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 evening we begin our scripture reading in Philippians chapter 4, verse 1. This is Philippians 4, verse 1. I give you attention to God’s word. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.” a prisoner of Christ Jesus and Timothy, our brother, to Philemon, our beloved brother and fellow worker, and to Ephi, our sister, and to Artippus, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have. the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints. And I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother. Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, Yet for love’s sake, I rather appeal to you, since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, whom I wished to keep with me. so that on your behalf he might minister to me and my imprisonment for the gospel. But without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would not be in effect by compulsion, but of your own free will. For perhaps he was for this reason separated from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord?

If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you would me. And if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention that you owe to me even your own self as well. me benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say. At the same time, also prepare me a lodging, for I hope that through your prayers I will be given to you.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, as does Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. be with your spirit. O Father, may your word and your ministry to us be effective in producing in us that which pleases you.

And Father, may we be driven to our knees and even laid out prostrate upon our faces, that we might plead our case before you, even as we acknowledge your greatness and your magnificence. May it be, O God, your hand that lifts us up, and may we live in the power of your Spirit, even in keeping with the righteousness that is ours now because of Jesus Christ. Truly, O God, bless your people. We do ask for ourselves, but train us, O Lord, to ask for others more insistently. that we, by such intercession, may reflect Christ himself, who intercedes for us without fail. To this end, O Lord, hear our prayer for your gospel ministers who preach your word this day, and may the word go forth powerfully.

May it go forth as a sword to slay the wicked, that they might be raised up afresh in the righteousness of Jesus. May it go forth as a sword, O God, to correct and discipline even your own, that by way of that sword they may be straightened and also, yes, comforted. We pray this now in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now I know that many of you turn to Psalm 24. We will sing Psalm 24 after this sermon is done, but you will forgive me if tonight I delay our consideration of Psalm 24 in order to complete my comments on Paul’s address to Philemon from this morning. This is important because I only hinted at the way Paul’s address of Philemon leads us into the concern of this letter to Philemon as a whole. And I thought it best to follow through on this morning’s message, therefore, while that message is still fresh in our minds. My interest this evening is Paul’s description of Philemon as a fellow worker, as a fellow laborer with Paul and within Paul’s apostolic band. Actually, this description of Philemon has gained what we might call strategic importance. Why do I say this? Of what great significance might this generally innocuous and ordinarily passed-over element of Paul’s salutation be?

Well, it has become of sizable importance because of the left and the right in the Church. Due to the fact that Paul describes Philemon as his fellow worker, his fellow laborer, the left within the Church moves toward the obliteration of all office. The left moves towards the obliteration in the Church of all office. suggesting in true Marxist style that the Church, like the society as a whole, since there should be no distinction between the Church and the world, ought to be classless. The void of office, the void of any sense of privilege, devoid of any sense of elitism that office inevitably creates within the Church.

You see, my problem is I think I have privilege. My problem is I consider myself among the elite, removed from the common folk. That’s why I’m up here, and you’re down there.” Well, our closest friends at the Church are going to do away with all that, if we dare call them friends. and they will weigh the acts to me and my sense of privilege and the sense of being a part of the elite that plagues my very soul. Paul here then strikes a blow for the cause and nudges the Church toward the goal of a classless society. When in fact, he calls by Lehman his fellow laborer. Fellow laborers, unite! Comrades, enlist! Well, that’s the left. What about the right?

To the right, in the evangelical and even reformed world, the attitude is not the obliteration of office so much as the conferral of office, or at least the function of office, upon the many, if not upon the all. Have you wandered into a church recently? only to pick up their bulletin or to hear their introduction for their service announcing to you, we are all ministers of Christ. And by that they mean that you have an ordination conferred upon you which means that there is no distinction between you and the ordained minister who is leading the service that day.

The pressure, therefore, becomes to see office more pervasively and to assume its functions more often in various texts as we move throughout Scripture, particularly as we move through the literature of the New Testament. And this pressure is even productive of a prejudice that unfortunately obscures a proper reading of a passage like Philemon 1. It even hinders us so that we do not profit as we ought to from such a text. To the case in point, it is not uncommon now to find in evangelical commentaries treatments of Paul’s word, fellow laborer, fellow worker, in Philemon 1, that run along this line.

Quote, co-workers were not helpers of the apostle drawn in for his personal service, rather they were commissioned by God for the task of missionary preaching. Now, I steal that quote from an ordinarily trustworthy exegete. It comes from Peter O’Brien and his commentary on Philemon. But nevertheless, despite Peter O’Brien’s often unusual good judgment, we have this statement.

Co-workers were not helpers of the apostle drawn in for his personal service. Rather, they were commissioned by God for the task of missionary preaching. This commentator, Peter O’Brien, goes on to suggest that Philemon, following his conversion under Paul at Ephesus, spent time, however briefly, in missionary service in missionary preaching before returning to his home in Colossae, and possibly when he returned he continued in such a ministry. But what is the cost of having gone in that direction with Paul’s term, co-laborer?

