Continuing in the short Bible book of Philemon (originally a letter sent within the early church), the author Paul makes a pivot. Now, I don’t think that this is a complete turn, nor was Paul trying to hide the body of his note, but he is leading up to a request.
Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul—an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—
Philemon 1:8-9 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/phm.1.8-9.NIV
Here, we encounter the word, “Therefore”. As this mini-series has looked at ways that we can read the Bible on our own, this “key word” also gives us some information when we find it in our own Bible reading. In fact, you may have heard this little quip from pastors and teachers: “What do we do when we read ‘Therefore’? We look to see what it’s ‘there for.’ ” (While that is a handy reminder, I suppose a good English background about adverbs would teach us the same thing, too!) Regardless of how we remember it, though, this word tells us that there’s a connection between the introduction and what Paul writes next.
So, after a really nice greeting, we find that Paul has something to ask Philemon. We can probably tell when certain people in our lives are going to ask us for something, especially when they tend to lead up to major requests in the same way each time. Maybe Philemon – if he knew Paul well enough – was getting the same impression from the first part of this letter.
However, I don’t think that Paul was trying to flatter Philemon, so that Paul could get the outcome he wanted. I choose to believe that the introduction to this letter was sincere, heartfelt, and true to Paul’s heart for his friend. In fact, Paul seems to have been bending over backwards not to force Philemon to do what he was about to ask. (Paul’s words might seem a little passive aggressive to us today, like where he mentioned that he had the authority – the right – to require Philemon to obey, but let’s be careful to not read too much into translated English from the original Greek. The details of that would require further study of the original context, language, and culture.)
As I step back and look at this, I also feel like Paul was imitating God in choosing to let Philemon do what he was about to ask out of love, rather than out of compulsion. Ideally [as suggested by Ash, p.244, cited below], as a follower of Jesus, Philemon should have come to the conclusion that Paul’s request (later in this letter) was the right choice anyway.
In our case, God could have theoretically created us as robot drones that always did the right thing. However, I don’t think that showing love is possible when we don’t have a choice of whether or not to do so. Instead, while God clearly deserves our obedience, loyalty, and worship (and, He has given us enough education and examples about Himself so that we can know that), He asks us to show Him love by choosing to give Him those things. If we decide instead to go another way, we typically reap the consequences of making the wrong choices, but even when God tries to help us get back on a better path (because He wants the best for us), He doesn’t force us to change.
So, let’s be sure and consider the context of things that we read in the Bible (whether or not they include the word, “therefore”) to understand connections, but let’s also remember that God didn’t force us to love Him (even though He loves us and reached out to us after we had rebelled against Him). In light of God’s perfect example, it is not appropriate for us to force others to love us, either, nor for us to compel them to do things that should come from their heart, instead.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for August 17, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Philippians, Colossians & Philemon, by Anthony L. Ash. © 1994 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 