II.

"I thank my God always, making mention of thee in my prayers,

hearing of thy love, and of the faith which thou hast toward the

Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; that the fellowship of thy

faith may become effectual, in the knowledge of every good thing

which is in you, unto Christ. For I had much joy and comfort in thy

love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through

thee, brother."--PHILEM. 4-7 (Rev. Ver.).

Paul's was one of those regal natures to which things are possible that

other men dare not do. No suspicion of weakness attaches to him when he

pours out his heart in love, nor any of insincerity when he speaks of

his continual prayers for his friends, or when he runs over in praise of

his converts. Few men have been able to talk so much of their love

without betraying its shallowness and self-consciousness, or of their

prayers without exciting a doubt of their manly sincerity. But the

Apostle could venture to do these things without being thought either

feeble or false, and could unveil his deepest affections and his most

secret devotions without provoking either a smile or a shrug.

He has the habit of beginning all his letters with thankful

commendations and assurances of a place in his prayers. The exceptions

are 2 Corinthians, where he writes under strong and painful emotion, and

Galatians, where a vehement accusation of fickleness takes the place of

the usual greeting. But these exceptions make the habit more

conspicuous. Though this is a habit, it is not a form, but the perfectly

simple and natural expression of the moment's feelings. He begins his

letters so, not in order to please and to say smooth things, but because

he feels lovingly, and his heart fills with a pure joy which speaks most

fitly in prayer. To recognise good is the way to make good better.

Teachers must love if their teaching is to help. The best way to secure

the doing of any signal act of Christian generosity, such as Paul wished

of Philemon, is to show absolute confidence that it will be done,

because it is in accordance with what we know of the doer's character.

"It's a shame to tell Arnold a lie: he always trusts us," the Rugby boys

used to say. Nothing could so powerfully have swayed Philemon to grant

Paul's request, as Paul's graceful mention of his beneficence, which

mention is yet by no means conscious diplomacy, but instinctive

kindliness.

The words of this section are simple enough, but their order is not

altogether clear. They are a good example of the hurry and rush of the

Apostle's style, arising from his impetuosity of nature. His thoughts

and feelings come knocking at "the door of his lips" in a crowd, and do

not always make their way out in logical order. For instance, he begins

here with thankfulness, and that suggests the mention of his prayers,

_v._ 4. Then he gives the occasion of his thankfulness in _v._ 5,

"Hearing of thy love and of the faith which thou hast," etc. He next

tells Philemon the subject matter of his prayers in _v._ 6, "That the

fellowship of thy faith may become effectual," etc. These two verses

thus correspond to the two clauses of _v._ 4, and finally in _v._ 7 he

harks back once more to his reasons for thankfulness in Philemon's love

and faith, adding, in a very lovely and pathetic way, that the good

deeds done in far off Colossae had wafted a refreshing air to the Roman

prison house, and, little as the doer knew it, had been a joy and

comfort to the solitary prisoner there.

I. We have,--then, here the character of Philemon, which made Paul glad

and thankful. The order of the language is noteworthy. Love is put

before faith. The significance of this sequence comes out by contrast

with similar expressions in Ephesians i. 15: "Your faith in the Lord

Jesus, and love unto all the saints" (A.V.) and Colossians i. 4: "Your

faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have toward all the

saints," where the same elements are arranged in the more natural order,

corresponding to their logical relation; viz., faith first, and love as

its consequence. The reason for the change here is probably that

Onesimus and Epaphras, from whom Paul would be likely to hear of

Philemon, would enlarge upon his practical benevolence, and would

naturally say less about the root than about the sweet and visible

fruit. The arrangement then is an echo of the talks which had gladdened

the Apostle. Possibly, too, love is put first, because the object of the

whole letter is to secure its exercise towards the fugitive slave; and

seeing that the Apostle would listen with that purpose in view, each

story which was told of Philemon's kindness to others made the deeper

impression on Paul. The order here is the order of analysis, digging

down from manifestation to cause: the order in the parallel passages

quoted is the order of production ascending from root to flower.

