PPE-04 Paul and Philemon

Most of us have experienced times when we feel that a friend owes us a favor. Maybe we’ve done something nice — given a gift or helped in a special way — and then the time comes when we need help. So, we approach our friend, and say, “I know you may not want to do this, but I could really use your help. And you do owe me a favor.” In many ways, the apostle Paul faced a similar situation. He had done a lot for his friend, Philemon, and he needed a favor from him. So, Paul wrote to Philemon, reminding him of how much Paul had done for him, and he asked Philemon to show kindness to someone else as a favor to him.

This is the fourth lesson in our series Paul’s Prison Epistles, and we’ve entitled it “Paul and Philemon.” We’ll be taking a close look at the letter Paul wrote from prison to his friend Philemon, a member of the church in Colossae. In this letter, Paul petitioned Philemon for a favor, asking him to reconcile himself to Onesimus, Philemon’s slave who had recently come to faith in Christ.

Our study of Paul and Philemon will divide into three main parts: First, we’ll look into the background of Paul’s letter to Philemon. Second, we’ll examine the structure and content of Paul’s letter to Philemon. And third, we’ll focus on the modern application of this letter. Let’s look first at the background of Paul’s letter to Philemon.

Paul’s letter to Philemon differs from his other prison epistles in at least two ways. On the one hand, it’s significantly shorter than the other letters he wrote during his imprisonment. This is largely because the letter directly addresses only a single issue. And on the other hand, it was written primarily to an individual person, Philemon, rather than to a church or group of churches. For this reason, it is deeply personal. This means that the more we know about Philemon and the other people involved, and the more we know about the circumstances Paul addressed, the better prepared we’ll be to understand Paul’s rather specific teachings in this letter. And the better prepared we’ll be to apply these personal matters to our own lives today.