For love's sake I rather beseech thee... for my son Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave - one who in past times had been, as was natural, unmoved by any inspiration to good service - and was "unprofitable." He had been begotten again through the ministry of Paul, and now that he sends him back, he tells Philemon that the new Divine life in him will make him faithful, earnest, and "profitable."

I. TRUTH TRIUMPHS IN TIME. Slavery did not fall at once, nor was polygamy destroyed at once. Revolution would have been the cost of any such attempt. Paul left the cross to do its mighty work. The spirit of the gospel made slavery and polygamy alike impossible, because the cross destroys self, teaches us that we are not our own, and emancipates all who are oppressed through a love which gives itself for others instead of holding them in bondage.

II. LOVE IS THE SUPREME COMMAND. He will not enjoin. Men resist orders and commands. They find excuses for inaction, and their pride is hurt. But when love entreats, and when that love is like that of Paul the aged, and Paul a prisoner, and Paul to whom Philemon owed his own self (Ver. 19), we need not wonder that love won the day; so Onesimus would be received back as a servant (a bond-servant), "but above a servant, a brother beloved." - W.M.S.

I might be bold to command thee in Christ's name, by which I am strong; but thou dost not need any argument derived from my strength: and for love's sake I rather beseech thee by my own weakness, by my years, and by my chains. Such language — the language of entreaty — best befits me now in my prison and in my old age.

(Bp. Chris. Wordsworth.)

Love naturally beseeches, and does not command. The harsh voice of command is simply the imposition of another's will, and it belongs to relationships in which the heart has no share. But wherever love is the bond, grace is poured into the lips, and "I order" becomes "I pray." So that even where the outward form of authority is still kept, as in a parent to young children, there will ever be some endearing word to swathe the harsh imperative in tenderness, like a sword blade wrapped about with wool, lest it should wound. Love tends to obliterate the hard distinction of superior and inferior, which finds its expression in laconic orders and silent obedience. It seeks not for mere compliance with commands, but for oneness of will. Its entreaties are more powerful than imperatives. The lightest wish breathed by loved lips is stronger than all stern injunctions — often, alas I than all laws of duty. The heart is so tuned as only to vibrate to that one tone. The rocking stones, which all the storms of winter may howl round and not move, can be set swinging by a light touch. Una leads the lion in a silken leash. Love controls the wildest nature. Authority is the weapon of a weak man, who is afraid of his own power to get himself obeyed; or of a selfish one, who seeks for mechanical submission rather than for the fealty of willing hearts. Love is the weapon of a strong man, who can cast aside the trappings of superiority, and is never loftier than when he descends, nor more absolute than when he abjures authority and appeals with love to love.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

ere: —

I. REASONS.

1. We are bound to use those means and to take that course which is most forcible and effectual. But to deal with love, and to handle our brethren kindly and meekly, is most likely to prevail with most men. Therefore the apostle requireth that the Servant of God must not strive, but must be gentle toward all men, apt to teach, suffering the evil, instructing them with meekness that are contrary minded. There is no way so available to bring evil men out of the dangers wherein they stand, who are, as it were, made bondslaves to do the devil's will, than to allure them by gentleness, to draw them by long suffering, and to overcome them by patience.

2. This course, well and duly observed, serveth to persuade them with whom we deal of our love and tender affection towards them. For loving and friendly dealing argueth loving and affectionate minds, and the ready way to bend and incline him unto that which is good, and to turn him from that which is evil, when his persuasions are perceived to tend to the profit and benefit of him whom we would persuade.

3. We are to imitate our Head and Master, Christ Jesus; He used not His authority and power that was in Him; He dealt not roughly and severely with His enemies, but meekly and mercifully, and most compassionately; lie was meek, and as a lamb before the shearer.

II. USES.

1. We learn that mercy and compassion — yea, all tokens and testimonies of love — are to he showed toward malefactors, even when justice is to be executed and punishment inflicted.

