This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philemon” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 16, 1998.

This morning we are beginning our scripture reading in Philippians chapter 4. We start with verse 1. Remember, this is the word of God. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crowns, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech Euodia and beseech Synthetae that they be of the same mind in the Lord, and I entreat thee also, true yoke-fella, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers whose names are in the Book of Life. Then turning over to the Song of Solomon, that’s after Ecclesiastes. Chapter 5, verse 2. Song of Solomon 5 verse 2.

I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock.

I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. I saw him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smoked me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick for love. What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?

Then, turning over to Philemon, verse 1, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy, our brother unto Philemon, our dearly beloved and fellow laborer, and to our beloved Atreia and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s pray together. O Lord, if you are sovereign, and, Lord, you create the heavens and the earth, if you in your glory even subdue the waters and rain upon them, then, Lord, Your power cannot be thwarted by governments or by the souls of men. This day, our God, may your word be as a sword, and Father, may you slay some who have resisted that they might be born again, and Father, to the ends of the earth May you make your name glorious and may you bless your church even as she becomes that reservoir in which we can see the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. Do bless, our God, the proclamation of your word today, even as it is proclaimed in Christ from this pulpit and others. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

As is plain to you, Paul addresses this letter that has been before us now for a time to a man named Philemon. Philemon is a slaveholder of some means, living in the city of Colossae. Paul met Philemon, we judge, on his third missionary journey, presumably in Ephesus, since Paul never did visit Colossae. And it was at that time that Philemon was converted to the gospel through the ministry of Paul. But upon his return to his home city, Philemon began to host the church that had taken shape in that city, and he hosted it in his very own house. Now, although separated by many miles and even by Paul’s chains, for he is in prison in Rome, Philemon himself remains dear to the Apostle and to those associated with him.

Paul addresses him here in the first verse as our beloved and fellow laborer, our beloved and fellow worker. Now you must not think the Apostle is offering up here some hollow flattery, some words that are, at the end of the day, meaningless, simply rhetorical filler, as if by them the Apostle were expressing empty sentiments. Actually, Paul’s greeting to Philemon, and in these very words, is very instructive, so instructive that it would lead us on into the intention of the epistle as a whole. In calling Philemon beloved, Paul draws upon the deep reservoir of covenantal devotion. In calling Philemon beloved, Paul draws upon the deep reservoir of covenantal devotion.

This is no mere emotional bond, superficial and as fleeting as feeling itself. This is expressive of the binding of lives. To be beloved in Paul’s sense of that term means a communion with and in one another, a participation of the one in the other with the greatest awareness of the severe intensity, nor even the severe passion of that relationship.

Nowhere in my judgment does Paul express himself more powerfully along these lines than he does in Philippians 4.1. Let me read to you again the King James Version of that verse, a version while somewhat stilted communicates the severe intensity, yes, the passion of Paul’s bond with these Philippian Christians. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” Not only do we have the repetition of the words, dearly beloved, in this verse, beginning and ending, we also have the explicit extension of the sincerity of these words, as Paul tells these Philippians, that he longs for them, such is his affection, he longs for them with a love that does not hesitate to confer upon them the substance of his pious aspiration.

To be with them, or even to consider them, This is his delight and his prize. They are his joy and his crown, he says. His distance from them is an impartial impoverishment to him, to be sure. But the thought of them, and even beyond that, his presence with them is his reward.

In fact, such is his love for them, and the nature of the bond between them, Paul and these Philippian Christians, that we would not be overstating the case to say to lose his beloved Philippians would be as death for Paul. It might be clear to you now that in this we sense the close connection between Paul’s love for these Philippian Christians and the love a man and a woman have for each other. It might become clear to you now in this that we are able to perceive the close connection between Paul’s love for these Philippian saints and the love a man and a woman have for each other. in that consecrated and concentrated and special experience of mutual romantic participation.

