The Christian family.
The family of Philemon was Christian, doubtless, both in profession and practice. Many families at the present day are Christian in profession, but not in practice. The family really Christian may be known (like the individual) by its fruits (Matthew 7:20).
I. IN IT GOD'S NAME IS HONORED. He is habitually regarded and spoken of as the Giver of all the family happiness, and of whatever measure of prosperity it enjoys. The parents have received from him their children as a charge to be brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Children recognize without hesitation the duty of obedience as paramount to all self-pleasing (Ephesians 6:1).
II. IN IT, THEREFORE, THE LAW OF GOD IS RECOGNIZED AS THE GUIDE OF LIFE by both parents and children.
III. IN IT (that is, by its members) THE PUBLIC OBSERVANCES OF RELIGION ARE DILIGENTLY KEPT. The habits of the household are so arranged as not to put unnecessary hindrance in the way of either the family or servants attending public worship at the proper times. Unnecessary labor on Sunday is not required, nor even permitted.
IV. IN IT, FURTHERMORE, GOD IS WILLINGLY ENTRUSTED WITH ITS DESTINIES. "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6), and, as the correlative of this," be careful for nothing;" that is, anxious and distressed about it. These are the rules which have been found of sovereign power in the Christian family.
V. As the law of God is in it the restraining rule, so THE LOVE OF GOD IS THE INSPIRING MOTIVE. "Followers of God, as dear children" (Ephesians 5:1), not performing the mechanical and enforced obedience of the slave, nor even merely the habitual obedience which can be instilled by education and training; but the free, unforced, willing, elastic service which is prompted by the love of a child.
VI. Lastly, IN THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY CHARITY IS TAUGHT BY PRECEPT AND BY EXAMPLE. The voice of slander is not heard in it. The elders are not "weary in well-doing," and the younger learn (1 John 3:17) that to help those who have need is to have something of the likeness of God, and to act under the direction of God's good Spirit.
The constituent parts of acceptable prayer: thanksgiving, intercession, personal petitions.
1. An example of these here, incidentally given, not purposely, , St. Paul's practice with regard to Philemon. He was not familiarly known to the apostle. Perhaps it was with a certain surprise he learned that the great apostle habitually "made mention of him" in his prayers. In like manner, many Christians are being helped, without their own knowledge, by the prayers of others. The apostle's example to be followed.
2. Thanksgiving a necessary part of prayer. "I thank my God." If this be omitted, we are ungrateful, and so our devotion will not be acceptable to God. We must thank God for past mercies bestowed upon us and upon others. Our service is not really devotion without this, but the reverse. A want of duty towards God therefore a sin (Psalms 109:7).
3. Intercession for others. "Making mention of thee always in my prayers." This the duty thrown upon us by our Christian fellowship. In this the "communion of saints" is shown forth. It is not to be confined to our immediate connections and friends. Philemon was not intimately known to St. Paul, yet he was remembered by him. Prayer without intercession is selfish, and therefore unacceptable to God. It may be that their too manifest selfishness of tone is the reason that many of our prayers do not obtain from God the answer they crave (Isaiah 1:15). It ought always to embrace the whole Church of Christ, not merely that part of it in which we are immediately interested. This would have a reflex action upon ourselves, and would tend towards eventual union among us; for when the sympathies of the heart are wide, the sympathies of the intellect will hardly remain narrow.
4. Petitions for our personal needs are never likely to be absent from our prayers. The danger will be that they should form too large a part of them. They need to be restrained and regulated, not indulged. As the Christian grows in saintliness, his prayers for self will come to be more and more for spiritual blessings instead of temporal. At length they will be merged in the comprehensive petition that God's will may be done in the petitioner, and his Name glorified.
5. To cease analysis, and take a complete view of prayer, we find it to sum up in itself all the sentiments which the human soul should entertain towards its Divine Creator.
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed."
Therefore gratitude, confidence, affection, hope, anxiety for others or for ourselves, penitence, should all in their degree enter into our prayers. But none of these should monopolize them.
Man glorifying God.
Man is created for God's glory, and finds the highest end of his being, therefore, in glorifying him. Four ways may be distinguished in which he does this.
I. THE WAY OF GOOD DEEDS DONE IN HIS STRENGTH, which cause others to glorify him. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16). This is the mode referred to here: "That thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you." The mutual benevolence of Christians was thus to God's glory, and tended to bring others into the fold.
II. THE WAY OF WORSHIP—an ancient, universal, and proper way. Acts of worship are directed to God. That they may be really to his glory, they must be for God; that is, he must be, not their object merely, but their end (Manton). As far as secondary motives prevail in our worship, so tar it is for those motives, and not purely to God's glory. The sole element to be reckoned in worship is the earnestness, piety, and sincerity of the worshipper. God is no more glorified of necessity by great outward beauty and splendor; he is no less glorified by the barest simplicity, if the devotion be equal. The accessories of worship are for man's help, and to assist man's feeble and purblind view of eternal realities; and are not otherwise to God's glory than as they are fit vehicles of man's devotion.
III. THE THIRD WAY OF OBEDIENCE. Man glorifies God when he becomes that which God intended him to be. He realizes by obedience the thought of God when he said, "Let us make man in our image." This was lost through the sin of Adam, and it is in process of restoration through the obedience of Christ, in individual Christians as they successively live upon the earth.
IV. GOD IS BEST GLORIFIED, THEREFORE, BY THE OBEDIENCE OF THE SOUL AND LIFE. Hooker says, "Should you erect to him a temple more magnificent than Solomon's, and load his altars with hecatombs of sacrifices, and make it perpetually ring with psalms and resounding choirs of hallelujahs, it would not be comparably so great an honor to him as to convert your own souls into living temples, and make them the habitations of his glory and perfection. For he values no sacrifices like that of an obedient will, delights in no choir like that of pure and heavenly affections, nor hath he in all his creation an ensign of honor so truly worthy of him as that of a Divine and God-like soul, a soul that reflects his image, and shines back his own glory upon him."