2. Seeing we are to win men rather by gentleness and love, we must acknowledge that great wisdom and discretion is required in the ministry, to divide the Word of God aright, and to be able to apply himself to every degree and calling of men. When the people of God went out to war, the Lord commanded them to offer conditions of peace to that city; if it refuse to make peace, they should besiege it, smite it, and destroy it. So should we, when we execute our office, first offer peace before we proclaim war; first allure by gentleness before we thunder out judgments; first exhort before we threaten. In the material building, all the stones that are to be fitted to the building are not of one nature; some are soft and easy to be fitted and hammered; others more hard and of a flintier marble disposition — they require sharp tools, strong blows, before they can be brought into form, or be squared for that place which they are to hold. So it is with the lively stones of the spiritual temple of God: some have soft hearts of flesh, and are of humble and contrite spirits, like the bruised reed or the smoking flax; others have hearts hard as the adamant, and cannot easily be brought to feel the strokes of the Word of God. These are not to be dealt withal and handled alike, but after a divers manner. This is the counsel of the apostle Jude, "Have compassion of some in putting difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, and hate even that garment which is spotted by the flesh." This serveth to reprove, first, such as use unseasonable lenity when godly severity is required. Some diseases require sharp medicines. Secondly, it reproveth such as are too sharp and vigorous against offenders, and forget all rules of charity toward them. True it is, the pastors and ministers are to rebuke such as are fallen; but when they see sorrow for sin, and repentance from dead works wrought in them, they should begin to raise them up again and comfort them with the precious promises of the gospel, lest they should be overwhelmed with despair and he swallowed up with over-much heaviness.

3. And, last of all, we learn for our obedience, that whensoever entreating, gentle, or loving dealing is used to call men home to God and to themselves, it is their duty to yield themselves and to embrace earnestly the mercies of God offered unto them. The sin of contempt and contumacy is fearful, when the bountifulness of God is despised, His mercies loathed, His patience and long suffering abused. If we will not hear when He crieth to us, we shall cry also in the days of our misery, and He will not hear us in our trouble, but mock at our affliction.

(W. Attersoll.)

One winter morning, as the Wind set out on his day's work, he found the trees loaded with ice. Every tiny twig was bending under an armour many times its weight. The little white lady birches had drooped until their heads touched the ground. A great groan to be delivered went up from all the trees. "This will never do!" cried the Wind; and straightway he went to work with all his might. The branches of the giant elms swung and creaked. The brown, curled leaves still clinging to the oaks were snatched away and went whirling through the air. There was a great rustling in all the wood. But the ice did not move. Still harder the wind blew. And now whole branches came crashing down, until they lay thick on the ground in their glittering winding sheets. But still the ice did not move. At last the Spirit of the Woods came forth, frowning. "Do you call this helping?" cried she. "You are ruining my trees. To get rid of the ice, forsooth, you are breaking off the boughs. Get you gone!" The Wind retired to his cave, and was melancholy all day. He had had a sincere desire to do good, but now he saw that he had only done harm. He shuddered as he thought of the wrecks he had made in his untempered zeal. "What is the use of nay trying to do anything?" he sighed. Many an eager soul has known such hours, when it had thought to add its note of praise to the great chorus, and has only succeeded in making a discord. The next morning the Sun knocked at the door of the cave, and cried, in genial tones, "Come on, friend! I want your help. The trees must be rid of their load. I will shine on them, and then do you gently wave their branches and shake off the loosened ice." They went forth together, and the Sun shone on the forest. An hour passed. The only visible result was here and there a drop of water from the icy boughs. "We shall never get through at this rate!" panted the Wind. "Gently, friend, gently! All in good time!" replied the Sun. "The ice was a day and a night in forming. Could you hope to get rid of it by one fierce gust? When I get higher in the sky, I can strike the trees more directly with my beams." After another hour of silent shining, the Sun whispered, "Now, friend, with your wings! But not too violently. See, now, some pieces are falling. Two or three hours of work like this, and our task is done. There is another piece loose." So the Sun shone on, and the wind from time to time shook down the loosened pieces of ice, and what did not rattle down dissolved in fast-flowing tears under the gentle yet burning eye of the Sun. The birches gradually lifted their pliant forms. The Spirit of the Woods came out with her blessing for the two workers. And that night the Wind returned to his cave humbled but joyous, because he had found the "more excellent way."

We have —

I. In Paul's CIRCUMSTANCES THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE AGED CHRISTIAN.

1. He preaches and teaches.

2. He is full of care for distant Churches.

3. He is tenderly interested in individuals near him.

II. In Paul's RECOLLECTIONS THE MEMORIES OF THE AGED CHRISTIAN.

1. Trials.

2. Labours.

3. Graces.

III. In Paul's ANTICIPATIONS THE HOPES OF THE AGED CHRISTIAN.

1. Hope of renewed service on earth.

2. Hope of the victory of the truth on earth.

3. Hope of blessedness in heaven.

(U. R. Thomas.)

We are accustomed to think of Paul the persecutor, the Christian, the missionary, the apostle, the inspired scribe, the sufferer for Christ. Here another and unexpected epithet pictures him to us as "Paul the aged." The word is from his own pen. Perhaps now he is learning for the first time that his days of mature vigour are past. Manifold labours, perils, trials, have broken him in premature age.

