Greeting and Thanksgiving
I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.
According to his usual custom, Paul follows his greeting with a thanksgiving and a prayer. Whenever Paul thought of Philemon or remembered Philemon in his prayers, there was much for which he gave thanks. Epaphras, the founder of the Colossian congregation, who was now with Paul in Rome, as well as others, including the newly converted Onesimus, must have told Paul about Philemon’s exemplary faith and Christian life. Philemon’s commitment to Christ and his energetic work for the Lord’s cause, together with his love for his fellow Christians, were well known in and beyond the Colossian congregation. He had opened his home for the worship services of the congregation, given help to the less fortunate, and made valuable physical and spiritual contributions to the welfare of the Christian community in Colosse.
The apostle’s approving mention of these evidences of Philemon’s faith was not just insincere flattery. It was honest praise. Paul no doubt intended it to serve another purpose as well. By reminding Philemon of the many ways in which his faith had already shown itself in love, the apostle wanted to prepare his Christian friend for the great request of this epistle, a request to carry Christian love one step further than ever before by forgiving and receiving back the slave who had so severely wronged him.
Paul tactfully prepares Philemon for that great request. He also prays that the Lord will strengthen Philemon’s love at its source by strengthening his faith and enabling him to share and give evidence of that faith. Christians possess incomparable spiritual treasures in Christ. The more they are aware of those treasures and recognize the good things that are theirs in Christ, the more active they will be in promoting and sharing their faith and in reflecting the Savior’s love in their lives by adopting a loving, forgiving attitude toward others. Paul’s prayer is that the Holy Spirit, who has filled Philemon’s heart with faith and enabled Philemon to give so many practical evidences of that faith in the past, will continue, through Word and sacrament, to bless him with growth in spiritual understanding. Such growth, in turn, would lead to increasingly greater evidences of faith and love in Philemon’s life and enable him to perform the special act of love that Paul is about to request of him.
Philemon was not a stranger to faith’s firstfruit. In the past, Paul says, Philemon’s love had often refreshed his weary fellow believers. Reports of his love had often filled the apostle’s heart with encouragement and joy. Now Paul will appeal to the man whom he regards as a true brother in the Lord Jesus to refresh his fellow believers once more and to bring joy to the imprisoned apostle’s heart by lavishing the full measure of his mature Christian love on a returning runaway slave.
We can hardly imagine a greater example of Christian tact than what the inspired apostle shows here as he prepares Philemon for his special request. What an impressive reminder the apostle’s words are for all of us. Our lives as Christians also should be a constant growing in the faith and subsequent love that will enable us to take more and increasingly greater steps of love as we deal with one another and with all our fellow human beings.