“From Paul to my beloved Philemon…and to the church that is in your house.” Philemon 2
Philemon was a generous master who expelled a slave from his house who had wronged him. But the slave became a Christian and repented. Here Paul commands in his letter to “beloved Philemon” that this slave should regain his former position and work! “If you consider me a partner, receive him as my equal,” Paul says to Philemon! Paul adds: “If he has wronged you in any way, and I will repay you, count it against me… lest I say to you that you owe me your own soul also.”
Paul was like a bishop who travels preaching, and has the authority of love to organize the church. But here we are surprised that he “intervenes with the authority of (the father)” in the lives of believers, even in their “private” affairs, in their work and homes…! Paul considers that Philemon sees him as a “partner”! A partner in what?
Is this interference by Paul in Philemon’s life inside his home “blatant interference” in matters that do not concern him? We may admit that the bishop, priest, or pastors have paternal authority to order the church organization, but our “private” lives in our “homes” are our lives!
Where is God worshipped? In the church of course! Where is the church and what is it? Is it in the temple? In the Old Testament, God refused to dwell in temples made by human hands! The Apostle Paul called us humans “temples of the living God.” The dead God is worshipped and dwells in temples. The living God dwells in us and moves us.
Temples are certainly necessary. But the temple is not the dwelling place of God, but the place where believers gather to worship and praise Him together. The temple is the place of communal worship. But this worship is only moments within the time of our worship of God. God is worshipped everywhere and at all times, and this is what we repeat in our prayers, “O He who is worshipped and glorified at all times in heaven and on earth (everywhere)…” (from the Compline Prayer). So where are the temples of God for the other most important moments? Corporate worship in the church - temples are worship that does not exceed very few hours a week, when circumstances permit or we take advantage of them!
The most terrible danger in our Christian life is to make God an idol and worship Him as a pagan! When we imprison Him in a temple, or offer Him some hours or some offerings, whether they be charity or praise or…whatever! To give God His share of our lives and then live the rest in our own way, this is a law that is not part of the Christian life. In the New Testament, God came out of His big “cage” in which humans imprisoned Him for years (heaven), and He came so that the whole earth would become His home. The ruler once threatened the Christian martyr of Antioch, Babyla: “I will destroy your house,” and the martyr answered him: “The whole earth is My house.” Because the martyr’s house was where God roamed and existed.
Let us not idolatize worship! God is not a being to whom we go, but a loving Father who comes to us, where we are and at every moment. And there is His house. From this perspective, our homes - our houses - become a place for His worship as well. This church - the house - could almost occupy the first place in our lives, were it not for the fact that it lacks the practice of some sacraments and liturgical life. God is near, God accompanies us, and in Him we live, move, and exist. How do we make our homes - and then our factories, schools, and businesses ... - houses and temples of God? We need to pay attention to two things:
The first thing is to realize that every moment of our life was created to be holy. The pagan tradition, even today and among us, has been widespread that the “holy” is what we remove from our impure life… and offer to the pure and holy God, so it becomes holy. For example, there are holy feasts, holy sacrifices, and holy vessels… which are offered to God and not to us. In this sense, it was demanded in the past that we sanctify the Lord’s Day, and not work for ourselves…! But in Christianity, the holy is not what is set aside for God, but rather what is ours when we share in it with the Lord. Paul (like his Master Jesus) calls himself a “partner” with Philemon. This “partnership” comes from the spiritual bond that every Christian freely chose when he was baptized, believed, drank from the common cup, and ate from the precious body. This “partnership” with God, with the members of the Church, and with all believers is not limited to spiritual matters—God forbid, because it is a partnership in life and the future. All aspects of our lives fall into this partnership with God and his people in the church.
If we know that we have shared with God not some of our time or some of our possessions but with “our heart,” then we know that “the earth is the Lord’s, the whole world, and all who dwell in it,” and that our house is His church or that His church is in our house. “If you consider me a partner,” these are Paul’s words to Philemon, and Paul took them from the Lord who addresses them to each one of us! This partnership at every moment and place is what we call “the life of sanctification,” and when it is complete it becomes “holiness.” Therefore, holiness is not God’s share of what we have, but rather the goal of everything we have. Everything, then, no matter how important or trivial, small or large, “ours or with us,” is all very important in the end because it is an instrument that God is waiting for us to use in our relationship with Him, so that it becomes holy. Everything—even what we consider trivial in our eyes—is very important because we must sanctify it when we share it with God.
The second thing is to extend our Christian responsibility to every place where God awaits us as responsible people, not as passersby or indifferent people. God awaits us there and now. The Christian is concerned with everything around him. God has allowed each one of us to be present here and now to be a messenger, or rather to be in his place. And this is the true worship of God! If the neighbor’s house burns down, we do not say: This is not our house and it does not concern us. It is also God’s house. If God shares with us, we will have our own and His share and the shares of others. But if we share with Him and all our money, we become responsible with Him, wherever and whenever He is, and we are with Him.
Christian conduct is not just worship of God in a temple or even in a home. Christian worship is partnership, and therefore “witness.” Where we are, Jesus appears or rather works! Rather, we are to be witnesses where He now needs to be! Let us look around us every moment where Jesus must come. What is He expected to do? There I must go, and this is what I must do. Yes, there is the Church of God, there is the temple, and this is worship in spirit and in truth, not “on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem,” but in the Spirit—the Spirit of partnership with God.
The cries of the Apostle Paul, “We will be crucified with Him and rise with Him in His resurrection,” are repeated in a scandalous manner! We share in Christ’s death, and He shares in our resurrection. The Lord is responsible for everything, at all times and in all places. And wherever we are, we are responsible with Him for what is around us!
The Lord owns the entire earth and all time, and we are partners with Him in all His responsibilities. This partnership is realized in the so-and-so temple-church in collective worship, and in “our home,” the church. Thus Philemon had to worship God in the temple as he worshipped Him in his home. He had to love his fellow believers when they gathered in the temple as when they worked for him at home. God is his partner in everything and everywhere. Onesimus is no longer his slave in the house and his brother in the temple, but he is his partner with God as in the temple and also in the home…!
He who loves does not share, and he who gives his heart shares. “I have set the Lord before me at all times,” says the Prophet David. Thus, he made every place where he resides a house for God. Let us set God before us at all times, Amen.
Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi
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