I. PAUL WEARS OLD AGE AS A CROWN (see Proverbs 16:31). There is a pleasant story told of Frederick the Great. At a parade of the guard in the King's apartments at Berlin, Frederick's quick eye picked out among the splendid crowd the brave old Ziethen, who, though turned eighty-five years, had come to pay his duty to his monarch. Greeting the veteran with a cry of joy, the King called for a chair. Objections were in vain. "Sit down, good father," said the King. "I will have it so, or I must instantly leave the room." The old soldier yielded, and Frederick the Great continued standing before him, the centre of the illustrious circle that had gathered around, and so "honoured the face of the old man." The aged Christian has his peculiar infirmities, but he also has his peculiar joys. To the aged saint come the fullest revelations of God, the most comfortable words of Christ, the sweetest visitations of the Spirit.

II. PAUL'S OLD AGE HAD ITS DUTIES AND LABOURS. He does not excuse himself from duty on the ground of age. He will do what he can for Onesimus. He writes for him with a delicacy, a tact, a tenderness, an urgency, such as he himself never surpassed. The aged Christian is still a unit in the host of society, still kindred to some and neighbour and friend to others. And still, however much may be lost, duty remains — duty to himself, to others, and in all to God. Life is lengthened that it may labour for Christ. And is not the old the best workman? The young may attract more attention, but it is the experienced hand that does the most and best.

III. PAUL USED HIS AGE AS A PLEA OF LOVE. Where we may command, it is wise to request. Love wins love. Gentleness calls out gentleness.

IV. PAUL IS "PAUL THE AGED" NO MORE. He has escaped, through death, from all earthly prisons, and is op pressed by old age no longer. He is "with Christ, which is far better."

(G. T. Coster.)

Old men are to be reverenced —

1. For their very age, because they draw nearest to the Ancient of Days (Leviticus 19:32).

2. For their wisdom.

3. For their experience.

4. For their piety (Proverbs 16:31).

(W. Jones, D. D.)

I. REVIEW HIS PAST HISTORY.

1. His character; and how, during this long period, he has conducted himself: what reputation he has spent so many years in building up, and in what estimate he is now held when grey hairs are upon him.

2. His labours. True, his toils are chiefly mental; but who knows not that, on this account, they are the more exhausting and wearing?

3. His usefulness. How many have been impressed by his example, enriched by his beneficence, blessed by his prayers, and instructed by his principles.

4. His trials. Ah, you know a minister's joys far better than you know his sorrows. You see his sails, but not his ballast. You follow him in his public walks of labour, but not in his Gethsemane retreat, where he goes to pray and agonise alone. He calls you to share his felicities, but he carries his perplexities and his griefs to his closet and his God. Look, then, at the hoary man over whom the clouds of fifty years have rolled. How many storms have burst upon that aged tree, tearing off its branches, stripping off its leaves, and dismantling it in some cases, till little else but the mere trunk and a few boughs remain of all that once umbrageous top. Still, however, the venerable trunk does remain, and there is life in it to the last. How much of Divine power and faithfulness and grace we associate with that sacred antique.

5. His temptations. A minister is the chief mark for Satan's arrows.

II. ESTIMATE HIS PRESENT CLAIMS.

1. He is entitled, if a holy and faithful man, and in proportion to his sanctity and fidelity, to respect and veneration.

2. He is entitled to affection. It is not claimed for what he is in himself, but what he is to his people as their friend and counsellor; in fact, the instrument of their salvation and the promoter of their progressive sanctification.

3. He has a right to expect gratitude.

4. I next mention candour and forbearance as virtues which an aged minister is entitled to expect, and of which, in some cases, by the gathering infirmities of declining years, he will stand in need.

5. And has he not a claim upon your attendance upon his ministry? To desert him when he is old is a poor reward for the more effective services of younger and stronger days.

III. ANTICIPATE HIS FUTURE DESTINY. Growth, decline, and death, are the law of all life on earth, from which there is no exemption on behalf of the minister of the gospel. The weary, worn out labourer goes to his rest and to his reward; goes to be associated with those who were his hope and joy on earth, and now are to be his crown of rejoicing in the presence of Christ; goes to meet his Maker, and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of the Lord."

(J. A. James.)

