Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Philemon 1:1-3
The Church , the Body of Christ, is made up of many people, many parts, (Romans 12, I Corinthians 12) all coming together to serve, worship, and build a community together. This epistle to Philemon is a great example of this, while Timothy was being trained to be a Pastor/Elder of the Church, Philemon provided his house as the building for this Church.
These simple things can be overlooked alot, when people provide for the Church, its a blessing for everyone in the Church. You don’t need to be the Pastor or Elder of the Church , to serve the Church. It can be as simple as cleaning or doing maintenance of the building, serve by leading Sunday School or participating in worship music. Everything we do is for the glory of God, there is no task that is too little when you are serving The Lord
Notice the Apostle Paul views Philemon as “our beloved friend and fellow laborer” even though Philemon wasn’t a preacher, Paul regarded him as an equal laborer in Christ. This is how we should view all our brothers and sisters in Christ. As Jesus said “Anyone who wants to be the greatest in the Kingdom of God, must be the servant of all” (Matthew 20:26)
The Apostle Paul mentions “to the church in your house” it’s clear Philemon is hosting the Church in his own house. It appears Philemon could have been a wealthy man and was using his money to provide for the Church. These blessings will not go unnoticed by God. While many of the people might not know, how the building is being provided, God knows!
But a second point I want to make about this, it was common practice in the early Church to worship in houses due to persecution and restrictions by their governments. You don’t need to worship in a fancy building to be called a “Church”, the Ekklessia is the body of Christ, the people not the building. Many Churches are spending too much time and money on their building and not the Great Commision (Matthew 28:19) I know alot of Christians, who believe you have to only worship in a particular building or they won’t worship outside of their building, this becomes idolatry. Beware not to make your building an idol before God, we are the temples of God, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, (1 Corinthians 6) wherever you are there is the Church!
I will end with the words of the Apostle Paul “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ” Live in peace with the grace of our God with your fellow servants, the Church, the body of Christ, your co-laborers in Christ, Amen!
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