Verse 14
Without thy mind would I do nothing--This final resolution was, no doubt, the result of several motives.
1. To harbour and detain a slave, who applied to him to become a precator, beyond a limited period, would have been distinctly to violate the Roman law.
2. The apostle might have seemed to inflict a pecuniary loss upon Philemon by depriving him of a “chattel personal,” and morally constraining him to put up with the loss by imposing a severe strain upon the bonds of friendship.
3. Onesimus, in the depth and reality of his repentance, saw the duty of returning. What truer piece of restitution was ever made?
4. St. Paul was peculiarly “sensitive” as to the scandal which the Church might occasion, if slaves received encouragement to become fugitives. See Colossians 3:22; 1 Timothy 6:1. (Bp. Wm. Alexander.)
Servants not to be detained from their masters
Servants must not be detained without their masters’ liking. Eustathius, Bishop of Armenia, was deposed from his see because under a colour of piety he had taken servants from their masters. (W. Jones, D. D.)
Willingly--
Voluntary virtue
Jerome from this passage justly deduces as a conclusion that St. Paul held the principle that nothing in moral action is good which is not voluntary. He applies it to the solution of the question which has been so often asked--“Why God did not make men absolutely good?” God might have made man good without man’s will. But, had He done so, the good would not have been voluntary, but necessary. But what is necessarily good is not good in the highest sense, and is even relatively and in another point of view evil. Therefore, in leaving us to our own free will, He made us more truly after His image and likeness.
Freedom essential to virtue
Freedom is essential to virtue. If a man “could not help it” there is neither praise nor blame due. That freedom Christianity honours and respects. So in reference to the offer of the gospel blessings, men are not forced to accept them, but appealed to, and can turn deaf ears to the pleading voice, “Why will ye die?” Sorrows and sins and miseries without end continue, and the gospel is rejected, and lives of wretched godlessness lived, and a dark future pulled down on the rejecters’ heads, and all because God knows that these things are better than that men should be forced into goodness, which indeed would cease to be goodness if they were. For nothing is good but the free turning of the will to goodness, and nothing bad but its aversion therefrom. The same solemn regard for the freedom of the individual and low estimate of the worth of constrained service influence the whole aspect of Christian ethics. Christ wants no pressed men in His army. “Must” is not in the Christian vocabulary, except as expressing the sweet constraint which bows the will of him who loves to harmony, which is joy, with the will of Him who is loved. Christ takes no offerings which the giver is not glad to render. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Voluntary goodness
It is a received axiom--That which is good of necessity, is not good, yet this is to be understood of a coacted necessity, not of a voluntary. God is necessarily, yet willingly, good. Death comes necessarily upon all; yet some die willingly. But the good which is done upon a constrained necessity, loses the name of good: patience perforce is no patience. A willing mind in a good action is all in all. If Solomon had not willingly built the temple, it had not been pleasing to God; if the centurion had not willingly set up the synagogue, God would not have respected it; if the woman of Shunem had not willingly entertained the prophet, it had been no good work in the sight of God; if Dorcas had not made the coats willingly, they had not been acceptable to God. (W. Jones, D. D.)
Spontaneity in goodness
I. A preference with respect to goodness. Paul was anxious not simply about the pardon of Onesimus, but as to--
1. The moral quality of the action of Philemon. Spontaneousness is an element of the highest goodness. The necessity which dictates to the Christian should be from within rather than from without.
2. The principle it was to illustrate. That Christianity is not a mere adjustment of external relations, but a spirit which interpenetrates and transfigures all.
3. Its spiritual effect upon the age. It has a greater effect upon the receiver, and upon onlookers, when a good deed is perceived to be spon taneous and not due to the influence of another.
II. A spirit of consideration for the freedom and individual responsibility of a fellow Christian. St. Paul’s behaviour throughout this episode is an example to us all of the courtesies that ought to soften and dignify the general relations of life; but of greater value is its suggestiveness in the spiritual sphere. It teaches us--
1. To do justice to the spiritual life of others.
2. To respect the diverse operation of the One Spirit.
3. To maintain a confident faith in the promptings of Christian principle. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
Willinghood in service
1. Seeing no man must perform any holy duty to God or man upon compulsion, or against his will, but with all his mind and might, we learn that every action or duty is accounted of by God, not according to the greatness of the worker, or outward show of the work, but according to the will and affection of the doer; it is the manner of doing that God more accepteth than the action or deed itself. A child in his obedience to his father is esteemed for his reverent, loving, obedient, and dutiful heart, and not for the greatness or worthiness of his work. For what can he do when he hath endeavoured to the utmost to pleasure his father? So it is with us, when we have done all that we can, we must confess we have been unprofitable servants, and therefore God more respecteth the intention than the action, the workman than the work, the affection than the effect.
2. Seeing only that duty which is done freely and not by compulsion deserveth due commendation, this reproveth all those things that are done upon wrong grounds and evil foundations. It is not enough to do a good thing, but we must do it well; it is not sufficient to do those things that are godly, but we must do them in a godly manner.
3. This confuteth those who ascribe all to the work done, and regard nothing at all either the mind of the doer or the manner of doing. Outward observations of religion will deceive us if we rest upon them and put our trust in them. If we perform a worship to God without the heart, we dishonour God, we deceive our own souls, and we increase our condemnation. We must make the house of God a paradise, or place of pleasure; we must make His word our meat and drink, and our continual hearing must be a daily refreshing unto our souls.
4. Seeing all Christian duties must be performed of us willingly, we are hereby guided and directed in our obedience, that we are not to hinder the necessary duties of Christianity belonging unto us by objecting fleshly reasons, as it were laying stumbling blocks in our own ways, to keep us back from a willing, free, and cheerful going forward in the works of our calling, and in the parts of God’s worship. (W. Attersoll.)
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