This language —

1. Supposes childhood and the scenes of life already past.

2. Suggests a review of the events of individual life.

3. Reminds us of the infirmities which years witness.

4. Shows Paul to us as an old disciple — not only a man, but a "new man," a man in Christ.

5. Contains a touching plea.

6. Suggests that the aged Christian has nearly finished his course.

(J. S. Pearsall.)

He was, perhaps, sixty, perhaps a few years more. Labour, sorrow, the storms of ocean and the fires of thought, possible sickliness — the sad and solemn maturity which is the portion upon earth of men who believe intensely — had done their work. Roger Bacon wrote "me senem at fifty-two or fifty-three, and Sir Walter Scott at fifty-five calls himself sadly an old grey man and aged." In truth, the standard by which old age is measured is pretty much subjective. At an age about fifteen years earlier than that of St. Paul at this time, Chateaubriand writes, "Deja je n'appartenais plus a ces matins qui se consolent eux-memes — je touchais a ces heures du soir qui ont besoin d'etre consolees." A different periods of life we adopt a different standard. It was said by Victor Hugo that forty is the old age of youth, and fifty the youth of old age.

(Bp. Wm. Alexander.)

Such a multitude of anxieties and endurances as are recounted in 2 Corinthians 11:23-30 must have told upon him and exhausted his manly vigour.

(M. F. Sadler, M. A.)

No more beautiful picture of the bright energy and freshness still possible to the old was ever painted than may be gathered from the apostle's unconscious sketch of himself. He delighted in having fresh young life about him — Timothy, Titus, Mark, and others — boys in comparison with himself, whom yet he admitted to close intimacy, as some old general might the youths of his staff, warming his old age at the genial flame of their growing energies and unworn hopes. His was a joyful old age, too, notwithstanding many burdens of anxiety and sorrow. We hear the clear song of his gladness ringing through the epistle of joy — that to the Philippians — which, like this, dates from his Roman captivity. A Christian old age should be joyful, and it only will be; for the joys of the natural life burn low when the fuel that fed them is nearly exhausted, and withered hands ave held in vain over the dying embers. But Christ's joy "remains," and a Christian old age maybe like the polar midsummer days, when the sun shines till midnight, and dips but for an imperceptible interval ere it rises for the unending day of heaven. Paul the aged was full of interest in the things of the day — no mere "praiser of time none by," but a strenuous worker, cherishing a quick sympathy and an eager interest, which kept him young to the end. And over his cheery, sympathetic, busy old age there is thrown the light of a great hope, which kindles desire and onward looks in his dim eyes, and parts "such a one as Paul the aged" by a whole universe from the old whose future is dark and their past dreary, whose hope is a phantom and their memory a pang.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

He holds up his fettered wrist, and in effect says, "Surely you will not refuse anything that you can do to wrap a silken softness round the cold, hard iron, especially when you remember for whose sake and by whose will I am bound with this chain." He thus brings personal motives to reinforce duty which is binding from other and higher considerations. Christ does thus with His servants. He does not simply hold up before us a cold law of duty, but warms it by introducing our personal relation to Him as the main motive for keeping it. Apart from Him, morality can only point to the tables of stone and say, "There! that is what you ought to do. Do it, or face the consequences." But Christ says, "I have given Myself for you. My will is your law. Will you do it for My sake?" Instead of the chilling, statuesque ideal, as pure as marble and as cold, a Brother stands before us with a heart that beats, a smile on His face, a hand outstretched to help; and His word is, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments."

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Apphia, Archippus, Aristarchus, Demas, Epaphras, Lucas, Luke, Marcus, Mark, Onesimus, Paul, Philemon, Timotheus, TimothyColossaeAged, Although, Ambassador, Appeal, Basis, Beg, Beseech, Christ, Entreat, Exhort, Instead, Jesus-, Love, Love's, None, Order, Paul, Prefer, Prisoner, Rather, Request, Sake, Yet, You-since1. Paul rejoices to hear of the faith and love of Philemon,
8. whom he desires to forgive his servant Onesimus, and lovingly to receive him again.

Philemon 1:9

     5727   old age, attitudes

Philemon 1:8-9

     8202   boldness

Philemon 1:8-14

     5910   motives, examples

Philemon 1:8-16

     5524   servants, bad

Philemon 1:8-21

     5010   conscience, matters of
     7448   slavery, in NT

The Epistles of the Captivity.
During his confinement in Rome, from a.d. 61 to 63, while waiting the issue of his trial on the charge of being "a mover of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5), the aged apostle composed four Epistles, to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians. He thus turned the prison into a pulpit, sent inspiration and comfort to his distant congregations, and rendered a greater service to future ages than he could have …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

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