In the Apostle Paul’s letter to his friend, Philemon, he twice mentions individual’s hearts being ‘refreshed’ [vs 7&20]. Paul first says to Philemon the ‘….hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother’ [vs 7]. Philemon hosted the Colossian church in his house [vs 2] and he would likely have multiple opportunities to greet, host, and serve others with refreshing hospitality. The second reference to the word translated ‘refresh’ is in verse 20 where Paul says: “Yes, brother, may I have joy from you in the Lord, refresh my heart in Christ’.
The Greek word used in these two verses that is translated ‘refresh’, means to ‘give rest, to take or enjoy rest, take a break from labor’. [Vines]. Paul, however, seems to use the word refresh more in an emotional or spiritual sense due to his use of ‘heart[s]’ being refreshed, both his own as well as the members of the Colossian church.
We know by experience that physical rest alone does not always restore our soul, though physical rest is essential. Those with troubled hearts often need more than sufficient physical rest/sleep. We need to hear or receive words of encouragement, words of comfort, from the Lord [e.g. Psalm 23] and from others. In verse 20 Paul seems to connect receiving [refreshing] joy from Philemon in anticipation of Philemon’s likely acceptance of Paul’s appeal to him to receive back Philemon’s runaway slave Onesimus [vs. 8-20]. Paul had encountered Onesimus in some remarkable way and had introduced Onesimus to Jesus. Paul was wanting to send Onesimus back to Philemon and thus the letter was written with that hope in Paul’s mind.
Refreshing someone’s heart seems to imply far more than providing physical rest and/or nourishment, though again, doing so can be very beneficial to that person. To refresh the heart of another would seem to include offering a listening ear, gentle and kind words of encouragement and understanding and perhaps even words of gentle correction, or wisdom. Refreshing others seems to involve ministering to their emotional and spiritual needs as well as their physical needs.
When you think of a person who ‘refreshes’ you, what comes to your mind about the qualities of that person and what is it about them that refreshes you? The more ‘self-focused’ or self-absorbed we live, the less likely we will be capable of refreshing others. Paul says of his son-in-the-faith, Timothy: “I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare, for they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus” [Philippians 2:20-21]. Timothy’s interests were the same as that of Christ Jesus, i.e. the welfare of others. Basically, the important way we show interest in another person, is to show interest in their welfare-their physical, emotional and spiritual well being.
I know that I am not as ‘refreshing’ a person as I should be. I am simply too often self-focused and self- absorbed, sometimes spending time nursing my own emotional woundedness or mentally preoccupied with the many perplexities about life. I need to remind myself frequently of all God has done for me [e.g. Ephesians 1:3-23, Romans 8:28-39, etc.] to enable the Spirit to release within me greater concern for the welfare of others.
Will others say of you that you were/are a ‘refreshing’ person?
CJS
Good afternoon. Your article was recently shared by Sam Radar. He printed and hand-delivered it to me at my office, just around the corner from his at Coldwell Banker. (made me feel special 🙂 I work for an agent in his office and have a chalkboard where I share weekly quotes or scripture. I try to keep the message fun, motivating and inspirational. Several agents take time to stop and check the board often. Sam gives me a hard time about updating the board daily versus weekly and after reading your article on “refreshing others” I am going to put forth extra effort to do that! I didn’t realize something so simple really does offer a moment of “rest” for others in my workspace. Thank you for your article and for your book. I ordered a digital version on Amazon and look forward to reading it. If you are on social media, I have a ministry called, Scripture Boards where I post daily scripture art to try to share his word with the virtual world. Thank you, Melissa
Thank you for your encouraging message!! And my commendation to you for your wonderful ministry of posting scripture on your board! Blessings on you in every way !
Dear Curt, how refreshing this essay is, as refreshing as your loving house has always been to many! Thank you for being so humble in answering the question yourself so honestly first: the most refreshing part of each and every article you wrote, a great role model for the readers.
As for me, I believe I had been trying to be refreshing to my loved ones and people around me much to a fault since in my green years I had assumed that all of them had the same “taste” and comprehension (very naive indeed). After all these years of studying the scripture, I have improved my discernment and l am now able to offer some biblically refreshing “love” to people around me, though it might taste refreshingly bitter at first. It takes experience and wisdom to be capable of being refreshing, I have to say.
My husband Yi would like to share his appreciation of your refreshing article and add that it is possibly the social and daily routines that have rendered many people not so refreshing (as is he) because one has to be refreshed enough in order to be refreshing. He hopes that more people can have the readiness as well as the habit to be refreshing.
Thank you again for refreshing our souls in Christ and may you have an equally refreshed day!
With love from Cuiping and Yi
Cuiping: thank you so much for your comments. I agree fully with Yi that it is difficult to refresh others when we are not being refreshed ourselves. An interesting passage in Proverbs says ‘a generous person will prosper and whoever refreshes others will be refreshed” [Prov 11:25 NIV].
It seems as if we take steps to attempt to reach out and refresh others that somehow we end up being refreshed ourselves. Perhaps refreshing others gives us within ourselves a sense of joy [‘it is more blessed to give than to receive ‘ Acts 20:35] and perhaps that sense of joy is part of our own feeling of being refreshed. Also, perhaps God sees our efforts at refreshing others and He himself takes steps to bring ‘refreshment’ to us from other sources. Ultimately, it seems that our greatest source of ‘refreshment’ is in the Lord Himself, as we seek to drink refreshing waters from the well of His spirit it, as we draw deep truths from the scriptures and seek His face in prayer and meditation.