l have been intrigued recently to observe anew, in my own life and in the lives of my friends, that when we come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ we really do get a new heart, new eyes, new power, and a new value system. In fact, this is called in Scripture "a new creation" - "if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation...." And within this new creation the love of God is manifested throughout our lives. We find that we really are concerned about people. We reach out toward them in love instead of manipulating them. We pray for them instead of gossiping about them. We find many ways to express God's love- not on our behalf, not for selfish gain, but because of his love flowing out through us. Therefore we find ourselves involved with people more than things. The natural development of our life in Christ is to start seeing the value in people, and simply using things to help those people.
We also find, however, that life becomes filled with pressure and problems because we are obeying God. And we find we get so involved with people that suddenly we become aware we have crossed back over the line into our old ways of handling life before we met Christ, and we start to worry about them, to get anxious about them, and sometimes to go into a pure panic about them. Life then becomes a kind of "Peyton Place" existence, where their growth, their development, their maturity all seem to depend on us.
A few weeks ago a good friend and I were talking about another couple. They had come to know Jesus Christ about a year ago. They were coming here to PBC for a while and were being fed and rejoicing in the Lord. Then very quietly, very subtly, without our realizing it, they disappeared. We forgot them until someone said, "Where's so-and-so?" "Why, I don't know!" And I got a feeling like a rock in my stomach. "Wow, we let them slip out of our lives. We did not care, we did not reach out. We became conscious of ourselves and what we were doing, and suddenly they were gone. I wonder what happened to them." Then the guilt feelings came, and we made a lot of plans in our heads about how to get to them. "Maybe send them a book, or call them by phone, or invite them to dinner. We have got to get something going so that they will grow and become mature." In situations like these we find ourselves fretting and becoming fearful almost to the point of panic.
A mother was telling me about her daughter who was attending a college out of the state. She is very concerned for her daughter, wonders about how she will find fellowship, where she is going to be fed spiritually, whether she will come back the same girl who went away, whether she will still love the Lord or not. A father was telling me about a son who ran away. They have not heard from him in months, and he is very anxious, very upset. Do you ever think this way about someone you love?
These pressures are very real, and they come to all of us. If we allow them to persist they can cause a troubled heart and can affect our physical, mental, and spiritual welfare. They can prevent us from ministering in the Spirit, as God intends us to minister. And as they move into our lives, without our realizing it they create what can be called "spiritual tunnel vision". We can get locked in to a very narrow view of God's love, care, mercy, and keeping.
The question comes, "How can we avoid this? How can we avoid spiritual tunnel vision? How can we get a view of God that is real, and how can we apply it to our lives so that it works on our behalf, so that we are able to be the healthy new creation God wants us to be, and has created us to be, and has given us the power to be all along? Would you turn with meto the book of Philemon for some insight from the apostle Paul:
GREETINGS! I'M A PRISONER...
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved brother and fellow-worker, and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This letter was written from prison while Paul was in Rome, about A.D. 61. It was written to his spiritual brother, Philemon, who lived over in the Roman province of Asia, modern-day Turkey, in a city called Colossae, a short distance from Ephesus. In A.D. 57, after his third missionary journey, Paul decided to go back to Jerusalem, against all the counsel of his brothers, and against the prompting of the Holy Spirit. He wanted to go because he was excited about telling James and the other brothers how Jesus Christ had been working among the Gentiles.
When he got there the brothers were very excited about his ministry, but they said, "Listen, we have some problems in town. Some of the Jewish brothers are saying that you are not keeping the Law of Moses, and you are teaching that children do not have to be circumcised when they come of age, and that Gentile converts needn't be circumcised. And Paul said, "You're right! That's exactly what I'm teaching. Salvation is by faith and faith alone." But a lot of brothers in Jerusalem were upset about these issues, for this was a transition period. And so James and the council of elders asked Paul, "Would you help to relieve the pressure by entering the temple with four men who have taken the Nazarite vow, and pay for their offering and identify with them, to show that you are not overthrowing all of the Law and the prophets and the temple worship." Paul did that, but when he did he brought some Greeks into the temple area with him- a fantastic break with the tradition of the Jews. No Gentile of any kind, unless he we-e a proselyte, could come near the temple, under pain of death, and there were signs posted declaring this.
This created such a riot among the Jews who had come down from Asia that the whole town was stirred up, and they almost killed Paul in the tumult. The Romans rushed in and one of the centurions grabbed him, saying, "What's the idea of causing a riot in town?" and he started to beat him. Paul reached in his pocket, brought out his Roman passport, and said, "Hey, don't do that; I'm a Roman citizen!" So they took him into the barracks and said, "Now, what was the riot all about?" Paul said, "I don't know. I was talking about Jesus, and they all got upset." (Every city he visited the same thing happened - "I don't know. I was talking about Jesus, and everybody gets upset.") So they could not figure out a charge and were going to let him go.
