In introducing the previous volumes from Philemon (Mark and Matthew), brief mention was made of some of the personal notes about him, and with this third volume, we could say that Philemon is becoming quite a friend; we are getting to know him quite well, and I have the feeling, and I don’t think it’s just me, that his devotional life has deepened considerably when he meditates on Luke’s gospel. This shows up firstly in his increasingly extravagant praise of God and secondly in the keenness of insight.
It will be readily understood that if you’re working closely with a text translating it, you become very involved. Actually it becomes a little difficult to see the trees for the wood, so to speak; there is a large general impression left behind which isn’t immediately easy to pin down. The general impression is of the tremendous attribution of humility to God’s glory – that the glory of God is bound up with his humility. How wonderful this is! (A very frequent phrase in Philemon.) This seems to me ‘the wood,’ and it is a very good place to be; how strange it is that a growing appreciation of Jesus’ divinity, his humble divinity, should make an appreciation of his humanity so much more vivid – and it is just this, an appreciation of his humanity, that is at the heart of faith (1 Jn 4:2). However, it would help a review/introduction to identify some trees, and this, to grandiosely quote Hebrews, we will proceed to do. TBC