Today we turn to the Apostle Paul’s brief letter to Philemon. It contains only one chapter and amounts to Paul’s personal appeal for Philemon to receive a runaway slave named Onesimus back without punishment. Onesimus had become a believer while with Paul and had done great good for Paul. Now, Paul was requesting Philemon’s good treatment. Paul mentioned that Philemon owed Paul his very soul, but stated he wasn’t relying on that, but rather on Philemon’s character as a believer. This brief letter reminds us each of us can have an impact if only on one other person, and the key is to concern ourselves first and foremost with Jesus’ will rather than our own personal benefit.
As we return to Luke 10, we see Jesus expanding His ministry through others as He sends out the 70 or 72 additional followers to preach, teach, heal and deliver people. The work was successful, and the crew came back rejoicing. In the charge to the team, Jesus offered a condemnation of several Galilean cities that had rejected His ministry. The second major event in Luke 10 took place when a teacher of the Law asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses? Jesus asked the teacher what he thought? The teacher responded to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus affirmed the response. We’re told at this point the teacher wanted to “justify” himself, so he asked, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responded with a parable about two upstanding members of Jewish society who had the opportunity to help a man who had been beaten by robbers and left for dead. They didn’t help. Then along came a Samaritan, a man considered a half-breed, and hated by Jesus’ Jewish audience, who helped the man, dressed his wounds, and took him to an inn to receive further treatment. Jesus asked which proved to be neighbor to the man in need? As much as it must have pained the teacher to say it, he responded it was the man who helped the man in need. Jesus said, “That’s right. You go and do the same.” The chapter closes with Jesus interacting with Mary and Martha, two close friends, whose brother, Lazarus, Jesus raises from the dead in John 11. The interaction shows us sometimes “being” is more important than “doing.” Martha was frustrated, because Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, while Martha prepared dinner. When she complained to Jesus, Jesus took Mary’s side, and told Martha she was worried and troubled about so many things, but only one thing was necessary. What is the one thing? A relationship with Jesus!