Another peculiarity in the arrangement of the words is that the objects

of love and faith are named in the reverse order to that in which these

graces are mentioned, "the Lord Jesus" being first, and "all the saints"

last. Thus we have, as it were, "faith towards the Lord Jesus" imbedded

in the centre of the verse, while "thy love ... toward all the saints,"

which flows from it, wraps it round. The arrangement is like some forms

of Hebrew poetical parallelism, in which the first and fourth members

correspond, and the second and third, or like the pathetic measure of

_In Memoriam_, and has the same sweet lingering cadence; while it also

implies important truths as to the central place in regard to the

virtues which knit hearts in soft bonds of love and help, of the faith

which finds its sole object in Jesus Christ.

The source and foundation of goodness and nobility of character is faith

in Jesus the Lord. That must be buried deep in the soul if tender love

toward men is to flow from it. It is "the very pulse of the machine."

All the pearls of goodness are held in solution in faith. Or, to speak

more accurately, faith in Christ gives possession of His life and

Spirit, from which all good is unfolded; and it further sets in action

strong motives by which to lead to every form of purity and beauty of

soul; and, still further, it brings the heart into glad contact with a

Divine love which forgives its Onesimuses, and so it cannot but touch

the heart into some glad imitation of that love which is its own dearest

treasure. So that, for all these and many more reasons, love to men is

the truest visible expression, as it is the direct and necessary result,

of faith in Christ. What is exhaled from the heart and drawn upwards by

the fervours of Christ's self-sacrificing love is faith; when it falls

on earth again, as a sweet rain of pity and tenderness, it is love.

Further, the true object of faith and one phase of its attitude towards

that object are brought out in this central clause. We have the two

names which express, the one the divinity, the other the humanity of

Christ. So the proper object of faith is the whole Christ, in both His

natures, the Divine-human Saviour. Christian faith sees the divinity in

the humanity, and the humanity around the divinity. A faith which grasps

only the manhood is maimed, and indeed has no right to the name.

Humanity is not a fit object of trust. It may change; it has limits; it

must die. "Cursed be the man that maketh flesh his arm," is as true

about faith in a merely human Christ as about faith in any other man.

There may be reverence, there may be in some sense love, obedience,

imitation; but there should not be, and I see not how there can be, the

absolute reliance, the utter dependence, the unconditional submission,

which are of the very essence of faith, in the emotions which men

cherish towards a human Christ. The Lord Jesus only can evoke these. On

the other hand, the far off splendour and stupendous glory of the Divine

nature becomes the object of untrembling trust, and draws near enough to

be known and loved, when we have it mellowed to our weak eyes by shining

through the tempering medium of His humanity.

The preposition here used to define the relation of faith to its object

is noteworthy. Faith is "toward" Him. The idea is that of a movement of

yearning after an unattained good. And that is one part of the true

office of faith. There is in it an element of aspiration, as of the

soaring eagle to the sun, or the climbing tendrils to the summit of the

supporting stem. In Christ there is always something beyond, which

discloses itself the more clearly, the fuller is our present possession

of Him. Faith builds upon and rests in the Christ possessed and

experienced, and just therefore will it, if it be true, yearn towards

the Christ unpossessed. A great reach of flashing glory beyond opens on

us, as we round each new headland in that unending voyage. Our faith

should and will be an ever-increasing fruition of Christ, accompanied

with increasing perception of unreached depths in Him, and increasing

longing after enlarged possession of His infinite fulness.

Where the centre is such a faith, its circumference and outward

expression will be a widely diffused love. That deep and most private

emotion of the soul, which is the flight of the lonely spirit to the

single Christ, as if these two were alone in the world, does not bar a

man off from his kind, but effloresces into the largest and most

practical love. When one point of the compasses is struck deeply and

firmly into that centre of all things, the other can steadily sweep a

wide circle. The widest is not here drawn, but a somewhat narrower,

concentric one. The love is "toward all saints." Clearly their relation

to Jesus Christ puts all Christians into relation with one another. That

was an astounding thought in Philemon's days, when such high walls

separated race from race, the slave from the free, woman from man; but

the new faith leaped all barriers, and put a sense of brotherhood into

every heart that learned God's fatherhood in Jesus. The nave of the

wheel holds all the spokes in place. The sun makes the system called by

its name a unity, though some planets be of giant bulk and swing through

a mighty orbit, waited on by obedient satellites, and some be but specks

and move through a narrow circle, and some have scarce been seen by

human eye. All are one, because all revolve round one sun, though solemn

abysses part them, and though no message has ever crossed the gulfs from

one to another.

