Philemon 6

NIV 1984: I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

NLT: And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.

MSG: Every time your name comes up in my prayers, I say, "Oh, thank you, God!" I keep hearing of the love and faith you have for the Master Jesus, which brims over to other believers. And I keep praying that this faith we hold in common keeps showing up in the good things we do, and that people recognize Christ in all of it. Friend, you have no idea how good your love makes me feel, doubly so when I see your hospitality to fellow believers.

NET: I pray that the faith you share with us may deepen your understanding of every blessing  that belongs to you  in Christ.

NIV 2010: I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.

It is interesting, especially after the revision of the NIV bible. We have always been using the NIV 1984 to encourage others to evangelise. However, scholarly research has shown that this was not Paul's intention when he wrote to Philemon. Instead, according to the NIV 2010 note, it seems to suggest that Paul is praying that Philemon may welcome Onesimus back into his household and not punish him. It seems to be encouraging Philemon that the partnership with Paul in the faith will bear fruits and help him to understand where Paul is coming from, that one of the 'every good thing' is the servant Onesimus.

In fact, other more recent translations have reinforced that idea, that the sharing of faith is a sharing within the believers, and not from believers to non-believers. The footnote from the NET states the difficulty of translating this verse and why it should be translated in the way:

Grk “that the fellowship of your faith might become effective in the knowledge of everything good that is in us in Christ.” There are numerous difficulties with the translation and interpretation of this verse: (1) What is the meaning of ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεως σου (Jh koinwnia th" pistew" sou, “the fellowship of your faith”)? Several suggestions are noted: (a) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “monetary support” and τῆς πίστεως as a genitive of source, the phrase could refer to Philemon’s financial giving which he has done according to his faith; (b) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “sharing” or “communicating” and the genitive τῆς πίστεως as an objective genitive, then the meaning would be “sharing the faith” as a reference to evangelistic activity; (c) taking κοινωνία in a distributive sense referring to fellowship with other believers, and τῆς πίστεως as a reference to the common trust all Christians have in Jesus, then the meaning is Christian fellowship centered on faith in Jesus; (d) taking κοινωνία as a reference to “participation” and the genitive τῆς πίστεως as a reference to the thing participated in, the meaning would then be Philemon’s “participation in the faith”; (2) what is the meaning of ἐνεργής (energh"; Does it mean “active” or “effective”?) and ἐπιγνώσει (epignwsei; Does it refer to simply understanding? Or “experiencing” as well?); (3) what is the meaning of the phrase παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ (panto" agaqou)? and (4) what is the force of εἰς Χριστόν (ei" Criston)? It is difficult to arrive at an interpretation that deals adequately with all these questions, but given the fact that Paul stresses what Philemon has done for the brothers (cf. the γάρ [gar] in v. 7), it seems that his concern in v. 6 is on Philemon’s fellowship with other believers and how he has worked hard to refresh them. In this interpretation: (1) the phrase ἡ κοινωνία τῆς πίστεως σου is taken to refer to fellowship with other believers; (2) ἐνεργής is taken to mean “effective” (i.e., more effective) and ἐπιγνώσει involves both understanding and experience; (3) the phrase παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ refers to every spiritual blessing and (4) εἰς Χριστόν carries a locative idea meaning “in Christ.” The result is that Paul prays for Philemon that he will be equipped to encourage and love the saints more as he himself is brought to a place of deeper understanding of every spiritual blessing he has in Christ; out of the overflow of his own life, he will minister to others.

Nonetheless, I dun think the change in translation in one verse is going to negate anything that we have been teaching so far. I think so for several reasons: 1. evangelising to the non-believers is a biblical imperative, the most obvious comes from Matt 28:18-19, 2. if sharing our faith helps to refresh others and gain better understanding of the blessings we have, then surely sharing it with non-believers is going to be the same as well. I just think that this particular case study should encourage us to do more in-depth study and research into the word of God before we actually teach it to other people.

Reviewing what I have been taught in my early days, I realised that I need to revisit these verses and seriously think about whether the verses mean what we meant them to mean, and very often, I found that many of these teachings need to be revised and further thought through. This is by no means saying that these teachings are futile or we should stop teaching. Again, my point is that as believers, let's be serious in the study of the word and not take things out of its proper context.