Philemon 1:1
1 Paul [Paulos], a prisoner [desmios] of Jesus [Iesous] Christ [Christos], and [kai] Timothy [Timotheos] our brother [adelphos],
unto Philemon [Philemon] our [hemon] dearly beloved [agapetos],
and [kai] fellow labourer [sunergos], KJV-Interlinear
1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ
Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved brother and fellow
worker, NASB
Paul means little. Timothy means dear to God. Philemon means friendly. Jesus is the personal name of God meaning God
is our salvation.
Jesus or Iesous is the
Greek word, and Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent. Christ is the Greek word, and Messiah is the
Hebrew equivalent and it means anointed.
Therefore, Jesus Christ or Joshua Messiah both come to mean the anointed
one who is God is our savior and salvation.
This clearly identifies Christ both in name and purpose.
Paul was a prisoner of
Rome at the time of this writing, but Paul is not presumptuous about
himself.He did not presume that he was
better than anyone else in this world.
Paul identifies himself not as a prisoner of Rome, but of Christ.
The word for prisoner
indicates one who is in chains, and Paul most likely spent a great deal of time
bound in chains while being led by a Roman soldier. However, Paul did not consider the chains of
this world as greater than the preferred chains of his spiritual life and
attachment to God through Christ.
And that is the way you
should look at your life.Regardless of
what your circumstances might be in this life, Christ is always greater and
Christ is always there for you.
Paul will eventually go
to his death, and you and I will also visit our last breath in this world one
day.But, Christ should always be first
on our mind.Whether Christ frees us
from one set of circumstances or another in this life, or takes us right up to
the edge of death and beyond, should be irrelevant to us.
In this world we should
not be surprised that the world will try to bind us with chains of one sort or
another.Paul was literally a
prisoner.
Onesimus was a slave
who stole and ran away.
Philemon was a friendly
person, just as Christ is, and by using these people as examples, Paul is teaching
us all a lesson in spiritual obligation.
Philemon was also a believer in Christ.
Philemon was also a slave owner.
If you steal from God,
if you take that which God has given and turn yourself away from the master
that gave you everything, and run away into the sin nature habits of your life,
of this world, then death is your destiny.
For unbelievers the death is the Lake of Fire. For believers who are negative, spiritual
death (out of fellowship) becomes their loss of spiritual growth.
The only way to have
the greatest life ever, is to turn yourself in, to God (back to Christ), and
when chained to Him as a slave of Christ, you secure your freedom, the very
best freedom that anyone can possibly have.
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