The recognition of the common relation which all who bear the same

relation to Christ bear to one another has more formidable difficulties

to encounter to-day than it had in these times when the Church had no

stereotyped creeds and no stiffened organizations, and when to the

flexibility of its youth were added the warmth of new conviction and the

joy of a new field for expanding emotions of brotherly kindness. But

nothing can absolve from the duty. Creeds separate, Christ unites. The

road to "the reunion of Christendom" is through closer union to Jesus

Christ. When that is secured, barriers which now keep brethren apart

will be leaped, or pulled down, or got rid of somehow. It is of no use

to say, "Go to, let us love one another." That will be unreal, mawkish,

histrionic. "The faith which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus" will be

the productive cause, as it is the measure, of "thy love toward all the

saints."

But the love which is here commended is not a mere feeling, nor does it

go off in gushes, however fervid, of eloquent emotion. Clearly Philemon

was a benefactor of the brotherhood, and his love did not spend only the

paper money of words and promises to pay, but the solid coin of kindly

deeds. Practical charity is plainly included in that love of which it

had cheered Paul in his imprisonment to hear. Its mention, then, is one

step nearer to the object of the letter. Paul conducts his siege of

Philemon's heart skilfully, and opens here a fresh parallel, and creeps

a yard or two closer up. "Surely you are not going to shut out one of

your own household from that wide-reaching kindness." So much is most

delicately hinted, or rather, left to Philemon to infer, by the

recognition of his brotherly love. A hint lies in it that there may be a

danger of cherishing a cheap and easy charity that reverses the law of

gravity, and _in_creases as the square of the distance, having

tenderness and smiles for people and Churches which are well out of our

road, and frowns for some nearer home. "He that loveth not his brother

whom he hath seen, how shall he love" his brother "whom he hath not

seen?"

II. In _v._ 6 we have the apostolic prayer for Philemon, grounded on the

tidings of his love and faith. It is immediately connected with "the

prayers" of _v._ 4 by the introductory "that," which is best understood

as introducing the subject matter of the prayer. Whatever then may be

the meaning of this supplication, it is a prayer for Philemon, and not

for others. That remark disposes of the explanations which widen its

scope, contrary, as it seems to me, to the natural understanding of the

context.

"The fellowship of thy faith" is capable of more than one meaning. The

signification of the principal word and the relation expressed by the

preposition may be variously determined. "Fellowship" is more than once

used in the sense of sharing material wealth with Christ's poor, or more

harshly and plainly, charitable contribution. So we find it in Romans

xv. 26 and 2 Corinthians ix. 13. Adopting that meaning here, the "of"

must express, as it often does, the origin of Philemon's kindly gifts,

namely, his faith; and the whole phrase accords with the preceding verse

in its view of the genesis of beneficence to the brethren as the result

of faith in the Lord.

The Apostle prays that this faith-begotten practical liberality may

become efficacious, or may acquire still more power; _i.e._ may increase

in activity, and so may lead to "the knowledge of every good thing that

is in us." The interpretation has found extensive support, which takes

this as equivalent to a desire that Philemon's good deeds might lead

others, whether enemies or friends, to recognise the beauties of

sympathetic goodness in the true Christian character. Such an

explanation hopelessly confuses the whole, and does violence to the

plain requirements of the context, which limit the prayer to Philemon.

It is _his_ "knowledge" of which Paul is thinking. The same profound and

pregnant word is used here which occurs so frequently in the other

epistles of the captivity, and which always means that deep and vital

knowledge which knows because it possesses. Usually its object is God as

revealed in the great work and person of Christ. Here its object is the

sum total of spiritual blessings, the whole fulness of the gifts given

us by, and, at bottom, consisting of, that same Christ dwelling in the

heart, who is revealer, because He is communicator, of God. The full,

deep knowledge of this manifold and yet one good is no mere theoretical

work of the understanding, but is an experience which is only possible

to him who enjoys it.