But Paul's nephew told him, "Listen, you won't believe this, but forty Jewish Zealots have taken a vow not to eat or drink until they slay you." The centurion heard about this and slipped him out of town by night and sent him up north to Caesarea for his own safety. There he met the governor, Felix, and later Festus, who succeeded Felix, for Paul was kept in prison over a two-year period. Neither of them knew what to do with him. Finally, when Festus proposed ordering another hearing in Jerusalem, Paul, who knew that the Jews were still plotting to kill him, said, "I appeal to Caesar." About this time, as described in the last part of Acts, Paul was given a vision, and he was encouraged, "Be of good cheer, for I want you to talk about Jesus in Rome."
You can imagine Paul saying, "I always wanted to go to Rome, but not this way, not as a captive of the Roman empire! I had all those plans as to how I was going to do it, had all those friends I was going to take with me, had such a heartbeat for the Roman people. But I never expected I would have to go on a prisoner ship!" He was told, "Be of good cheer, you'll be my witness in Rome." So he ended up in a private house in Rome, a city filled with merchants and thousands of slaves and people from all over the entire Roman empire, a city dedicated to emperor worship and all kinds of cults. He was chained to a guard night and day. So he sat down and started to think things through: "I have an opportunity now to write." So he wrote letters to brothers in Colossae, to the Ephesians, to those at Philippi, and then to his personal friend, Philemon.
"Philemon, contrary to all rumors that I am a captive of Rome - it is not true. I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ! I am totally captivated by him, and he has me in his chains of love. And though I am restricted in motion, I am not restricted in expression. So I can write to you and share with you my heart. I am resting in him, trusting him, casting all my cares on him, because he's my Lord and my Master. Prisoner? Yes - of the only person I ever want to be a prisoner of: Jesus Christ. I am captivated by him, locked into his life, never to be released again. Timothy is with me [Timothy, that God-honoring one of whom Paul said, "He has become my beloved son and faithful fellow worker."] Philemon, we greet you!"
Philemon's name means "affectionate one". Apparently Philemon had come to know the Lord when Paul was teaching in Ephesus for three years. He had come down through the mountains from Colossae, about 150 miles, was converted under Paul's teaching, and returned to his home where he started a church. He probably was one of the elders, along with others, and was ministering in that community. And Paul, as his spiritual father, evidently meant a great deal to Philemon.
Paul says, "Greetings to you, Philemon, our beloved brother in the Spirit and fellow worker in the ministry, and to Apphia your wife and our sister, and to Archippus [who may have been Philemon's son and a leader in the Colossian church] our fellow soldier in the spiritual warfare, grace to you all and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Thus he shares with Philemon the joy that he recognizes who God is- not only his captor, but also his Father. The word "father" to me brings out all the qualities of protection, responsibility, security, love, care- one who gives direction, guidance, who brings peace to a home. Paul says, "From the Father, our Father, Philemon, grace and peace, grace and shalom to you. May your spirit be at rest; may your life be filled with grace." Then he continues
PRAYER, THE MASTER KEY TO FREEDOM
I thank my God always, making mention of you [personally] in my prayers, because I hear [consistently] of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints, and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
You see, Paul is in prison, but he is not locked in. For God has given him the master key which allows him to leave his confinement any time he wants. You can se, him sitting there, chained to a guard, dropping his head and quietly saying nothing to his guard for about two hours. Finally he nods his head, apparently wakes up, and Ralph, the guard, says, "Did you have a good nap?" Paul says, "Oh, no, Ralph, excuse me; I wasn't napping. I've been on a trip to Israel, Asia, Greece, and Italy." And the guard grabs his chains, checks them, wondering if he's the one who had the nap. "Who's been sleeping, and who's in charge? What do you mean?" asks Ralph.
And you can hear Paul saying, "Funny you should mention it! You see, my Father is the Father of the universe. And I'm his prisoner. And he said that I can goand pray for my brothers all over the world anytime I want just by turning my mind to him. You may restrict me to this house, but you cannot restrict my mind and my spirit." You see, Paul was praying all the time for all the saints. In the book of Romans that is what he says"I pray for you always." He says the same thing in the book of Philemon. He says it in Philippians, in 1 Thessalonians, he says it to Timothy. he says it to the Ephesians. He was always praying.
