A Bible Study by Adam Osborne, Jr.

• Philem 1:6-7 (NIV) 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.
• Philem 1:18 (NIV) If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.
  • Quote from Vernon McGee:
    • The primary purpose of this epistle is to reveal Christ’s love for us in what He did for us in pleading our case before God.
    • This is one of the finest illustrations of substitution. “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account” (v. 18).
    • We can hear Christ agreeing to take our place and to have all our sin imputed to Him. He took our place in death, but He gives us His place in life.
    • “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself” (v. 17). We have the standing of Christ before God, or we have no standing at all.
    • Onesimus, the unprofitable runaway slave, was to be received as Paul, the great apostle, would have been received in the home of Philemon.
    • The practical purpose is to teach brotherly love. Paul spoke of the new relationship between master and servant in the other Prison Epistles.
    • Here he demonstrates how it should work. These men, belonging to two different classes in the Roman Empire, hating each other and hurting each other, are now brothers in Christ, and they are to act like it. This is the only solution to the problem of capital and labor.

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