Today’s Word
Legislated Morality
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. Philemon 1:14 NASB By compulsion – It doesn’t work, does it? Legislated morality, I mean. No matter how many laws or how many threats and punishments, you simply…
Video Conference
I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart, Philemon 1:12 NASB In person – What an odd thing for Paul to write? How else could Onesimus return to Philemon? There wasn’t any internet. No video conference. Not even a telephone call. Paul has only two choices: send a messenger (or…
The Annual Review
who formerly was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me. Philemon 1:11 NASB Useless – This is an odd thing to say. After all, we’re speaking about a slave. What does a slave do? Whatever the master commands. A slave is useful precisely because a slave does what’s required. …
Turning on the Tears
I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my imprisonment, Philemon 1:10 NASB Child – But, of course, Onesimus is not a child. Most commentators assume that Paul uses the Greek téknon to describe Onesimus’ “conversion” birth under Paul’s tutelage. Perhaps that’s why Paul doesn’t use the usual país (boy or girl…
You’re Like Me
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 Philemon 1:9 NASB Appeal – You know this Greek word. You just don’t know it in this context. The word is parakaléō, usually associated with the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit. What it really…
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