Philemon 1–2 (ESV) — 1 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our
brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2 and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church
in your house:
NOTE: At first I
thought I could make out who was who, but on further thought, I am not sure of
the relationship of the three to each other. I am pretty sure Archippus is an
elder and leads the church, but that is based on Col 4:18. Apphia appears to be
married to one of the two, but could be a daughter to one and a sister to the
other. While the letter is primarily to Philemon, it directly affects the other
two, either because they are leaders in the church or because they are related
to Philemon. In any event, it is nice to see ministry in the home and to see
Paul's acknowledgment of such (as he does often in his letters). Sometimes our
big building and large congregations cause us to miss out on the intimacy of
the early church. A small group, of some kind, or small bible study, brings us
back to the spiritual relationships that existed in the first century.
PRAYER: Father,
thank you for fellowship and the friendship and relationships of close brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray
that others might experience the close of a small group within their church and
not settle for just Church and Sunday School.
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