The meaning of the whole prayer, then, put into feebler and more modern

dress is simply that Philemon's liberality and Christian love may grow

more and more, and may help him to a fuller appropriation and experience

of the large treasures "which are in us," though in germ and

potentiality only, until brought into consciousness by our own Christian

growth. The various readings "in us," or "in you" only widen the circle

of possessors of these gifts to the whole Church, or narrow it to the

believers of Colossae.

There still remain for consideration the last words of the clause, "unto

Christ" They must be referred back to the main subject of the sentence,

"may become effectual." They seem to express the condition on which

Christian "fellowship," like all Christian acts, can be quickened with

energy, and tend to spiritual progress; namely, that it shall be done as

to the Lord. There is perhaps in this appended clause a kind of

lingering echo of our Lord's own words, in which He accepts as done unto

Him the kindly deeds done to the least of His brethren.

So then this great prayer brings out very strongly the goal to which the

highest perfection of Christian character has still to aspire. Philemon

was no weakling or laggard in the Christian conflict and race. His

attainments sent a thrill of thankfulness through the Apostle's spirit.

But there remained "very much land to be possessed"; and precisely

because he had climbed so far, does his friend pray that he may mount

still higher, where the sweep of view is wider, and the air clearer

still. It is an endless task to bring into conscious possession and

exercise all the fulness with which Christ endows His feeblest servant.

Not till all that God can give, or rather has given, has been

incorporated in the nature and wrought out in the life, is the term

reached. This is the true sublime of the Christian life, that it begins

with the reception of a strictly infinite gift, and demands immortality

as the field for unfolding its worth. Continual progress in all that

ennobles the nature, satisfies the heart, and floods the mind with light

is the destiny of the Christian soul, and of it alone. Therefore

unwearied effort, buoyancy, and hope which no dark memories can dash nor

any fears darken should mark _their_ temper, to whom the future offers

an absolutely endless and limitless increase in the possession of the

infinite God.

There is also brought out in this prayer the value of Christian

beneficence as a means of spiritual growth. Philemon's "communication of

faith" will help him to the knowledge of the fulness of Christ. The

reaction of conduct on character and growth in godliness is a familiar

idea with Paul, especially in the prison epistles. Thus we read in his

prayer for the Colossians, "fruitful in every good work, and increasing

in the knowledge of God." The faithful carrying out in life of what we

already know is not the least important condition of increasing

knowledge. If a man does not live up to his religion, his religion

shrinks to the level of his life. Unoccupied territory lapses. We hold

our spiritual gifts on the terms of using them. The practice of

convictions deepens convictions; not that the exercise of Christian

graces will make theologians, but it will give larger possession of the

knowledge which is life.

While this general principle is abundantly enforced in Scripture and

confirmed by experience, the specific form of it here is that the right

administration of wealth is a direct means of increasing a Christian's

possession of the large store treasured in Christ. Every loving thought

towards the sorrowful and the needy, every touch of sympathy yielded to,

and every kindly, Christlike deed flowing from these, thins away some

film of the barriers between the believing soul and a full possession of

God, and thus makes it more capable of beholding Him and of rising to

communion with Him. The possibilities of wealth lie, not only in the

direction of earthly advantages, but in the fact that men may so use it

as to secure their being "received into everlasting habitations." Modern

evangelical teachers have been afraid to say what Paul ventured to say

on this matter, for fear of obscuring the truth which Paul gave his life

to preach. Surely they need not be more jealous for the doctrine of

"justification by faith" than he was; and if he had no scruples in

telling rich men to "lay up in store for themselves a good foundation

for the time to come," by being "ready to communicate," they may safely

follow. There is probably no more powerful cause of the comparative

feebleness of average English Christianity than the selfish use of

money, and no surer means of securing a great increase in the depth and

richness of the individual Christian life than the fuller application of

Christian principle, that is, of the law of sacrifice, to the

administration of property.