You think to yourself, "When did he get time to do all that praying? We can't, in this busy twentieth century, lock ourselves away in a house for four years. We can't afford that. Besides, the Superbowl is on at 12:35! We've got to watch that first, before we even have time to pray." But you know, that was the secret to Paul's whole life, the secret of his whole ministry. "All the churches are my concern," he said, "but they are not my anxiety. They are my responsibility to minister to through my spiritual gifts, but they are not my burden. For I cast all this on the Father. All my brothers throughout the world I keep giving back to the Father, and I ask him to work in their lives."
I've always been amazed by C.S. Lewis, and even mare in recent days. A dear friend of mine gave me the new book entitled, C-S. Lewis. Images of His World. It shares the life behind the author, his real life, his town, and his friends. And the key to his life was his long walks in the countryside alone, hour after hour after hour. You finally realize where he got all his fantastic insight into the mind of God and the way he works - he walked and he talked with God. They walked in fellowship, and communicated with one another. Then he went home and wrote some fifty books. They are influencing us more now than when he was living. (He died in 1962.) Here we are being blessed with these books- The Problem of Pain, Mere Christianity (which has changed so many lives), the Chronicles of Narnia series -- all these beautiful books, produced because he walked with God, trusted himself to God, knew God's mind, and so he was at peace with God. God was his master, and he was God's prisoner. He spent time with God.
When a man spends time with God, his spiritual life is strengthened. And when his spiritual life is strengthened, no matter what happens on the outside, he has the power to face that pressure, and the wisdom and discernment to deal with it: "I may be in a cell, and haven't seen you in five or six years, Philemon, but good news has come to me. I'm always hearing of your love, and I hear of your faith, and because of your faith toward Jesus Christ, your love is being manifested to all the saints. But I haven't talked with you in all this time. How do you do it? How come God is working in your life without me? [Isn't that the pressure? How could he grow without me?] It's beautiful to watch how you're growing. I'm excited about your life. And I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you right now." In other words, "You've manifested your love and your faith toward Jesus Christ, and the saints are being blessed. Now I want to take you into more knowledge. There is something new I want to add to these qualities of Christ-like behavior in your life. I'm about to teach you what it means to forgive. I want to say something to you, and I'm praying that God will teach you what it means to forgive. There's a whole new adventure for you, and here it comes:
FORGIVE USELESS...
Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do that which is proper, yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you -- since I am such, a person as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus- I appeal to you for my child, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, Onesimus, who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me.
What had happened,apparently, was that Onesimus, a slave, whose name means "useful", was useless. He lived with Philemon, and apparently knew Paul or had heard of him during Paul's time in Ephesus. Word had gotten back to him that Paul was in a prison in Rome. For some reason he decided to run away from Philemon. And he made a journey of approximately 1,400 miles, either by ship or overland through the mountains- it seems easier by ship, if you check it out on a map- to the city of Rome. He made his way through that great city, hungry, tired, and scared all the time that he would be caught as a runaway slave, and ended up, of all places, in Paul's house-prison.
You can hear Paul saying, "Onesimus, it's great to see you! You bring word from Philemon, right?" "Wrong." "Well, what are you doing here?" "You won't believe it, Paul-- I ran away." "You're kidding! You ran away from Philemon? Do you realize what that means, son?" "Yes, that's why I came to see you. I am really frightened. I am really worried about what's going to happen. I can't get work. There is no way I can exist, the way I'm living." And Paul says, "Sit down, I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you about a master who really loved you, Onesimus. I want to talk to you about a greater Master who loves you even more. You will become a slave of him instead of yourself. Do you want to listen?" Onesimus says, "Where else can I go? Of course I'll listen. Do you have any food?" So they sit down and Paul shares with him.
Now Paul says, "Philemon, Onesimus is now my son, to whom I actually gave birth in my imprisonment. He was formerly useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. He is a brand-new creation. And now, for the first time, he is able to live up to his name - 'profitable one, useful one'." It is hard to have a name and not be able to live up to it. Onesimus was called "profitable one" and all the time in his heart he knew he was a rascal. He knew he had nothing within himself to enable him to live up to his name. Paul says, "All that is changed, now, Philemon."
SENDING MY VERY HEART
And I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart; whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel; but without your consent I did not want to do anything, that your goodness should not be as it were by compulsion, but of your own free will.
So here is Philemon sitting on the porch one day. He says to a friend, "Look at that guy coming down the road. He limps just like my old useless slave who ran away. In fact, that is my old useless slave who ran away! What in the world is he doing coming back? Such arrogance! Doesn't he know what's going to happen to him? Doesn't he know the punishment for runaway slaves? Doesn't he realize the pressure he's about to face? What in the world would drive him back home?" You see, the society had not forgotten the uprising in 73 B.C. when Spartacus had led some 70,000 slaves in a revolt against Rome and caused all kinds of havoc and bloodshed. The Romans' in order to set an example, took 6,000 of those slaves in 71 B.C., when they captured Spartacus and he died, and crucified them along a 130-mile stretch of road outside of Rome - one after another, 6,000 men and women on crosses- - and said, "We will have no more uprisings. And this ought to make the point clear." Very harsh. Then they established laws like: if a slaves kills his master, if there are up to a hundred slaves in the household, all die. So the Roman people who owned slaves had the pressure of the Roman law to contend with. You can feel the strain in Philemon's life. "What do I do'? What do I do?"
Onesimus comes up to Philemon you can feel the tension -- and he says, "Hold it. I know what you are thinking, Philemon. But look! I have a letter from Paul- your spiritual father. Would you read that first? I won't go anywhere. Just read the letter first." And Philemon's heart stops for a minute. "I'll take care of you in a minute. Let me have that letter. I want to see what Paul has to say. What? He sent you back in person...his very heart. You're Paul's heart? Certainly something has happened!" And he reads the letter we are now reading.
Isn't that amazing'? You and I are reading someone else's mail right now - a love letter. Here we are, two thousand years later, able to see the very heart of Paul. "Philemon, just between you and me, I'm sending you back my heart. I'd love to keep him so he could minister to me, but I don't want to do that. This is a delicate situation. I'm wrestling to find the best approach to it. I don't know whether to come as an apostle and order you to forgive him and love him and welcome him back to your household, or to trust you, in love. I prefer to trust that the love of Jesus Christ will come through you. So I'm going to rest in the expectation that you are going to do this out of love." Now Paul says,
PARTED FOR AWHILE--BACK FOREVER
For perhaps he was for this reason parted from you for a while, that you should have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
This gives us tremendous insight into how God works in the lives of people. Here is a slave who runs away useless, goes some 1,400 miles, arrives in a little, unknown prison cell, sees the apostle Paul for the first time in years, seeks mercy and love, receives it, asks some questions, finds out more about Jesus Christ, accepts him, ministers to Paul, goes 1,400 miles back to what could be his death for running away, trusting God for his life. That is God's working in the hearts of men.
Sometimes we get confused about how God works. We think he has to do it our way. I have a friend, Nancy, who came to know the Lord through some of her friends. And she grew spiritually. I couldn't believe how quickly she caught onto spiritual things. She would go to different Bible studies, talk to her friends, read, come to church - she just kept growing. One day she came to me right in the middle of our home Bible class and said, "Ron, I don't know how to tell you this, but my husband and I have been transferred to Tampa, Florida." Again, that rock in the stomach! I thought, "Tampa, Florida? How are you going to grow spiritually in Tampa, Florida? Does anybody know the Bible in Tampa, Florida? Are there any teachers in Florida? I thought there were only alligators in Florida! What chance does she have there?" Soon she called me, "We're leaving tomorrow. Can we pray together?" I prayed, but I didn't believe my prayer at all. I knew that was the end of Nancy. It really hurt.
That was a year ago. I got word from a friend of hers three weeks ago - "Remember Nancy?" "I'll never forget Nancy." "A strange thing happened, Ron." "What's that?" "Well, she started to share Jesus Christ in Tampa, Florida, and soon made such an impression on her community, and started to study the Word so much, that Miss Johnson asked her to be the Women's Bible Study Fellowship teaching leader for Tampa!" ... And she never called us once! Amazing how God works! Then Paul says this,
PUT IT ON MY CREDIT CARD
If then you regard me as a partner [and you do], accept him as you would me. But if he has wronged you in any way [and he has l, or owes you anything [and I know he stole from you], charge that to my account....
"Lay that one on me, Philemon. I'll pick up the check. Use my credit card, but don't charge it to him; he's my son."
Isaiah 53 presents the whole picture of what Jesus Christ did for us. If you read between the lines you can hear him say, "Father, all these people are runaway slaves from your grace and your mercy and your love. They have stolen from you, and have not understood your love. They have trampled it and wasted it and mocked it. But now they have come into a personal relationship with me. So Father, do not judge them. But if there is any judgment, charge that to my account, for they are now my sons, and they are in our family." See what a Savior we have? We are all Onesimuses. We think we are useful, but we're useless without Jesus Christ. We think we are profitable people, but we splurge and waste our lives because we do not understand who he is.
Then Paul turns to this point, in verse 19:
I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, I will repay it (lest I should mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well).
