Philemon

Receive Him as Myself

Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters, about 335 words in Greek, and the most personal. It is not addressed to a church about doctrine. It is a note to a friend about a runaway slave. And in twenty-five verses it shows the gospel at work in one of the hardest places it could go: between a wronged master and the man who wronged him.

The slave’s name was Onesimus, which means “useful” or “profitable.” He had run away from his master, Philemon, and somehow ended up with Paul in prison, where he came to faith in Christ. Now Paul was sending him back. He asks Philemon to receive him not as a slave, but as a brother, and to charge whatever Onesimus owed to Paul’s account. “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself” (v. 17). Martin Luther read that and said, “We are all his Onesimi.” Every believer has been received by the Father in exactly that way.

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Authorship & Setting

Philemon was a believer in Colossae, wealthy enough to own slaves and host the church in his home (v. 2). He had come to faith through Paul (v. 19). Apphia, greeted alongside him, was probably his wife, and Archippus, a minister in the Colossian church (Colossians 4:17), may have been their son. Paul wrote this letter from prison, most likely in Rome around AD 60–62, and sent it to Colossae with Tychicus and Onesimus himself, along with the letter to the Colossians (Colossians 4:7–9).

Under Roman law a runaway slave could be beaten, branded, or even put to death, and anyone who sheltered him could be held liable. Onesimus may also have stolen from Philemon (v. 18). So returning was a real risk, and Paul uses every bit of his relationship with Philemon to protect him.

Readers often ask why Paul did not simply condemn slavery outright. Slavery in the Roman world was widespread and not based on race, and an open call for revolt would likely have ended in bloodshed. Instead, Paul planted principles that cut at slavery’s root: in Christ there is neither bond nor free (Galatians 3:28), masters have a Master in heaven (Ephesians 6:9), and “menstealers” are listed among the lawless (1 Timothy 1:10). In this letter he asks a master to receive his runaway slave “above a servant, a brother beloved” (v. 16). Over time those principles did their work.

Key Figures

• Paul — writing as “Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ” (v. 9).
• Timothy — named with Paul as co-sender (v. 1).
• Philemon — Paul’s “dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer” (v. 1), whose love had refreshed the hearts of the saints.
• Apphia and Archippus — likely Philemon’s wife and son. Archippus is called Paul’s “fellowsoldier” (v. 2).
• Onesimus — the runaway slave, converted in prison, “whom I have begotten in my bonds” (v. 10).
• Paul’s companions — Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, who send their greetings (vv. 23–24).

Greek Word Study

ἄχρηστος / εὔχρηστος · achrēstos / euchrēstos

“Unprofitable” and “profitable.” Paul makes a pun on Onesimus’s name: “Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me” (v. 11). Mr. Useful had been useless. Christ made him live up to his name. Some have also noticed that these words sound like Christos in Greek, as though Onesimus had gone from “without Christ” to “with Christ.”

σπλάγχνα · splanchna

“Bowels,” the inward parts, the seat of deep feeling. We would say “heart.” Paul uses it three times in this short letter: Philemon has refreshed the hearts of the saints (v. 7); Onesimus is “mine own bowels” (v. 12), part of Paul’s own heart; and Paul asks Philemon, “refresh my bowels in the Lord” (v. 20).

κοινωνός · koinōnos

“Partner,” one who shares in something together. “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself” (v. 17). Paul appeals to their fellowship in Christ. If Philemon shares life with Paul, he must share it with Paul’s son in the faith.

ἐλλογάω · ellogaō

“To put on someone’s account,” an accounting term for charging a debt to someone. “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account” (v. 18). Paul uses the same word in Romans 5:13 for sin being “imputed.” This verse is a living picture of what Christ did for us.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Greeting to a House Church (vv. 1–3)

Paul writes as a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not of Rome. He greets Philemon, Apphia, Archippus, and “the church in thy house” (v. 2). This private matter would be read in front of the whole congregation that met in Philemon’s home. The church would be watching what he did.

