Ephesians
6:6-7
"Not
with eyeservice, as menpleasers: but as the servants of Christ, doing
the will of God from the heart: with good will doing service, as to
the Lord, and not to men:"
What
and who are those of eye service and men pleasures? They are those
who say, do as I tell you and do as I say, but I do not have to be
accountable to you or God for my own actions, I am better than the
both of you. These men and women are NOT doing the Will of God from
the heart, because they do not even know nor understand His Will. The
sad thing is that many if not most of these people have chosen mans
way and gone to a college or university to learn mans ways and have
come out in worse shape than when they went in. It will be a while
before we get to the book of Philemon. I am sure that we all understand the story
behind the letter to Philemon. Philemon was a slave owner. He was a
gentleman of means, and one of his bond slaves had evidently stolen
from him, and fled the area of Colossi, which was over there in
Western Turkey, and ends up with Paul. Probably in Rome, because this
is one of his prison epistles. And somehow or other this slave,
Onesimus, comes under the influence of Paul’s preaching, and
becomes a believer. Paul was also instrumental in the redemption and
ultimately the salvation of Onesimus’ owner Philemon, and so Paul
is going to bring these two people back together, the slave and his
master. This is the whole setting of this one page letter to
Philemon. And what Paul is really saying is, "Yes you own him,
he is your servant, but you are both in the Body of Christ and have
become as One." Hay what does that do? That puts them and us on
equal footing. Now Onesimus is still the servant, and Philemon is
still the owner, but he is to no longer to treat this man like chattel.
The purpose also of this letter is for Philemon to accept this slave
back into his good graces, not as a wayward slave who would now be
punished severely for what he had done, but as a fellow believer. The lesson here is, that when we know that our trusted pastor, teacher or evangelist have been found out as being false (the slave), we as a congregation (the masters) are out from under them.
Let’s just drop in at verse 5. The setting here is that Paul is a
prisoner in Rome and Philemon is probably a wealthy individual living
over east of the city of Ephesus in Colossi.
Philemon
1:5
"Hearing
of thy love and faith, which thou hast toward the Lord Jesus, and
toward all saints;"
Who
is that including? Even Onesimus, because now he is also a believer,
and numbered with the saints. Here is the difference, this master bore Godly fruit, the evidence of His Spirit, while those mentioned above do not, as false prophets. We must learn Christ and God to be empowered to discern between the righteous and those who are unrighteous. And because of the years of wearing down, which could best be labeled risque, a slow decline over time. The churches morality and tolerance against such has declined to being Liberal beyond imagination. The church now tolerates what is NOT to be spoken of even in bad company.
Philemon
1:6-7a
"That
the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the
acknowledging of every good thing* which is in you in Christ Jesus.
For we have great joy and consolation in thy love,..."
*the
Holy Spirit and His production of fruit of the Spirit. That is right
He is the fruit producer we only bear or carry in our daily walk the
evidence of His activities within us.
Even
this slave owner, this man Philemon, is exercising the theme about
love that we had earlier, "Seeking other peoples highest
good." Even his servants. Now that took something didn’t
it?
But
today we do not see nor hear this within the congregations that
gather in the Lord's name. Instead they have become more worldly in
conduct (daily walk) and even language. Their leaders may use
embellishing and swelling words which have a sound of truth, but the
real Truth, Who is Truth, is far from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment