The famed commentator R. C. H. Lenski once described Philemon as “Paul’s loveliest epistle.” Bengel wrote that this brief letter “far surpasses all the wisdom of the world.”
After spending considerable time working our way through this little letter, I can understand why.
Philemon is only twenty-five verses long, yet it contains a profound picture of the gospel at work in real life. It is a story about a runaway, renegade slave named Onesimus, a Christian master and faithful churchman named Philemon, and an aging and imprisoned apostle named Paul who finds himself standing in the middle of a broken relationship and a very messy situation.
But more than that, Philemon is a story about grace.
Paul's letter begins with grace and peace in verse 3, and it ends with grace in verse 25:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
What a fitting way to conclude this remarkable letter!
Paul's final words are a final plea for daily grace. And, dear friend, this is no small thing.
We Need Grace (so much more than we often realize it)
Like Philemon and the ordinary believers who gathered with him at Colossae, we desperately need God's daily grace.
Paul's final prayer is addressed to Philemon, but the word “your” is plural. His prayer reaches beyond the primary recipient of the letter and extends to the entire Christian community.
It reaches us as well.
We are debtors of God's grace.
There is not a single heartbeat or breath that does not ultimately depend upon the sustaining grace of God. Jesus Christ is the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Apart from His providential grace, we would not take another breath or ever cross the finish line.
And for the Christian, God's grace is not merely necessary at conversion.
There is no justification apart from redeeming grace.
There is no progressive sanctification apart from sanctifying grace.
There is no final glorification apart from future grace.
The Christian life begins with grace, continues by grace, and ends in grace. From A-Z the Christian life is truly all of grace.
The apostle Paul understood this personally. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 he wrote:
“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain.”
Paul labored tirelessly for Christ, but he was careful to give the credit where it belonged: “Yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”
That is the testimony of every faithful Christian. Like John Newton every Christian ought to humbly confess, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am”
Whatever usefulness we have in the kingdom of God is ultimately the result of God's grace.
Grace Brings Peace
One of the overarching themes of Philemon is this: Grace from God through the Lord Jesus Christ ought to bring peace with God and with one another ( note also Colossians 3:12-16)
Paul's great concern in this letter was that Philemon would live up to his reputation as a man whose life demonstrated undying love for Christ. Mr. Reliable was being called to live up to his reputation.
Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus, had encountered Paul and, by God's grace, after hearing the gospel message had become a Christian. The man who had once been “useless” was now “useful” because Christ had transformed his life.
Now Paul wanted Philemon to receive Onesimus—not merely as a returning slave, but as a beloved brother in Christ. Philemon needed to be the first one to the door to welcome and receive Oni with open arms!
That was a radical request especially in the first-century Greco-Roman world.
Paul was asking Philemon to extend the same radical grace toward Onesimus that he himself had received from God. The one who demands mercy from God but refuses to extend mercy to others ruins the bridge over which they too must pass.
Grace forgives and restores. This is what grace does.
Grace rescues wayward sinners.
Grace transforms messy lives.
Grace restores broken relationships.
And grace teaches forgiven people to forgive.
Paul makes this even more remarkable when he offers to assume Onesimus's financial debt himself.
He essentially tells Philemon, “If he owes you anything, charge it to my account.”
Paul was willing to bear the cost of Onesimus's wrongdoing in order to facilitate reconciliation between these two men. Paul himself was in jail for faithfully preaching the gospel yet he models sacrificial love and radical forgiveness.
That is profoundly Christlike. And when we read those words, we cannot help but think of the gospel. This is surely one reason why the Holy Spirit included this letter in the Holy Canon.
Grace Pays the Debt
Onesimus owed Philemon a debt he could not repay. Paul offered to put that debt on his own account.
But our sin has placed us under a far greater debt—a debt that none of us could ever repay.
We have sinned against a perfectly holy God.
Our good works cannot erase our guilt.
Our religious activities cannot pay our debt.
Our morality cannot make us righteous (only self-righteous).
But Jesus Christ willingly took on human flesh and came into this world for the express purpose of accomplishing our redemption.
At the cross, Christ took the place of guilty sinners. He bore our sin.
He endured the judgment and wrath we deserved. Jesus paid the debt we could never pay.
Paul's offer to Philemon is therefore a beautiful earthly picture of the greater heavenly reality of substitution. “Charge it to my account.”
That is what Christ did for His people.
The gospel is the story of God's grace extended to undeserving sinners through the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Grace begets grace.
Those who have received God's grace should become people who extend grace to others.
As the Puritans wisely said, “He who demands mercy and grace and shows none, ruins the bridge over which he himself is to pass.”
Grace Changes How We Live
Paul was confident that Philemon would respond appropriately because Philemon had already demonstrated a life characterized by Christian love.
Paul even expresses confidence that Philemon will go “above and beyond” what he has been asked to do.
Why?
Because genuine grace produces genuine change.
God's grace does not merely forgive us and then leave us exactly as we were. Grace changes our relationships. Grace changes our priorities. Grace changes how we respond when someone hurts us. Grace changes how we treat other believers. Grace changes how we serve Christ. And grace enables us to do things that we could never accomplish in our own strength.
That is why we need daily grace.
We need grace when life becomes difficult.
We need grace when we are called to endure suffering.
We need grace when we are weary of serving.
We need grace when we are fighting against indwelling sin.
We need grace when someone has wronged us and we struggle to forgive and restore them.
We need grace when we are called to welcome someone who is difficult to welcome.
We need grace simply to live faithfully for Christ one more day.
A Final Plea for Daily Grace
Perhaps one of the reasons we struggle so much in the Christian life is because we forget how desperately dependent we are upon God's grace.
We tend to think that grace was necessary to save us, but now that we are Christians, we ought to be able to manage things on our own.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We never outgrow our need for grace.
The same grace that saved us is the grace that sustains us.
The same Christ who justified us is the Christ who sanctifies us.
The same Savior who began a good work in us will faithfully carry it through to completion.
So Paul's final words to Philemon are fitting words for every Christian:
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.”
That is my prayer for you.
And it is my prayer for myself.
May God give us grace to endure difficult trials. Grace to endure suffering and loss. Grace to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace to welcome others as Christ has welcomed us. And grace to remain faithful until the day we see our Savior face to face.
We are saved by grace.
We are sustained by grace.
And one day, by God's grace, we will stand in His presence completely transformed.
So as we close our journey through Philemon, let us make Paul's final prayer our own:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Amen.
