so phiman is the fourth of our prison letters that we're going to study um and so the authorship is Paul the date then same time as the other prison Epistles around 5960 61 if you like I don't care I think I gave you the data 59 for all of the prison Epistles it's close enough um written about the same about the same time as Ephesians Philippians Colossians and Phim and they maybe were all written in the same year or within two years while Paul's in prison probably in Rome it's almost certainly a Roman imprisonment again you'll find some Scholars who suggest maybe Paul was maybe some of them were written while Paul was in prisoned in cesaria there's some talk among some Scholars about an Ephesian imprisonment I don't think that matters that much it is probably near the end of the first Roman imprisonment simply because of the optimism that's present in the other Paul in the other prison letters the optimism that Paul's going to get out he's going to come see them that sort of thing um the personal details that connect Colossians and phiman together suggest that phiman was probably written before Colossians but again that's not a debate I really am all that concerned about so if the conclusions about authorship and date are correct then the provenance is wrome that's where Paul was in prison almost certainly U when he wrote the letter uh to Philea so what's the purpose well the purpose of phiman is essentially the story of philimon um if you're familiar with the New Testament at all you are familiar with the story of philimon so um phiman was a colossian um and he was apparently a wealthy colossian who had come to Faith in Christ but he was a slave owner he was almost certainly a slave owner before he became a Christian now he's become a Christian and the question of should a Christian be a slave owner as there were slave owners of Plenty um in Roman times now what happened is um onesimus is the slave in the story right so phiman is the slave owner onesimus is the slave and onesimus who is an unbeliever apparently robs phiman uh get the money to run away um and then runs away um and Paul is very convinced that it was Divine Providence that brings phiman all excuse me onesimus all the way to Rome now Rome is a long way from colassi if you can imagine where colassi is and you can imagine where Rome is there are other places that you could flee to um that would be easier uh Ephesus or anywhere in Greece I mean you can imagine he's going from sort of Western Central turkey ke all the way to Italy to Rome in Italy but he's probably honestly he's probably doing that because if you were ever going to go if you're ever going to try to go somewhere to disappear Rome is the place to go um my in-laws live in a little town of High Point North Carolina if you're familiar with high point you know but if you suddenly became a federal fugitive you're not going to run and hide in High Point you're going to run to a place like New York City Los Angeles somewhere you can blend into the crowd and disappear that is apparently what onesimus did though Paul is convinced that God brought him to him so onesimus gets probably through Christian missionaries there in Rome onesimus gets connect connected to Paul while Paul is still under house arrest the house arrest you read about in the last chapter or chapters the book of Acts according to Paul's own testimony then Paul leads onesimus to faith in Christ and onesimus becomes a minister with Paul there in the city of colassa so here's a runaway slave he's a fugitive a legal fugitive he's Runway to another part the Mediterranean he is um he comes to faith in Christ directly by Paul Paul taught him the gospel and discipled him he became a Christian and then I gu sort of I don't know how I don't know how it happened Paul doesn't say but I would imagine at some point in their discipleship meetings on this is like well you know I've got this thing I probably need to get off my chest and Paul's like what's that and he's like um I'm a fugitive from Justice and probably lays the story out there uh for Paul and this is after onesmus had become a minister U missionary essentially a lay minister with Paul and however it happens Paul finds out that onesimus is a runaway slave now under Roman law if you want to know why phiman goes down the way it does under Roman law Paul as a he's a Roman citizen who has become aware that this is a runaway slave he really has two choices two legal choices I mean there's always the choice to scoff the law and do nothing which may be appropriate the law is really unjust it's slavery it's hard to imagine any condition where slavery is just but under Roman law Paul had two um two options right option number one is to and this is the law the option the law intends and that is to return the slave everyone was under obligation to return the runaway slave to the runaway slaves owner and so you know if in other words same way if you came in possession of stolen property you are obligated to return that property to its owner slav for property onesimus is a runaway slave Paul is under obligation to return the slave to philan now phiman was under legal obligation to pay Paul's expenses but you know how that goes you know there's no PayPal account to transfer the money in sending money from Rome to colassi it was all and you know you put you know you pay up front you put the slave on a boat the slave escapes again you're out your money or the slave gets returned to the master and he doesn't pay you you can imagine all the horrific scenarios that might go down in that regard so the Romans allowed a second option and the second option was simp was this you could sell you could have the slave declared a fugitive by the government and then you could sell the slave and then send the money to the owner minus your expenses and that's the one almost everybody did because that's the one that was that's the one that's not going to bankrupt you if the whole thing goes wrong so those legally those are Paul's two options now we know Paul is not going to do option number two he's not gonna Paul is so anti-slavery in the book of phiman it's just sort of ridiculous Paul is never going to sell another human being particularly not a brother in Christ um but Paul does want to obey the law but he's got a much higher purpose involved in pay in obeying the law so Paul's going to opt to send onesimus back to philimon and he's going to write a letter to accompany him um now in the letter this is the this is the theological Brilliance of the Apostle Paul in the letter Paul never directly demands that fiman set onesimus free but Paul is going to build a case related to Christianity and slavery that is going to make the holding of slaves by a Christian an absurdity a theological absurdity and we're going to read it in just a minute as you read between the lines um Paul actually has something else up his sleeve as well he doesn't just want phiman and onesimus to be restored though he does he doesn't want to just change philemon's thinking about slavery he does he doesn't want just want phiman to free onesimus he does he actually wants something else as well and we'll see what that is in just a minute all right so the outline of phiman by the way phiman does not have chapters so filiman is simply referred to by its verse numberb so um phiman 1 through3 which is not chapters 1 through three it's verses 1 through three but phiman 1 through3 is the introduction from Paul to phiman that