Philemon1chapter 1

Philemon 1:1-3

Paul writes as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not of Rome, and drops the apostle title entirely, for this letter will ask rather than command. The address takes in a household church at Colosse: Philemon the fellowlabourer, beloved Apphia, read by most as his wife, Archippus the fellowsoldier who receives a ministry charge at Colossians 4:17, and the church in thy house. The whole assembly will hear the letter read, which is part of its gentle pressure.

Philemon 1:4-7

The thanksgiving is strategy as well as sincerity: Philemon's love and faith toward the Lord and toward all saints are on record, and the prayer of verse 6 asks that the sharing of that faith become effectual in the acknowledging of every good thing. The bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother, splanchna, the seat of feeling; Paul will use the same word twice more, for Onesimus at verse 12 and for his own request at verse 20. The man being asked to refresh one more heart has a reputation for exactly that.

Philemon 1:8-9

Paul names the authority he declines to use: I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee, yet for love's sake I rather beseech. The self-description is chosen to disarm, Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, an old man in chains asking a favor of a friend. The Greek presbutes sits one letter from ambassador, and some read the word so; on either reading the apostle who could command has laid the command down.

Philemon 1:10-12

The name is held back until the ground is laid: I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds, the runaway converted under Paul's imprisonment. Onesimus means profitable, and Paul turns the name in a pun both households would feel, in time past unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me; under Roman law Philemon could brand or kill him, and Paul sends him back anyway with the letter in his hand. Receive him, that is, mine own bowels: the slave returns carrying the apostle's own heart.

Philemon 1:13-16

Paul would have kept the useful convert, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me, but without thy mind would I do nothing, consent preferred over compulsion so the kindness be willing. Verse 15's perhaps is the letter's theology: perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever, providence read gently over a crime without excusing it. The reception asked is the letter's revolution in one line, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, both in the flesh, and in the Lord.

Philemon 1:17-19

The request lands on partnership accounting: if thou count me a partner, receive him as myself, the slave welcomed with the apostle's own standing, and if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account. The old writers saw the gospel itself in the two clauses, the sinner received in another's person and his debt charged to another's account, imputation acted out in a private letter. I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay is a signed bond, followed by the gentlest leverage in Scripture, thou owest unto me even thine own self besides.

Philemon 1:20-22

The plea circles back to its opening word: refresh my bowels in the Lord, asking for himself what verse 7 praised Philemon for giving everyone else. Confidence in thy obedience, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say, has been read since the fathers as the hint toward manumission the letter never quite speaks. Prepare me also a lodging expects release and a visit, and puts Paul's arrival on the calendar of a man deciding how to treat Onesimus.

Philemon 1:23-25

The greetings are the Colossian circle: Epaphras the Colossian founder now a fellowprisoner, then Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, the same names that close Colossians, the two letters sharing one postbag and one hour. Early tradition remembered an Onesimus as bishop of Ephesus in Ignatius's day, and whether the same man or another, the letter itself survived because someone treasured it, which is its own quiet evidence of how Philemon answered. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit closes the one private letter the canon keeps.