If we go this route, and I’m sure you may have already begun to see the problem, especially as you reflect on Philippians 4.3, if we go this route, we to the right are in deep trouble. Now, it may not disturb Peter O’Brien too much, but by the time we’re done with this, I’m trusting it may disturb you a bit.

Here, in Philippians 4.3, we have Paul’s word again, fellow laborer, fellow worker.

Same word, Philemon 1, Philippians 4.3. But here, the word is applied not just to men like Clement, but to women like Euodia and Are we to conclude, then, that these two women, in the words of the evangelical commentator Peter O’Brien, were commissioned by God for the task of missionary preaching? It would seem the direction O’Brien is going, and he is certainly not alone, the direction that he is going means then an ordination for these women, and an ordination by extension to Philemon as well.

But is this the intention of Philippians 4.3? Does this verse advocate women’s ordination?

Can this verse, furthermore, be united, as it has been, to Galatians 3.28, the one that says that now in Christ there is neither male nor female, in order to cause that text, with this text, to stand over against 1 Corinthians 14.34 and 1 Timothy 2.11.12? texts which prohibit female teachers and leadership in the Church. Of course, this is exactly what is being done.

From the suggestion with regard to the word fellow laborer in Philippians 4.3, we then move to other texts in Paul’s writings, and we draw our conclusion.

The suggestion now is that we must read, we must read, and this by constraint, we must read what we find in Corinthians and in 1 Timothy in a more limited fashion. For Paul, so we are told in these texts, in these texts that make their prohibitions is not intending to set before the Church a blanket prohibition against female preaching and leadership. Actually, in circumstance, in context, he is addressing narrow concerns with limited application of his teaching to specific problems that have arisen because of the culture and because of the specifics within the congregations with which he is dealing. What we are being told now is that we may safely lay aside Paul’s limited applications in Corinthians and in Timothy. in the interest of the more land-ranged vision of Philippians and Philemon.

But is this true? The short answer is no. But you can’t leave yet. I’m sure that you are aware that, historically, the direction with regard to the interpretation of these various texts which we have read this evening and commented on has been just the reverse. Historically and traditionally, the Church in its Orthodox expression has read the Philippian text and Philemon also to the extent that it applies in light of the Corinthian and the Timothy texts.

This means then we are not quick mentally to lay hands on either Euodia or Syntyche, let alone on Philemon. The mere use of the word co-laborer, fellow-worker, does not confer ordination or official tasks of ministry. To begin with, Euodia and Syntyche and Philippians 4 are not. are not introduced in order to comment on their performance as ordained leaders in the Church. That is not the purpose for which they have been introduced into this epistle.

Rather, they have been introduced in order to call them to a responsible Christian living made plain to them in Paul, who now, because he so describes them as co-laborers, as co-workers, treats them in the most exalted fashion. You see, if you were paying attention as we read the Philippian verses Euodia and Syntyche, these two women, are presently at each other’s throats, and neither one of them is particularly interested in seeing the other one exalted.

Paul, on the other hand, addresses these women now in such a way, and I’m sure this is consistent with the way in which he treated them when he was with them personally, he addresses them in such a way that those are exalted. Listen to it. listen to him and let the effect of what he has to say register upon you.

Having no ordination, having no office, having no ministry as ordinarily defined, as such as would be conferred through ordination, Paul treats these women as if they do. That’s the effect of it. Having no ordination, having no office, having no ministry as ordinarily defined, Paul treats these two women as if they do.

In fact, by root of this treatment, it is to no usual office to which Paul elevates these women. They are sole laborers with him, the apostle. That’s what’s wrong with the women’s ordination efforts within the ecumenical church and within the evangelical church as well. They don’t lift the women high enough.

Paul is exalting them to the level of apostle. They seem to be content with the level of minister and bishop. My goodness! Can’t they see it? You see, these women now are fellow laborers, according to Paul’s description, with him, the apostle. And because of the service they in the past have rendered unto Christ, possibly Even in Paul’s presence, Paul sees them as having joined him in his apostolic labors. The problem with the female ordination movement within the Church is that it does not elevate the woman high enough. These women are being cheated. Have these women actually preached? Have they preached with Paul? Have they accompanied him in his missionary journey to perform preaching and evangelistic ministry? Can they claim in themselves and for themselves an actual apostolic status?

Of course not. But Paul treats them as if they can. Thus, in his remarkably spirit-driven disposition, he exalts them in the way in which he treats them to a position equal to his own. He doesn’t look down on them. But these are women. They can’t have office. But that is exactly the point. The issue being attitude. The issue being attitude. Paul’s attitude toward them which must have effect on their attitude now toward each other. If Paul so treats Euodia and Sympathy this way, exalting them, how ought they to treat each other.

You’re home. You’ve come home. There it is. This uncommon instruction is what the modern Church, it seems left or right, just doesn’t comprehend. They are interested in movements. They are interested in agendas. They are interested in making statements, in pursuing causes. And at the end of the day, they seem to have very little interest in what Paul is actually saying. Because, as it proves itself, they seem to be, sadly, tragically, life years removed from the Apostle’s attitude. But now comes the question. Does Paul’s attitude towards Euodia and Syntyche mean that they have now become what they weren’t formerly? Are you with me? Do you see where I’m going?

