Philemon 1:19

Spiritual benefits the most valuable of all;

Since St. Paul had (as it appears) won to the embracing of the faith of Christ as well Philemon himself as Onesimus his slave, he rightly reminds him, as his first and most powerful argument, that Philemon owes himself and his very life (that is, the life of his soul) to him.

I. HE DOES NOT SUM UP THIS OBLIGATION . He leaves it to the conscience of Philemon to consider how much he was indebted. It was, perhaps, incommensurable with the favor he was asking. But it is clear that such an obligation must exceed every other. A man's self is more valuable than his lands or his goods ( Job 2:4 ). It is therefore a lifelong obligation that men are under to those who have been to them the instruments of great spiritual benefits, and one not capable of being fully discharged. So it is said, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" ( Isaiah 52:7 ; Romans 10:15 ). St. Paul bears witness that the Galatians, whose spiritual father he was, regarded nothing as being too good or too costly to show their affection for him ( Galatians 4:14 , Galatians 4:15 ); and he lays down in 1 Corinthians 9:11 that the spiritual benefits of which he had been the means were supreme in kind to any possible carnal recompense.

II. SPIRITUAL BENEFITS ARE INDEED THE GIFTS OF GOD AND THE EFFECTS OF HIS GRACE ; but he uses the services of men, and particularly of his ministers, in the dispensing of them. "It is better to help our friends to recover lost grace than lost money" (Thomas Aquinas). And those who receive them rightly will be suitably grateful.

III. SPIRITUAL BENEFITS THE MOST VALUABLE , because the soul of man is his most precious p ossession . The life of the soul is impaired and at length wholly lost by sin; but is regained and strengthened by Divine grace.

1. The soul is more noble than earth or heaven ; for of these the one is for its temporary habitation, the other for its eternal one.

2. It bears the image of God . It is like the piece of silver in the parable ( Luke 15:8 ), for which, when lost, such diligent search was made. The heavens were created with a word, but the redemption of the soul needed the incarnation of Christ, and his death upon the cross.

3. Hence its value , and the corresponding value of a service rendered to it—a value so great as not to be capable of being expressed ( e . g .) in money.

IV. IT IS INCOMMENSURATE WITH TEMPORAL THINGS . So St. Paul does not give the sum of it. The freedom of Onesimus was a service in the spiritual sphere . It was a benefit to Onesimus himself; and, if he were employed as St. Paul proposed ( 1 Corinthians 9:13 ), in the service of the Church, might be the means of good to many other souls.

V. IT WAS A FITTING PLEDGE , therefore, of the gratitude of Philemon.

homilies by W.M. Statham