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Miles City SDA Church

Diego Silva

The Proper Use of Authority- Part 2

We're going to continue today in our study in the little book of Philemon.

So I'm going to give you some time to reach out and grab your Bible and turn in the New Testament to a very small book, 1 of the smallest books in the Bible, Philemon, just 1 chapter.

This is the shortest letter that Paul wrote, and we started talking about this last week.

Philemon was a Christian who lived during the first century in the little city of Colossae in Asia Minor.

What's interesting about this man that Paul addresses here in this letter is that Philemon was a Christian slave owner.

He was probably the leader of a local congregation in that region, Colossae Laodicea, and the church worshiped in his home.

And we don't have a lot of information about Philemon other than what is in this very small letter, 1 chapter, and that's what we're going to be studying today.

And I've entitled this sermon or this series The Proper Use of Authority Because that's what the book of Philemon teaches us.

Some of us are in positions of authority.

All of us have to relate to authority in some way, whether it be parental authority, civil authority, church authority.

There is authority in our lives and most of us exercise authority.

If not all of us, even my little two-year-old is already exercising authority.

She exercises authority over her little brother.

And so I think that there's something for us to learn about authority in the Bible.

How God exercises authority and how God's men exercise authority.

And so let us study this remarkable book that illustrates tact and wisdom in exercising authority.

The Apostle Paul gives us a beautiful picture of God and how he deals with humanity and with the sin problem.

Paul is the writer and he was in prison when he wrote this letter.

And let's just take a look at the letter as a whole.

I just wanna give you an outline to begin with of the letter.

Paul begins the letter like he does in all of his letters with a salutation.

And then he appeals to Philemon's compassionate heart by commending him for his faith to God and love for his fellow Christians.

This is not a letter of rebuke, even though Philemon is a Christian slave owner.

Paul begins by highlighting his faith to God and his love for his fellow men, for his fellow Christians.

The heart of the letter is verses 8 through 21.

That's the meat, that's the essence of what Paul is trying to communicate to this man.

It's Paul's appeal to Philemon for a man named Onesimus.

Onesimus was a slave that ran away from Philemon's household and in Rome was converted to Christianity.

Some of you might not have ever realized that this was in the Bible.

You have a slave that runs away from his Christian master and in Rome finds Jesus and becomes converted through the efforts of Paul.

This letter is Paul's appeal to Philemon to treat Onesimus in a Christ-like way.

And then the last 4 verses, beginning in verse 22 to verse 25, is Paul's little greeting to close and benediction.

But the heart of the letter is verses 8 to 21.

Paul appeals to Philemon to gently accept Onesimus, a fugitive slave who was converted through Paul's ministry.

And some may be wondering, slavery in the Christian church?

Well, in the Greco-Roman world, approximately 2 thirds of the empire consisted of slaves.

In other words, there were more slaves than there were free people.

A substantial part of the economy depended on the institution of slavery.

Slaves were an integral part of the social structure.

There were harsh punishments for fugitive slaves to make them fear if they were ever tempted to run away.

Matter of fact, they could be killed without any penalty.

Slave owners treated their slaves as property.

Some were more humane than others, but the institution of slavery was alive and well in the world, in society, and even in the church.

And that's what we're gonna look at today.

How does Paul deal with the issue of slavery?

How does Paul deal with Philemon, a Christian leader who owns slaves?

There's so much for us to learn through Paul's example.

Paul was not trying to start a revolution or a great war of social change.

That was not Paul's call, it was not his mission.

But Paul did plant seeds that would produce a harvest of real change in the hearts of people.

Though Paul did not directly condemn slavery, I believe that the principles taught in his epistles and in the Gospels of Jesus and even in the Old Testament laid a foundation that would eventually undermine the very institution of slavery.

I believe we live in a society where slavery has been abolished largely because of the principles that God has communicated through the Bible over the centuries.

But in the Bible, you don't get a direct condemnation of slavery, on the contrary, In the Old Testament, Abraham, who was a friend of God, owned hundreds of slaves.

In the fourth commandment of the 10 commandments, you have provision for the slaves to have rest on the Sabbath, just like everybody else.

So far from condemning slavery, God seems to tolerate it and regulate its practice.

For example, in Colossians chapter 4 verse 1, Paul writes to Christian masters and he says, masters, give your slaves what is just and fair, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.

And this really turns people off sometimes because they fail to understand the context.

It comes across as the Bible condoning the very wicked practice of slavery, 1 person owning another person's property.

But if you understand the context, you'll see that Paul was actually sowing seeds that were revolutionary for his time.

It was very progressive, and it was very, very much going in the right direction in comparison to where society was.

Paul instructs Christian slave owners not to give up the practice of owning slaves, although that was God's ideal, but his counsel was to treat their slaves fairly.

In Colossians 3, verse 22, he tells slaves to obey their masters.

Also in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 9, masters forbear threatening knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

Paul instructs slave owners, Christian slave owners, not to use threatening.

For some this is offensive because God doesn't condemn slavery, but for those that were reading back then, this was revolutionary.

This was amazing that Paul could actually tell slave owners to not use threatening and to treat them in a humane and Christ-like way.

He warns Christian slave owners that they have a master in heaven who values slaves just as much as he values slave masters.

So in summary, I'm just giving you a summary of what we talked about last week.

Paul's statements were revolutionary for his time.

His teachings moved the social standing of slaves in the Christian community from the prevailing norms to 1 of acceptance, equality, and brotherhood.

Well, you have to go back to the beginning.

Jesus says if you want to understand what God really thinks, go back to the beginning.

When he was asked about divorce, Jesus was asked, can a man put away his wife for any reason?

And Jesus says, in the beginning it was not like this.

You see, if you wanna know exactly how God feels about polygamy, about killing, about slavery, about marriage, you have to go back to the beginning.

The Old Testament and the New Testament for that matter is largely descriptive, not necessarily indicating how God feels or what his ideal is for humanity, but it's describing how humanity has rebelled and deviated from his ideal and how he as God and sovereign of the universe relates to disobedience.

And A lot of times how God relates to disobedience and to situations that are contrary to his ideal surprises us because you go to Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and even the United States of America and many other superpowers that have risen and fallen through the ages, and you find a lot of practices and a lot of cultural norms that are so contrary to God's ideal.

And yet When you look at God's people, Israel in the Old Testament, the Christian church in the New Testament, they're often not that much better.

Slavery was a part of the Christian community.

Very surprising and very disturbing for many.

But remember, God is working with humanity to try to take them from bad to best, But what is between bad and best?

And so when you go to Israel and you go to the Christian church and you look at the issue of slavery, yes, there was slavery, but let me tell you, God gave instructions that were calculated to regulate and make the institution of slavery a whole lot better among his people than it was among the heathen.

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The Proper Use of Authority- Part 2

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