Philemon 1:2
And to our beloved Apphia…
The Alexandrian copy reads,
"to sister Apphia"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "to the beloved
sister Apphia"; for this is a woman's name; and it is thought that
she was the wife of Philemon, since she is placed next to him, and
before Archippus, a minister of the word; and very prudently is she
wrote to, and justly commended, in order to engage her to use her
interest with her husband to receive his servant again, who
otherwise might have stood against it, and been a very great
hinderance to a reconciliation: this clause is wanting in the
Ethiopic version:
and Archippus our fellow soldier;
that this Archippus was a preacher
of the Gospel at Colosse is manifest from (Colossians 4:17) wherefore the
apostle styles him a fellow soldier; for though this character
belongs to private Christians, who are enlisted as volunteers under
Christ, the Captain of salvation, and fight under his banners,
against sin, Satan, and the world, being accoutred with the whole
armour of God, and are more than conquerors through Christ that has
loved them; yet it very eminently belongs to the ministers of the
Gospel, who are more especially called upon, to endure hardness, as
good soldiers of Christ; to war a good warfare, to fight the good
fight of faith; and besides the above enemies common to all
believers, to engage with false teachers, and earnestly contend for
the faith of the Gospel, that so it may continue with the saints.
Now this man was in the same company, and in the same service,
engaged in the same common cause, against the same enemies, and
under the same Captain, and was expecting the same crown of
immortality and glory, and therefore he calls him his
fellow soldier; and he wisely inscribes his epistle to him, that he
might make use of the interest he had in Philemon, and his wife, to
bring this matter to bear, the apostle writes about:
and to the church in thy house:
not in the house of Archippus, but
in the house of Philemon; and designs not the church at Colosse, as
though it met at his house; but his own family, which for the great
piety and religion which were among them, and for the good order and
decorum in which they were kept, were like a church of themselves;
and here again the apostle acts the wise part, in order to gain his
point, by taking notice of them, who might some of them have been
injured or affronted by Onesimus, when with them; and so entertained
some resentment against him, and might put a bar in the way of his
reception into the family again.
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