1. What does the
text say?
2. What does it mean?
3. What does it mean to me?
These three questions - formulated by Madelon Maupin (BibleRoads.com)
- are of inestimable assistance when reading Scripture.
Paul's brief letter to Philemon is an example. Here's
what some of the letter says:
Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and
fellow-labourer, And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the
church in thy house: ...
I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in
my bonds: Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to
thee and to me:
(Philemon 1:1, 2, 10, 11)
To begin to understand why Paul was writing, we might look at some of the characters he mentions here, with help from Words of Current Interest, Christian
Science Sentinel July 25 1964:
Philemon (fi-le'mon—i as in is, e as in eve, o as in connect) was a
friend, and probably a convert, of Paul and lived in Colossae; while Apphia (af'i-a— first a as in add, second as
in sofa, i as
in is) and
Archippus (ar-kip'us—a as
in arm, i as
in is, u as
in circus) are thought to have been Philemon's wife and son, respectively.
Onesimus (Philem. 1:10)
(o-nes'i-mus—o as
in circus). Onesimus had been a slave of Philemon but had fled from his
service. Apparently he had been converted by Paul during the apostle's
imprisonment at Rome. The word Onesimus means literally "profitable";
hence the play upon words found in verse 11.
So, we have a Roman family who have become Christians: husband
(Philemon), wife (Apphia) and son (Archippus), and we have Onesimus, a former
slave of Philemon, but who had run away. And we have Paul, the great apostle
who is now held in prison in Rome.
According to Thomas Leishman, other epistles written at this
time were to the churches in Philippi, Ephesus and Colossae. (See Letters
from Prison, Christian Science Journal, November 1976).
Have we had a falling-out with someone? Has there been a rift in
the church family? Perhaps this story has relevance.
Julie Swannell
There's a helpful overview of the book of Philemon at https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/philemon/
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