Philemon 1:1-3:
1:1Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy the brother – to Philemon the loved-person1 and worker-together with us, .2and Apphia the sister, and Archippus the soldier-together with us, and the church according to your house; .3grace to you and peace from God our Father and (our) Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul begins this letter (epistle) by identifying himself by name: Paul. Then he identifies himself as “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” – a bound-person belonging to Christ Jesus (Christ Jesus’ prisoner). Paul was bound to him, even though he was physically imprisoned by soldiers at the time of writing this letter.
When Paul writes "Christ Jesus" he is emphasizing the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the resurrected, anointed-one of God. The word "Christ" means the "anointed-one" or "Messiah." In the lands and during the time-period of the writing of the Bible, holy oil was poured on the high priest of God to begin his ministry for God. It was also used to anoint kings. Many people and things were anointed with holy oil to signify their making holy or sanctified for a specific purpose, etc, which can be read about in many scriptures in the Bible (refer to Exodus 30:22-33; Acts 2:36, and 4:27, and 10:38).
Paul writes that this letter was also from a person named Timothy, identifying him as "the brother." Whose brother was Timothy? He was not the natural brother of Philemon or of Paul with the same mother and/or father, nor is this referring to the fact that everyone has the same blood flowing through their veins passed down from Adam and Eve. But here Paul is referring to the truth that Timothy had received the gift of holy spirit from God by means of the Lord Jesus Christ, just the same as every other holy-person (sanctified-person, Christian, saint, child of God) including Paul himself. He was the brother in the spirit category because God is the Father of all those who have holy spirit-life within them.
Paul addressed this letter to:
The word "church" comes from the Greek word ekklesia, which comes from two words meaning "out from" and "called," so together it means "called out from." A church is an assembly of people called out from other people for any reason. It does not refer to a particular type of building or a house, even though the church or assembly may meet in a particular type of building or in a house. This man Philemon used-to gather an assembly of holy-people in his house from time to time so that they could sing and pray and hear manifestation of holy spirit (refer to I Corinthians 12-14) and share and teach God's Word, and have meals together, etc – what a wonderful church to be recognized by the Apostle Paul in this letter which he is writing by revelation!
Paul’s greeting is: grace to you (all of you) and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace is what is freely bestowed without any merit on the recipient's part; it includes reference to the attitude and quality of the one giving something favorable to another. Grace is not bestowed because somebody deserves a wage that is owed for something they said or did, nor because they begged so hard, nor because they forced the giver to give! Grace is bestowed because the giver wants to give by his own freedom of will to the recipient - it is completely unmerited favor from the giver to the recipient.
Peace is tranquil-harmony without strife. We may think of peace as the opposite of war, the opposite of conflict, the opposite of being at odds with the other party. Who are the other parties as far as holy-people are concerned? God and the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's children are at peace with God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ because it is given to us from God and the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore all Christians should behave peaceably with one-another too.
All of these holy-people were children of God. God was their Father – spiritually, and their lord was the Lord Jesus Christ. The word "Lord" refers to a master or an owner, one who has the authority, authoritative power, the one from whom the directions and instructions are given and who is to be obeyed, the one who has the dominion over and exercises his lordship in relation to that-which his title of "Lord" or "Master" is being associated.
[Reference: Acts 16:1-3; Romans 1:7, 16:3, 5, 9 and 21; I Corinthians 1:3, 3:9, 4:17, 16:10 and 19; II Corinthians 1:2, 10:3 and 4; Ephesians 1:2, 3:1, 4:1; Philippians 1:2, 2:25; Colossians 1:1, 4:15-17; II Thessalonians 1:1 and 2; I Timothy 1:18; II Timothy 1:8, 2:3 and 4. The Books of First and Second Timothy give details of Timothy and his ministry.]
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True Bible Study - Colossians and Philemon
(May) the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (be) with your spirit.