Paul says, "I don't quite know how to bring this up, but remember who's writing. This is your father in the faith speaking. Do I have to bring it up, Philemon?" But he is being delicate. He doesn't know where Philemon might be spiritually as he is reading this letter. He hasn't seen him in a while. Look at the way he puts this, though; it's so beautiful! "Yes, brother, let me benefit, let me profit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. You have been refreshing all the sanits- how about me? Refresh me. Love Onesimus because of me. Accept him back. Understand what forgiveness is. Apply it. It's wonderful, Philemon, if you apply this grace that God has given you - the ability to forgive those who have wronged you. It will be a new step in your maturity. Then he says, in closing,
Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say. And at the same time also prepare me a lodging; for I hope that through your prayers I shall be given to you.
And that is exactly what happened. Paul was set free from his first imprisonment. We do not know that he got back to see Philemon, but he went back into his itinerant ministry and perhaps had the opportunity. Then he says,
Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as do Mark [Mark? I thought Mark blew the whole ministry when Barnabas and Paul had the big argument over him some 20 years ago. I thought that he was a failure. "No," Paul says, "Mark is with me again, maturing, growing, ministering." You mean there's some hope in a guy like Mark? Yes!] Aristarchus, Demas [Demas, who later went back to the world, because he thought the things of the world were more attractive. But his life wasn't over yet; that was just what he did at that time! ], and Luke, my fellow-workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
So now we have come full circle, and we ask the question, "What can we do to be set free from the constant temptation to fall into spiritual tunnel-vision, this narrow view of God's power and love and keeping activity among men and women. Do you remember that couple I mentioned earlier, about whom my friends and I worried so much? We finally got in touch with them. Would you believe it? They are reading the Word to each other, they are praying together, they are starting a house-church, witnessing to all their neighbors and business friends.... And they never called us once! They called on the Father; they went to the Father.
Many of you have people about whom you are really concerned. You have brothers and sisters in the flesh you would love to see come to know Jesus. You have husbands or wives who do not know him, and you have sons or daughters who have run away, and you haven't heard from them in a while. You are all concerned about them. But listen to this fantastic statement: It may be that they went away for a while, so that they could come back to you forever. Isn't that interesting?
In 1954 I was in North Africa, 3,000 miles away from home. I had told my mother never to pray for me again, and I meant it. I was bitter and angry. I thought that if she was a Christian I wanted nothing to do with it. I ended up a year later, 3,000 miles away, half-drunk in a hotel room, bankrupt spiritually, mentally, and physically, and said, "Jesus, if you're real, come into my life." Do you know what God did? He not only came into my life 3,000 miles from any influence on the part of my family or church, but he gave me a roommate next door who said, "Hey, Ron, I heard you talking to one of the guys on the elevator, and it sounds as if you're a Christian." I said, "Yes!" He said, "So am I. can we study the Word together?" It turned out that we started a house-church which grew to include a couple hundred GI's, 3,000 miles away from any influence except that of the Holy Spirit.
We have a lot of Onesimuses among us. But do you know what we have to do? We have to trust them to God. We have to put God back in charge of runaway slaves, of Onesimuses, of Marks, of Demases. We must stop picking up the burden, the anxiety, and the panic which is not ours in the new creation. You see, we have a Father who is able not only to love, but also to keep us, who will send the Hound of Heaven after us to bring him to himself. We have a Father who wants to answer our prayers, but we have to trust him for his timing in the lives of our Onesimuses. Then we are free to be prisoners of our God and Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ.
(Author's note: Later, in thinking through the fact that God was willing to wait for me in a little hotel room 3,000 miles away from any apparent spiritual influence, it occurred to me that he was just as willing to wait for my 90% blind, totally deaf, non-English-speaking mother-in-law when she left North Africa and came 6,000 miles to meet him in a small apartment in Walnut Creek, California. It is intriguing that, in the same family, I had to go from America to Africa to find Christ, while she had to travel twice as far in the opposite direction. It is a measure of God's mercy that he was there to meet us both.)
Prayer:
Our Heavenly Father, you are the one who has given us the concern for others, who has given us the love for others. Father, we pray that we may not have such narrow vision that we can't see that you are really still in charge. Keep us from anxiety and fear and panic on behalf of those we love. For those who are running away from you, for those we are afraid aren't growing - give us the insight to continue to pray for them always and to rest in the fact that you are Lord of Lords and King of Kings, that you love them more than we love them, that you are more concerned about them than we really are, and that your heart wants them to come to know your Son, and to grow in the knowledge of him. Thank you for the way you are going to work this week as we rest and put all these things into your hands. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Catalog No. 3104
Philemon
Ron R. Ritchie
January 13, 1974
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