A Torah Verse By Verse Commentary Of Paul's Epistles by Re'tzon Ha'El - HTML preview

Introduction

Paul’s shortest epistle was addressed to this dear friend of his, Philemon, a Gentile convert from Colossae. He was a wealthy man whose heathen runaway slave named Onesimus, had further dealt him with an unspecified blow of delinquency, most likely theft of some sort. Onesimus however, by the grace of Elohim, having fallen into the hands of Paul, was like his master Philemon, convicted by the Holy Spirit, through Paul’s preaching of the gospel. In like manner he converted to Christianity, and became a mighty spiritual warrior in the body of Messiah.

This situation left Paul in a predicament, as his preaching had borne good fruit in both master and runaway slave, both of whom had become very dear to Paul. Philemon, unaware of the conversion of his fugitive slave, undoubtedly would have felt estranged to Onesimus. Paul’s dilemma was the urgent need to reconcile the former malefactor with his master, in order for them to both be in good stead with Yeshua’s commandments. On the one hand Onesimus was to seek forgiveness of his sin of possible theft, and also escape from his duty. As for Philemon, he needed to exercise forgiveness and also accept Onesimus as a brother in Messiah.

Paul uses great tact and diplomacy in achieving this goal in his epistle, from which many lessons can be drawn upon for leaders in assemblies of Messiah, to utilize in dealing with sensitive matters and conflict between believing brethren. I shall explore in greater detail every tactic used by Paul in so meeting this objective, of which I hope will be of much benefit to you dear beloved.