MOVEMENT TWO

Thanksgiving for Philemon’s Love (vv. 4–7)

Paul thanks God for Philemon’s love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints. He prays that the fellowship of his faith would become effective. “For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother” (v. 7). Philemon was known for refreshing people. Paul was about to ask him to refresh one more.

MOVEMENT THREE

For Love’s Sake I Rather Beseech (vv. 8–9)

“Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee” (vv. 8–9). Paul had the apostolic authority to give an order. He chose to appeal instead, as Paul the aged and a prisoner. Love persuades where it could command.

MOVEMENT FOUR

My Son Onesimus (vv. 10–12)

Only now does Paul name the man: “I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds” (v. 10). The runaway had become a spiritual son. Once unprofitable, now profitable. Paul sends him back with his own heart: “receive him, that is, mine own bowels” (v. 12).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Without Thy Mind Would I Do Nothing (vv. 13–14)

Paul would have liked to keep Onesimus with him to serve in Philemon’s place. But he would not do it without Philemon’s consent, “that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly” (v. 14). Paul did not want a forced kindness. He wanted Philemon’s heart in it.

MOVEMENT SIX

Perhaps He Departed for a Season (vv. 15–16)

“For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever” (v. 15). Paul sees God’s hand behind the whole mess. What Onesimus meant as escape, God used for salvation. And now Philemon would get him back “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved” (v. 16).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Put That on Mine Account (vv. 17–19)

“If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it” (vv. 17–19). Paul signs the IOU himself. Then he adds, gently, that Philemon owes Paul his own soul.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Refresh My Heart (vv. 20–25)

“Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord” (v. 20). “Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say” (v. 21). Paul hints at more than forgiveness, perhaps freedom, perhaps sending Onesimus back to serve with Paul. He asks Philemon to prepare a room, because he hopes to be released and visit. Greetings follow, and grace.

Christ Typology

Put It on My Account. This is the heart of the gospel in one sentence. We were runaways who owed a debt we could not pay. Christ stood before the Father and said, in effect, “Charge it to Me.” “The LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our debt went on His account, and His righteousness went on ours.

Receive Him as Myself. Paul asks Philemon to welcome Onesimus exactly as he would welcome Paul. That is how the Father receives us in Christ: “he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). We do not come before God on our own record. We come in the name of His Son, and we are received the way He would be.

Joseph and the Providence of God. Joseph told the brothers who sold him into slavery, “ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20). Paul’s “perhaps he therefore departed for a season” carries the same faith. Onesimus ran in sin, and God turned his running into a road to Christ. Above all, the greatest evil ever done, the cross, God meant for the greatest good.

The Prodigal Returning. The prodigal son planned to say, “make me as one of thy hired servants” (Luke 15:19). His father received him as a son instead. Onesimus went home as a slave and was to be received as a brother beloved. Both stories show how the Father receives returning sinners: not as hired hands on probation, but as family.

Personal Application

Forgiveness restores, but it costs someone. Philemon had real losses. Paul did not pretend otherwise. He offered to pay. Forgiveness in the Christian sense is not saying the wrong didn’t matter. It is absorbing the cost, as Christ absorbed ours.

Reconciliation takes courage on both sides. Onesimus had to go back and face the man he wronged, not knowing what would happen. Philemon had to choose grace over his rights, in front of his whole church. If there is a relationship in your life that needs repair, it may take both humility and nerve. The gospel provides both.

Love persuades better than force. Paul could have ordered Philemon. He chose to appeal, because a forced kindness is not really kindness. Those with authority in the church, the home, or the workplace can learn from him. The aim is willing hearts, not grudging compliance.

God can make the useless useful. Onesimus had been unprofitable. In Christ he became profitable. Tradition even suggests that a bishop named Onesimus led the church at Ephesus a generation later. Whether or not it was the same man, the point stands: nobody is too far gone for Christ to make them useful in His kingdom.

The gospel changes how we treat people. In Christ, a master and a slave became brothers. The world’s categories of rank, status, and usefulness do not define worth in God’s family. Look at the people around you through that lens. The person below you on the world’s ladder may be a brother beloved.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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