Even the thought of being the rest of one’s love is enough to throw a person into frantic desperation. It has been on my family’s mind of late. One of the more dramatic elements in the Song of Solomon is the account in chapter 5, which we’ve read, of the beautiful Hulamites distraught search for her shepherd lover. Verse 6, My beloved had turned away and had gone. My soul went out to him as if beckoned by his voice. I searched for him, but I did not find him. I called for him, but I did not find him.

Such is the love of the Shulamite that she then ventures out into the city in search of her beloved. Her love is as strong as death, just as the song will say later on in chapter 8, verse 6. She is impervious to the danger. placing herself in jeopardy as she wanders through the streets in the dead of night. The watchmen, making their rounds, fall on her. They beat her, they strip her. but her wounds and her humiliation are nothing. She thinks only of her beloved shepherd.

I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,” she pleads, “‘if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am lovesick.'” Verse 8, then the voice of the contentious female chorus mocking the Shulamites’ plea. What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you, thought to be the fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved that you thus appeal to us?” Verse 9. Well, I would not mock the Shulamite. And I would not mock the love-struck heart, and neither should any of you.

For in her determined passion is embedded such eloquent testimony to the love of God, who in his love for his people surrenders himself to the threats, humiliations, and horrors of this world, lest he be bereft of his beloved. And in her passion also is embedded an eloquent testimony to the love God’s people have for God himself, especially as they show that love with such fierce intensity, such love as is focused upon their divine Shepherd Prince. As sublime, therefore, as the Shulamites’ love is, It is in the conclusion of the matter but patterned in all its concentrated and fierce passion after something more sublime still, something more ultimate, to which it in its best expression surrenders itself. That’s its nature. Giving place to that which needs to have the preeminence. we gain a glimpse of the superlative love and its high reach in the relationship between David and Jonathan. Oh, is there a relationship like that in all of the course of Holy Scripture?

We are told that in 1 Samuel 18.1, Jonathan loved David as he loved himself, as he loved his very own soul. In this uncommon devotion, Jonathan, the crown prince, giving up his life for the sake of David, giving place to David, stepping aside for him, the throne was his, the crown belonged to him. He steps aside. It is the nature of the world to give oneself away. In this uncommon love and devotion to David, we see something of true Israel’s love for the coming anointed one, the coming Christ, David’s greater son.

And concerning this love, David in 2 Samuel 1.26 makes this awesome confession, that it is more wonderful than the love of women. You must know that as David says that, that he intends nothing sorted, nothing perverse, nothing unnatural, nothing sodomite. And certainly there is nothing in what he says meant to mock the Shulamites’ love as that love had been mocked by the female chorus in the Song of Songs.

But at the same time, what is intended here is the most striking pose meant to force upon us all the derivative and even temporal nature of our romantic love, and that in relationship to what is higher and eternal. Romantic love, what a blessing. In it, what we are privileged to see. But its very nature is meant to beckon us on. That is its service. For you see, its very nature, it being love too. is to give itself away.

From Jonathan’s love for the shepherd warrior David, we are forced on to true Israel’s love for the Lord’s anointed one, the coming Prince, the King. And from the Shulamite’s love for her ruddy shepherd, we are forced on to the Church’s love for the Good Shepherd, who will lay down his life for his bride. It is here, then, that we are helped to discover that whether it is a pure and true romantic love or the most sincere religious devotion, our love, in its multiple expressions, in its varied colors, is the reflection of God’s love for us, his people, and even as that love reflects the glorious, intense relationship that exists within God himself, the Father for the beloved, the beloved Son.

When Paul addresses beloved Philemon, weep a bit. When Paul addresses beloved Philemon, let your heart go for this man also. It is truly, then, the world of covenantal love that informs Paul. This is the world, a heavenly world, from which Paul lives because he has been privileged by grace to live in it. And in which he is determined to see Philemon living as well. It is this world, I tell you, in which gospel love reigns. And Paul is bound to Philemon.

It is not just a casual turn of a phrase, this address by the apostle to this man. Paul’s life is tied to the man. It is bound up with the man and in the man. And here then comes the severe discipline that is upon the Apostle, as severe as any known to any man with regard to any woman, any woman with regard to any man. They, in their mutual relationship in the bond of marriage, determined to put any thought aside that would be destructive to the relationship. Here is a discipline that comes to work then upon the apostle as he is bound up with Philemon in a common life. He then conceiving of his life in terms of his bond to this man.

