At the same time prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you.
All Commentaries on Philemon 1:22 Go To Philemon 1
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
At the same time make ready a lodging for me too. For it was his custom when he was in Colossae to stay in his home. Chrysostom asks what we are to make of this remark in which a poor man commands a rich man by letter from across the expanse of the earth to prepare a lodging for him. What would have to be prepared for one content with bread and cheap victuals? It should be said that it was not for the sake of the preparation of lodging that he says this, but to insinuate familiarity and love; in this way he will be prompt to obey. The Apostle therefore does not say this on account of external trappings but out of his devotion. For I hope that through your prayers I shall be restored to you.
Against this is the fact that he never returned to them but died in Rome, therefore his hope was dashed. I reply that the hope of the just is of two kinds, the chief of which is for his own good, and this is never dashed; another secondary hope is the proof of others, and this is sometimes dashed, because their merits are contrary, as the just man is sometimes not heeded by others. But was he deceived in his trust? It should be said that God alone knows the future; that is not for human knowledge, except the prophetic. And no prophet knows all the future events that concern himself. Only Christ did, because he did not have the Holy Spirit in a limited way. Thus Isaac the great prophet was deceived in Jacob. So it is not to be wondered at in an apostle if he does not know.
Then he ends his letter with a greeting, and first on the part of others, second on his own. He says, they send you greetings, and we read of them at the end of Colossians. But this can be doubted since he mentions Demas. How can this be, since he said in 2. Timothy 3:8, ‘For Demas has deserted me, loving this world’? How, then, can he use his name?
It might be said that he returned to him, but this does not seem to be the case, because this letter was written after that to Timothy and here he says, I hope that through your prayers, and there he foretells his death, saying, ‘The time of my deliverance is at hand.’ Therefore it should be said that Paul was in Rome for nearly nine years, and this letter was written at the beginning, whereas the second letter to Timothy was written at the end of his life and then Demas weary of imprisonment deserted him. The letters of Paul are not arranged chronologically, because the letters to the Corinthians were written before the letter to the Romans, and this before the last letter to Timothy. That is placed first because of its matter, which is worthier. His own greeting here is the same one that ends the second letter to Timothy. Thanks be to God, amen.
