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Philemon 1:1
1 Paul [Paulos], a prisoner [desmios] of Jesus [Iesous] Christ [Christos], and [kai] Timothy [Timotheos] our brother [adelphos], unto Philemon [Philemon] our [hemon] dearly beloved [agapetos], and [kai] fellow labourer [sunergos], KJV-Interlinear
1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, NASB
Paul means little. Timothy means dear to God. Philemon means friendly. Jesus is the personal name of God meaning God is our salvation.
Jesus or Iesous is the Greek word, and Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent. Christ is the Greek word, and Messiah is the Hebrew equivalent and it means anointed. Therefore, Jesus Christ or Joshua Messiah both come to mean the anointed one who is God is our savior and salvation. This clearly identifies Christ both in name and purpose.
Paul was a prisoner of Rome at the time of this writing, but Paul is not presumptuous about himself. He did not presume that he was better than anyone else in this world. Paul identifies himself not as a prisoner of Rome, but of Christ.
The word for prisoner indicates one who is in chains, and Paul most likely spent a great deal of time bound in chains while being led by a Roman soldier. However, Paul did not consider the chains of this world as greater than the preferred chains of his spiritual life and attachment to God through Christ.
And that is the way you should look at your life. Regardless of what your circumstances might be in this life, Christ is always greater and Christ is always there for you.
Paul will eventually go to his death, and you and I will also visit our last breath in this world one day. But, Christ should always be first on our mind. Whether Christ frees us from one set of circumstances or another in this life, or takes us right up to the edge of death and beyond, should be irrelevant to us.
In this world we should not be surprised that the world will try to bind us with chains of one sort or another. Paul was literally a prisoner.
Onesimus was a slave who stole and ran away.
Philemon was a friendly person, just as Christ is, and by using these people as examples, Paul is teaching us all a lesson in spiritual obligation. Philemon was also a believer in Christ. Philemon was also a slave owner.
If you steal from God, if you take that which God has given and turn yourself away from the master that gave you everything, and run away into the sin nature habits of your life, of this world, then death is your destiny. For unbelievers the death is the Lake of Fire. For believers who are negative, spiritual death (out of fellowship) becomes their loss of spiritual growth.
The only way to have the greatest life ever, is to turn yourself in, to God (back to Christ), and when chained to Him as a slave of Christ, you secure your freedom, the very best freedom that anyone can possibly have.
