I’m preaching for a friend this Sunday. The text is one of my favorites – Philemon. I love it because it so clearly illustrates the doctrine of imputation. Verse 17 and 18 show the two facets of imputation. ¹⁷ So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.  ¹⁸ If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.

1.      Impute to him any merit I might have with you. This is imputed righteousness. Any righteousness I have is because Christ gave it to me.

2.      Impute to me any demerit he or she has before you. Our sins were put on Christ  - they were imputed to Christ.

If He ONLY forgave our sins, we still would not be worthy to get into heaven. He puts Christ’s righteousness on our account. We are rich beyond our wildest dreams!

For every sermon I write I also write a Bible study. I’m going to post this to share my sermon introduction, then the Bible study for Philemon. I appreciate your prayers for me on Sunday.

Introduction to A Dangerous Grace

Cities have their own energy. There is a sense of history, as if that many lives lived so close together must have some weight that can’t be measured in a scale. They’re either a place to run from or a place to run to. Cities are where you go to find yourself - or lose yourself. You run to them because the possibilities are alluring. You run to them because the lights are full of promise. And you run from them when what was over-promised has been under-delivered. Capital cities have their own allure - the promise of a promise. Capitals are where laws that affect you are made. They have enough people to get lost in and enough power to be found. The decision makers are there  -  and the first tier of those who are affected by those decisions. First century Rome was a city approaching a million in population. It was where the Senate made laws. It was where the Emperor resided. It was Rome to which all roads led. It was to this city that the runaway slave Onesimus fled. As he entered Rome it must have seemed full of unimaginable possibilities.

The price of a good slave in 60 AD was 500 denarii. With average wage being one denarius a day this was 500 days wages - two years salary. Much of the economy was related to slaves - 1/3 of the Roman world were slaves. Slaves weren’t protected by a great deal of laws in the first century. What laws there were often were ignored or abused. You could do whatever you wanted to a runaway slave. Sometimes they would be branded with an ‘F’ for the Latin “Fugitivus’. Often they would be flogged. One example of the sadistic master lies with Vedius Pollio, who entertained himself by throwing slaves into a pool of lamprey eels and watching the slaves die an agonizing death for trivial wrongs or accidents [Cited in Shelton, Jo-Ann. (1988) As The Romans Did, New York Oxford University Press at http://www.vroma.org/~plautus/slaverydonatelli.html]. But any laws were irregularly enforced. Another ancient document (the Satyricon of Petronius) relates the story of the dinner party of Trimalchio, an extremely wealthy freedman, who at one point during the meal is injured by a slave that has been performing acrobatics for the entertainment of the dinner guests and accidentally falls onto him (Petr. 54). Witnessing this scene, the guests fear that the dinner party will be marred by the execution of the boy, but Trimalchio amazes everyone by freeing the boy so that it might never be said that a slave injured him

As Onesimus entered Rome it must have seemed full of unimaginable possibilities. No doubt as he came near 100 miles of Rome he was reminded of history. How, in 73 B.C. Spartacus led some 70,000 slaves in a revolt against Rome and caused all kinds of havoc and bloodshed. The Romans, in order to set an example, took 6,000 of those slaves in 71 B.C., when they captured Spartacus and he died, and crucified them along a 130-mile stretch of road outside of Rome - one after another, 6,000 men and women on crosses - and said, "We will have no more uprisings. And this ought to make the point clear." Then they established laws like: if a slaves kills his master, if there are up to a hundred slaves in the household, all die [Ron R. Ritchie, Put It On Master Charge, http://pbc.org/dp/ritchie/3104.html]. You can feel the strain in Philemon's life. "What do I do'? What do I do?"

It wasn’t just blind luck that Onesimus came into contact with Paul. We know what Paul knew. It wasn’t serendipity - it was sovereignty. That’s why he begins by writing, “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” He balances this with verse 15. “Perhaps”, recognizing that we can’t always be certain why things happen the way they do.

Paul is asking for a favor – treat a runaway slave as a brother in Christ. He says it on the basis of his chains. “If I can go through this (prison), will you do this one hard thing (forgive Onesimus)? What a sneaky, underhanded appeal by Paul….. or is it? The grace we’ve experienced is dangerous – it obligates us to reconsider how we treat other people.

With this as background, read the letter, then over the next few days complete the Bible study. And on Sunday, please pray for me as I preach.

“A Dangerous Grace”

Bible Study Guide for Philemon

"We all agree that forgiveness is a beautiful idea until we have to practice it"

C.S. Lewis

Day 1:  Paul wrote Philemon during his first Roman imprisonment. Read about the beginning of it in Acts 28:30-31. During this imprisonment he also wrote Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. Read Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13. Why do you think these Prison Epistles have such an emphasis on forgiveness?

Day 2:  How did Paul pray for his audience? (1:6,7) What did Paul suggest that Philemon would gain by actively sharing his faith? How might this kind of thinking change how you pray? How might praying this way change how you act?

Day 3:  What type of attitude did Paul project toward Philemon? How did Paul describe his relationship with Onesimus?

Day 4: In what ways has Onesimus changed since running away from Philemon (vv. 10–16)? Why is a willingness to change an important step toward reconciliation?

Day 5: In verse 24 Paul mentions 5 other men who send greetings. Read about them in the following places or find them in a good Bible dictionary for background.

Epaphras; Colossians 1:7; 4:12

Mark: Colossians 4:10; Acts 15:37-39; 2 Timothy 4:11

Aristarchus: Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; Acts 27:1

Demas: Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:10

Luke: Acts 20:6; Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11

What had these men been through together? Why do you think Paul mentions them here?

Bonus Reading:

Colossians was probably read in the church in the presence of Philemon and his family. Read a chapter of Colossians each day and search for themes that might have influenced Philemon in responding to Paul’s request regarding Onesimus.

Bonus Application Questions:

Who are several people for whom you need to pray this week?

Who might you contact this week to thank for the joy or encouragement they have given you?

An Intriguing Epilogue:

In AD 110, the bishop of Ephesus was named Onesimus. Could it be the same one here? We can’t be “bull dog-matic” but if Onesimus was in his late teens or early twenties when Paul wrote this letter, he would then be about 70 - not an unreasonable age for a bishop in those days. There is some evidence that the letters of Paul were gathered together as a group first in the city of Ephesus; perhaps Onesimus was the compiler of the letters, and wanted to make sure his letter - his charter of freedom - was included.

“All of us were God’s Onesimus”

Martin Luther