introduction looks a lot like you would expect in a Pauline letter the two the from the grace and peace the welcome the thank you the Thanksgiving we'll look at that in just a second uh fiman for 4-7 Paul gives Thanksgiving for phan's faithfulness just mentioned that phiman 8-16 Paul appeals to the gospel to change philman's thinking about slavery this is the bulk of the letter um and then phiman 17-22 is Paul's real request and we'll see that in just a minute and then philimon 22 through2 is his conclusion and final greeting so if you have your Bible out go ahead and open it up to the book of philimon and uh let's let's uh read it very briefly I'll comment as we go so verse one Paul a prisoner for Christ Jesus and Timothy our brother so he's he's giving the missionary credentials to phiman our beloved fellow worker and AIA our sister I assume that is phan's wife there's no way to know for sure but she's an important member in the church so she probably his wife um and Arius our fellow Soldier that's a missionary maybe maybe phiman and apia's son I don't know and the church in your house so the whole letter is written not just to fan but to the whole church which is well grace to you and peace from God our Father the Lord Jesus Christ so in other words this is not a this is not a private matter when you have a Christian owning a slave when you have two Christians who are having a conflict This Is Not A Private Matter this is a letter that is not written from Paul to phiman this is a letter that is written to phiman and to the church in his house this is a matter for the people of God all right so look what Paul says he says I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the lord Jesus and for all the saints 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 for I have derived much joy and comfort from your love my brother because the hearts of the Saints have been refreshed through you so we see right there you know Paul has a relationship with philimon um they are friends um Paul considers phiman to be a very important m member of the church maybe he's the pastor even I don't know but Paul is not my point is is that in 4 through 7 Paul is not buttering phiman up he's not you know shooing him because he's about to ask him for something he's trying to show phiman what it means to be a Christian what it means that phiman is a Christian because he's about to appeal to that to get phiman to do the right thing philimon is a missionary phiman shares his faith phiman is a great comfort to the missionaries phiman has a great love for all the saints but he's got this huge blind spot he owns another person and Paul says Paul's about to say those two things don't go together now the letter to if as you read the letter to phiman you found parts of it to be funny you are probably reading it correctly Paul is laying on the rhetoric um some of its tongue and cheek but um listen to what he says Paul says accordingly though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required yet for for Love's sake I prefer to appeal to you Paul's pretty straightforward I could tell you what to do in this case this is this is a no-brainer I could just simply say you are out of bounds release your slaves Christians can't own slaves and Paul says but I love you and I want your heart to change I want to persuade you rather than command you and then he puts in parenthesis I Paul an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus so you know Paul's like surely you're not going to disappoint the old man surely you're not going to disappoint the missionary who's in jail right he says I appeal to you for my child onesimus that's powerful language too he says onesimus is my child that's the language Paul used of Timothy Paul is saying you you own onesimus would you own Timothy would you own me would you dare own me or Timothy why is onesimus any different he's my child he's a believer in Jesus he's a missionary in the service of the Gospel he is my own child on esmus whose father I became in my imprisonment formerly he was useless to you but now he is indeed very useful to you and to me I am sending him back to you sending my very heart Paul says I love this guy I love this guy he says I would have been glad to keep no he's previewing the request right that request I haven't mentioned yet here's what Paul really wants I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel but I prefer to do nothing without your consent that's what Paul really wants in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord for this perhaps is why he part he parted from you for a while that you might have him back forever no longer as a bonder servant but more than a bonder servant a beloved brother especially to me how much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord and so right there Paul lays down the Theology of the whole situation and that is he is a brother he is not a servant he's a brother he's a missionary there is no way possible if you understand Christianity for you to understand slavery in this context verse 17 so if you consider me your partner receive him as you would receive me now there is one issue Paul has not mentioned yet and that is fiman robbed Paul look at Verse 18 if he's wronged you at all or owes you anything Paul says charge that to my account if he owes you anything I will pay it Paul says I Paul write this with my own hand I will repay it to say nothing of you owing me even your own soul now Paul says if you want to if you want to settle up debts if you're talking about you know if you want fair if you want to get what's yours Paul says okay here's you you put what phiman or what onesimus owes you in my ledger but remember what's in your Ledger and that is I traveled all across the world so that you might hear the gospel I didn't travel all across the world so that you might own another human being verse 20 he says yes brother brother I want some benefit from you in the Lord refresh my heart confident of your obedience I am writing to you knowing that you will do even more than I say well what is that that's send Paul wants philimon to to release onesimus and send him back to Rome so that onesimus can continue to be a servant of Paul and a missionary there he says I know that you will do even more than I say at the same time prepare a guest room for me I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you so not only is Paul saying this is what I want you to do but Paul's saying I'm going to come stay in your house um when I come visit you in Asia Minor again which Paul presumably does during his later letters and travels so that's fiman in a nutshell many readers are concerned that Paul doesn't condemn slavery as openly as he should but understand that Paul puts the institution of slavery on such grounds that it was doomed in the Christian understanding read your uh notes on this I think they're actually very helpful the only time that Paul directly addresses the issue of an individual slave he demands his freedom the gospel puts the slave and the master on equal footing before the Lord the gospel puts the Christian slave and the Christian master and the same family both the owner and the slave are answerable to the same Lord for their actions look the gospel changes everything and everywhere that Christian civilization has gone wrong such as slavery um it's not because we were following the gospel it's because we were had rejected the gospel and Paul wants filiman to live the gospel