Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The book of Philemon, as stated above, is written to a single man named the same. Although Paul also wrote to Timothy and Titus, most of his letters were written to churches. And, indeed, Timothy and Titus were pastors of local churches. So we might assume that Philemon was, in one sense, the pastor of this church who meet in his house. He certainly was the host for the church. In the 1st century, church buildings did not exist. All churches meet in homes or in the open air. Philemon (and his wife Apphia and son, Archippus) were the host of the Colossians’ Church. Paul did write to that church, as well, but this letter is meant to be a personal letter to Philemon. It obviously was read in front of the church, as it is contained in the Biblical library. The story of the book is that this slave, Onesimus, had done something wrong to Philemon (took property from him, perhaps), ran off to Rome and was captured and placed in prison in Rome - chained to Paul. Irony!! Paul leads the man to Christ and Onesimus is no longer a slave to Philemon but a slave to Christ. He is no longer an enemy of Philemons, who did him wrong, he is a brother of Philemon, whom he must forgive and serve along side. This brings us to the opening lines of the letter. Imagine Philemon’s emotions when he sees Onesimus walking up to his home (an ex-con). Imagine as he walks up and hands Philemon this letter, coming from Paul. Imagine as he reads the letter and realizes Paul is asking him to forgive Onesimus. Imagine! We obviously don’t know the logistics of this and how it all went down, but we do know the content of what Paul tells Philemon. We should not read the opening lines as though it were just a greeting (although Paul started many of his letters the same way). This opening to what Philemon is about to read is imperative to understand. He calls Philemon a beloved fellow worker. He calls Philemon’s son a fellow soldier. This might mean that the son is not a boy but a fellow soldier for Christ. Imagine this boy, perhaps, wanting to right the wrong done to his father, by this slave standing before them. This might be why Paul is adding Archippus to the letter. Paul is appealing right away to the their relationship with Paul in the fight for the Gospel of Christ. Paul is about to ask Philemon to forgive this young, fellow believer and appeals to Philemon that they are fellow believers. Paul wastes no words in his letters. Each sentence is constructed to convey the meaning the Spirit of God wants us to understand. This entire letter is about forgiveness. So to start the letter Paul writes, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philemon is going to need God’s grace to forgive. He is going to need God’s peace supplied to have peach with Onesimus. This is not just an opening greeting. This is an opening doctrinal statement. As Philemon reads the rest of the letter, in front of Onesimus and the Colossian church, he will need all of God’s grace and peace to forgive and to accept his new brother in the faith. That is what the church looks like. That is how the church should respond.
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