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Hey, everybody, it's Matt.

This is the 10-minute Bible Hour podcast.

We're working on the book of Philemon, and I found something really cool that I'm super excited to share with you and unpack today about Philemon that we've been working on around here.

I found a set of homilies on Philemon that we've been working on around here. I found a set of homilies on

Philemon by John Chrysostom, one of the great church fathers of the Eastern Church. He's a fourth

century guy. He played a big role in a whole lot of important things in the history of

Christianity, right? It's a very big name. It's okay if you haven't heard of him before. Again, his name is John Chrysostom, C-H-R-Y-S-O-S-T-O-M. Orthodox people really, really like him. And I didn't learn about him at all in church. I heard about him for the first time in seminary and church history

stuff. So again, if you don't know the name, don't feel bad. But he's a big deal. He's important.

And he wrote stuff about Philemon. Well, it makes sense that he would write stuff about

Philemon for a couple of reasons. One, because the question of slavery and what to do with Christian households and things like that was still a very poignant, important question a few hundred years after the time that Philemon was written when Chrysostom was written.

Also, it would make sense that Chrysostom would write about Philemon because it's right in his neck of the woods.

He's from that part of the world. A lot of the same six or seven or ten flags that flew over Colosse flew over

Chrysostom's home as well. And as I was reading through this business, it struck me that it's

really quite simple for somebody so brilliant who gets quoted to win fights on the

internet about religious things, he really had a talent for writing stuff in a way that normal

people would get to make sense of the text. I like that. I respect that. I aspire to that. I was

particularly appreciative of this little bit right here, and I thought

Chris Isdom's skill for making the complex simple was really on display here when he's talking about

verses 8 and 9 and Paul's appeal to Philemon because Chrysostom breaks it down into the components

of the appeal. I think this is great. Let me read it to you. Paul appeals to Philemon because Chrysostom breaks it down into the components of the appeal. I think this is great.

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