Just as God himself sees himself bound to his people, Christ the Son sees himself bound to his church. just as the Father in glory is bound to the Beloved Son. But what does this mean for Paul? Nearly, more than mere words in a salutation. What does this mean for the Apostle Paul concretely? It means, for all practical purposes, this letter. I write memos. I just scribble down notes and send them off.

Paul’s involvement with Philemon and gospel love at work in him means this letter. Paul’s love means the extension of himself, even the expenditure of himself in and through this letter. The letter itself becomes the expression of the gospel, the writing of it a demonstration of the same. It is a testimony of the gift Paul makes of himself. the time, the thought, the care, the choice of words, the patience, the perseverance, the effort to get it just right. None of that is discounted because of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The letter is a testimony of the gift Paul makes of himself, even as God in the gospel of Christ gives himself to his beloved people. But there is even more here, for as the gospel is the gift of God and love to his people, so that very gospel, because of the love in it, means the comfort and exaltation of God’s people.

The comfort and exaltation of God’s people. Likewise, in Paul’s address to Philemon, our beloved and fellow laborer, Philemon, like the people of God under the Gospel, is comforted by knowing that he is beloved by the Apostle. It’s the Apostle who’s telling him he’s beloved, and the apostolic band that stands with the Apostle.

But Philemon is also exalted. He is exalted by the service of the Apostle’s love. He is elevated by Paul’s description of him as a fellow laborer. You might well ask, in what sense is Philemon a fellow laborer with Paul and his apostolic band? Is it because Philemon has received an office? Because he has received an ordination?

Because he happens to be the local preacher for the church that meets in his house in Colossae? Or is it because he has been included in one of Paul’s missionary journeys, and he set himself apart for missionary service, and can identify himself as a missionary? I’ve walked with Paul, I’ve ministered with Paul, I’ve traveled with the Apostle. There is absolutely no indication of any of this in the Bible. None.

But if that is the case, in what sense, then, is Philemon a fellow laborer? The only service of which we know, in Philemon’s case, is that he opened his house and the church in Colossae met there. That’s it. But is this enough to qualify for a healing? Yes, it is.

And by it, he is placed in the company of the Apostle and in the company of Paul’s closest associates, exalted seemingly to the level of a fellow laborer with the Apostle. There’s no indication that the man was even ordained. As the term goes, he was a simple layman. that this is precisely the action of the gospel, the dynamic of the gospel, is it not?

God in his love extends himself in his Son, even as Paul extends himself in his letter. God extends himself in his Son toward his people, thus identifying them and comforting them as his beloved. But in so doing, the Lord himself elevates them to become co-laborers with him.

But through what service? Through only such service as is performed by apostles and prophets and pastors and evangelists and teachers and elders and deacons? Of course not. But by those labors and such service as is evident in the ones who open up their homes to the saints and perform other service that demonstrates the gospel through the extension or better the sacrifice of oneself in the interests of seeing another exalted.

In other words, you, you are co-laborers with Paul in the gospel, even as you, like Philemon, have embraced that gospel and live in keeping with it. In Philemon, Paul’s last canonical word, the Apostle writes to comfort and exalt all those like yourself who live after Philemon, to whom the apostle through Philemon would be bound as well, calling them beloved and fellow laborers. Is not that what you are? May it be so.

Let’s practice. our God, even in keeping with the bond between you and the Father with the Son. May there be, O God, the manifestation according to the gospel of your love in us, even as there has been that manifestation of your love for us. Truly, Lord, we are the beloved in Christ and we are also co-laborers in the gospel. And may, O Lord, we delight in such service as is before us, and in that service may there be the clear manifestation of gospel love as we extend ourselves to others for the sake of their exaltation. And in this, O Lord, may you make it plain to us that not only are we beloved by you, but that we love you with our whole heart and are zealous to serve you.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.