Does Paul’s attitude towards these two women now mean that they become what they were formerly? When Paul treats these women as apostles, does that make them apostles? Or even further, when Paul treats these women as if they have traditional male roles within the Church, does this mean that they are no longer females? Of course not.

And it is at this point that we are ready to return to Philemon. Philemon is called a shallow laborer with Paul and within Paul’s apostolic band. This morning we saw how Paul, in so identifying Philemon, takes this man with no office, with no official ministry, and exalts him as if he does. Although Philemon is no apostle, Paul treats him as if he were. Covenant to him in the Apostolic Man. Paul does this as an expression of the Gospel’s love, whereby the expenditure of himself means the exaltation of Philemon. There it is.

But now, once more, the question, does Paul’s attitude toward Philemon make Philemon what he wasn’t formerly, what he wasn’t before? Does it make Philemon an apostle because Paul now speaks to him and treats him and has an attitude towards him that sees him as an apostle? Does this in itself then confer ordination? Of course not. At the same time, and I hope you understand this, Paul’s disposition should have, as you would expect, a mighty effect upon Philemon, just as it had upon Euodia and Scythicus. If Paul treats Philemon as he does, how ought Philemon to treat Onesimus? You’re home again. See? You’re home again. You remember, O Neathamist, he’s at the center of this letter.

Philemon’s slave, now with Paul in Rome, a slave obviously in some way or other at odds with his master Philemon, Paul addresses Philemon as co-laborer, thus revealing the gospel’s love whereby Philemon is exalted to apostolic status, and while there is no true apostolic office, Paul treats him as if he has that office.

But Philemon, now, must also reveal gospel love in his attitude toward his slave. Such love exalts the slave, takes the slave to the very level of his master. And while Onesimus is not a master, nor is he becoming a master, Philemon is compelled to treat him as if he were, and even, if he will, make himself Onesimus’ servant. In the words of verse 16, Philemon must treat Armistice as more than a slave, he must treat him as a beloved brother.

As we conclude this message this evening, would you allow me one more word? The world being opened up for you by the gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by Paul demands those without office to stand over against those with office so that those with office might extend themselves for the sake of those without office. the world of which you are made a part in the gospel demands that scenario. It also demands, reflecting on Philippians 4, it also demands females, without the possibility of office, standing over against males with the possibility of office so that males might express the love of the gospel in their attitudes and behavior towards them. It’s great. The world into which you have been brought by the gospel demands the distinction now between female and male, for its own instructive purposes, that you who are male might have an opportunity to express gospel love. And now I’m bold In light of social history, in light of the evolution of society, I am bold. This same world being opened up to you by the gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaimed by the Apostle Paul, demands, demands, demands slaves.

We cannot, and we must not, escape it. And we cannot embrace a philosophy of life that excludes it. And if we do, we are fools. And truly, we have been proven fools, and we have shed untold gallons of blood because we don’t understand. We don’t get it.

This discussion is raising you above the debate. It is raising you above the conflict. the consequence of which is endless bloodletting. This world into which you have been introduced, this world being opened up to you by the gospel of Jesus Christ, as proclaimed by Paul, demands slaves who stand over against masters, so that masters then, in their attitude toward and their disposition toward slaves, can express the gospel itself. They can give themselves away. They can, by their attitudes and their disposition, exalt those who are beneath them sumptually, so as to treat them as if they were their equals. But what if the society removes all that? Or they say that such arrangements and such organizations are illegal.

The same world being opened up by the gospel, the man slaves standing over against the masters as an opportunity to the masters to demonstrate gospel love, otherwise you see there is no opportunity for the attitude found in Paul and to be found in Philemon. But this is precisely the attitude which must be found in Philemon that is found in Paul. since it is the attitude of Christ as he and God exalts us, not that we might become him, but that we might be treated as if we were him. And you’ve come home again.

I might also say that for a For if I lean into lust after office, which he doesn’t have, or even to obtain office in keeping with his lust, will mean for him the loss of the more glorious service he presently has, which is opportune for him now, and render him useless if elevated to office actually later in the Church. The same can be said for Onesimus, to make his secular emancipation, his religion will lose for him the glorious service he presently has, and render him useless to Christ if elevated higher in the Church. May none of us lose sight of the benefit of the service in the gospel directed towards us, nor may any of us be reduced to uselessness because our eye has always been set upon worldly advantage, whether we are women or men or slaves.

May the Lord have mercy on his Church. Our Father, we pray that we might be offended by what you are offended by, not what the world is offended by. For if we are offended by what the world is offended by, Lord, we will lose out in that opportunity to cultivate and demonstrate the attitude that we find in Paul. that he hopes to find working itself out in the two women in Philippi, that he hopes to find work itself out in Philemon, even as he ministers to them. And surely, O God, as he has had this hope for these people, we know his hope is for your Church through the ages, and may the attitude that he exhibits be found in us, and may we be content, O God, with what is revealed. For we pray it in Jesus Christ, the one who opens up to us a new and better world. Amen.

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.