The final clause of the verse seems to state the condition on which

Philemon's good deeds will avail for his own growth in grace, and

implies that in him that condition is fulfilled. If a man does deeds of

kindness and help to one of these little ones, as "unto Christ," then

his beneficence will come back in spiritual blessing on his own head. If

they are the result of simple natural compassion, beautiful as it is,

they will reinforce _it_, but have no tendency to strengthen that from

which they do _not_ flow. If they are tainted by any self-regard, then

they are not charitable deeds at all. What is done for Christ will bring

to the doer more of Christ as its consequence and reward. All life, with

all its varied forms of endurance and service, comes under this same

law, and tends to make more assured and more blessed and more profound

the knowledge and grasp of the fulness of Christ, in the measure in

which it is directed to Him, and done or suffered for His sake.

III. The present section closes with a very sweet and pathetic

representation of the Apostle's joy in the character of his friend.

The "for" of _v._ 7 connects not with the words of petition immediately

before, but with "I thank my God" (_v._ 4), and gives a graceful

turn--graceful only because so unforced and true--to the sentence. "My

thanks are due to you for your kindness to others, for, though you did

not think of it, you have done me as much good as you did them." The

"love" which gives Paul such "great joy and consolation" is not love

directed to himself, but to others; and the reason why it gladdened the

Apostle was because it had "refreshed the hearts" of sorrowful and needy

saints in Colossae. This tender expression of affectionate joy in

Philemon's good deeds is made wonderfully emotional by that emphatic

"brother" which ends the verse, and by its unusual position in the

sentence assumes the character of a sudden, irrepressible shoot of love

from Paul's heart towards Philemon, like the quick impulse with which a

mother will catch up her child, and cover it with caresses. Paul was

never ashamed of showing his tenderness, and it never repels us.

These final words suggest the unexpected good which good deeds may do.

No man can ever tell how far the blessing of his trivial acts of

kindness, or other pieces of Christian conduct, may travel. They may

benefit one in material fashion, but the fragrance may reach many

others. Philemon little dreamed that his small charity to some suffering

brother in Colossae would find its way across the sea, and bring a waft

of coolness and refreshing into the hot prison house. Neither Paul nor

Philemon dreamed that, made immortal by the word of the former, the same

transient act would find its way across the centuries, and would "smell

sweet and blossom in the dust" to-day. Men know not who are their

audiences, or who may be spectators of their works; for they are all

bound so mystically and closely together, that none can tell how far the

vibrations which he sets in motion will thrill. This is true about all

deeds, good and bad, and invests them all with solemn importance. The

arrow shot travels beyond the archer's eye, and may wound where he

knows not. The only thing certain about the deed once done is, that its

irrevocable consequences will reach much farther than the doer dreamed,

and that no limits can be set to the subtle influence which, for

blessing or harm, it exerts.

Since the diameter of the circle which our acts may fill is unknown and

unknowable, the doer who stands at the centre is all the more solemnly

bound to make sure of the only thing of which he can make sure, the

quality of the influence sent forth; and since his deed may blight or

bless so widely, to clarify his motives and guard his doings, that they

may bring only good wherever they light.

May we not venture to see shining through the Apostle's words the

Master's face? "Even as Christ did for us with God the Father," says

Luther, "thus also doth St. Paul for Onesimus with Philemon"; and that

thought may permissibly be applied to many parts of this letter, to

which it gives much beauty. It may not be all fanciful to say that, as

Paul's heart was gladdened when he heard of the good deeds done in

far-off Colossae by a man who "owed to him his own self" so we may

believe that Christ is glad and has "great joy in our love" to His

servants and in our kindliness, when He beholds the poor work done by

the humblest for His sake. He sees and rejoices, and approves when there

are none but Himself to know or praise; and at last many, who did lowly

service to His friends, will be surprised to hear from His lips the

acknowledgment that it was Himself whom they had visited and succoured,

and that they had been ministering to the Master's joy when they had

only known themselves to be succouring His servants' need.