Philemon 1:19-20

Personal obligation.

"Thine own self." This is more than all else. We can call nothing "our own" but "the self." We are not rich in what we have , but in what we are . All things , houses, estates, lands, are outside us. The self is all.

I. INDEBTEDNESS OF PHILEMON . Philemon owed his spiritual conversion, all the rich inheritance in the soul, to the ministry of Paul; and he delicately enough reminds him of this in an indirect form of speech, "Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self." It is one of those touches which show what a true gentleman St. Paul was. There is more than claim of right to counsel him, viz. the modest reminder that, if need be, he would repay any loss that Philemon might have sustained through the detention by Paul of Onesimus.

II. EXPECTATION CONCERNING HIM . "Let me have joy of thee in the Lord." "Refresh me." What by? That which alone can rejoice the heart of a true father in the gospel, viz. Christ's own Spirit in Christ's disciples. The gospel was to be spread, not alone by eloquence or erudition, but by Christ's own religion alive and in action in all who confessed his Name.—W.M.S.