadership who may have the best of intentions, but miss the mark on a very important matter?

Perhaps we can take pastoral counsel from Paul here. Confrontation need not be avoided if done with mutual love for the one being confronted as well as the issue at hand.

Continue preaching and pastoring well, my friends. This is the most important work in the world!

God invited Jeremiah to “go down to the potter’s house” so that he might hear a divine word for his people (v 2). Perhaps Jeremiah spent too much time in the office, hanging around the temple, or at his home, a quiet little village just a short walk from Jerusalem. God said it was time to get out among the people where life really happens.

Nothing symbolized real life quite like pottery in the ancient world. As archaeological excavations in Israel over the past centuries have revealed, earthenware vessels were the plastic of their day. Archaeologists have unearthed literally thousands of pottery shards at every level of human occupation. Everything from storage containers to cooking pots to home décor and lighting was made of clay. So every village or city contained a potter’s workshop. This centuries old craft required hours of backbreaking work from dawn till dusk. Potters must dig and mix clay to just the right consistency, shape all kinds and sizes of vessels, burnish, paint and fire them in kilns at just the right temperature. Elbow deep in mud, spinning wheels, pumping bellows, it was messy, dirty, sweaty, exhausting work.

So the potter’s house in Jerusalem was likely not only located “down” geographically from the Temple area, but it was also “down” socially from the refined, educated, “spiritual” world of priests on the Holy Hill. The pottery district was probably located near the Gihon Spring at the juncture of the Kidron and Hinnom valleys many feet below the imposing Temple Mound. It was a place where hands got dirty with everyday life.

Today we might imagine God inviting his servant to an auto repair shop to listen for a word. Like Jeremiah, we could watch men and women going about their routine tasks wondering what God could say through that. What might we learn from the one changing a road-worn tire with dirt and grease smudged on his face and shirt? As he lifts the car, loosens bolts, separates old tires from rims, replaces them with new tires (just the right size, price and tread), airs them up to the proper pressure and secures them once again to the wheel, what do we see of God in that?

That day in the potter’s shop the attentive heart of Jeremiah “heard” God say, “Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as the potter has done?” (v 6). This was not likely an audible voice, any more than it would be today. Jeremiah simply noted “the word of the LORD came to me” (v 5). The total control of a master potter over the clay spoke volumes to Jeremiah. This is a second challenge for the modern reader: to recognize that God is like a potter and people are like clay. God is absolutely sovereign and we are absolutely dependent. God can shape and reshape us as He pleases. Earthly kings do not determine the shape of things to come, not even Babylonian kings or presidents of superpowers. God still runs the universe. God might choose to “pluck up and break down and destroy” or change his mind and decide to “build and plant” (vv 7-9). Like the master potter, God’s choice depended on how people (the clay) responded to his touch.

The role of the clay in the hands of the potter is simply to remain malleable, no small task for human beings. Jeremiah observed that the vessel the potter was making became “spoiled” (shachat “ruined”) in his hands (v 4). Something was not right. The clay did not become what the potter intended for it to become. It could no longer function as the potter intended it to function. So also, Israel had not responded to the Master’s touch. The LORD had “plans to prosper [them] and not to harm [them], plans to give [them] hope and a future” (Jer 29:11). But they had been like the nation that “does evil” and is “not listening to [God’s] voice” (v 10). As a result, God announced that He would be like “a potter shaping evil against you,” which turned out to be the invasion of ISIS-like Babylon and the horrific holocaust of 587 BC (v 11).

Yet, the outcome could have been different. If Israel would have been like that nation that “turns from its evil,” then, the LORD said, “I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring” (v 8). There was hope. But Israel, like clay, must be willing to be “reworked into another vessel, as seemed good” to the LORD (v 4). This is God’s desire for his people: to be malleable in his hands, open to whatever, whenever, however. God calls those who would live with Him to adjust to the circumstances, go with the flow, take it as it comes, and follow the lead of the Spirit daily. Total surrender. Entire sanctification. Complete allegiance. That’s God’s call to us.

This brings us to one more challenge in this narrative. God told Jeremiah to tell his people, “I am a potter shaping evil against you” (v 11). In other words, God told his prophet to tell people the whole truth. Jeremiah must not only announce God’s love and forgiveness, but God’s judgment as well. God instructed the prophet to let people know that He would hold them accountable for their sin if they did not change their ways.

I wonder what that might look like today. Do our people need to know that sin carries catastrophic consequences? Should we call them to a different lifestyle or let them stay as they are? After all, we are all broken people. Shouldn’t we just tell them how much God loves them and let them continue in their sin? Is there a moment when we must be totally honest with our people and let them know about the other side of God’s love, His judgment? Do we need to let people know how much God hates sin because of what it does to us? Jeremiah said it was part of the word of the LORD that came to him that day. Could it be a word for our people today as well?