I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints… (Philemon 4,5 ESV)
Philemon
Philemon was a good friend of the apostle Paul. And of all the ways Paul could have begun this letter, he points out that Philemon has the reputation of love.
The problem is, from our perspective, that Philemon did not seem personally very loving. He was a slave-owner. When that slave (Onesimus) ran away, it was expected that Philemon would be angry and vindictive. Those things do not sound very loving to our ears.
But Paul writes that Philemon loved. As a Christian, the love of Philemon did not come from Philemon’s personality, Philemon’s choices, Philemon’s maturity, or even Philemon’s actions.
Philemon had the reputation of being loving because Philemon was a child of God, a Christian.
And Christians are, by definition, loving.
Maybe your attitudes, words, and actions do not always seem loving.
But like Philemon, the love-roots are there.
By the end of Paul’s letter to Philemon, Paul displays confidence that Philemon will be loving in fact, as well as in Christian-reputation. Because that is also what Christians do.
We learn to love, following the love of our God.
We almost can’t help it.
Because God is love, we, His children become love, too.
Look for it, yearn for it, practice it, reach for it, hope for it… and you will love, like Philemon.
God’s love is rich enough to drip down and fill us.