Introductory remarks
1
📚Paul, a prisoner 📖 of Jesus Christ and Timothy 📖 our brother, To Philemon 📖 our dear brother and fellow worker, 2 📚and to our dear Apphia 📖 and Archippus 📖, our fellow soldier 📖, and to the church in your house 📖:3 📚Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer and thanksgiving for Philemon
4 📚I thank my God, always mentioning you in my prayers, 5 📚for I hear of your love and faith which you have for the Lord Jesus and for all saints, 6 📚that the sharing of your faith may become effective by knowing 📖 every good thing that is in you in Christ 📖 Jesus.
Philemon’s loving behavior was an encouragement to Paul
7 📚For we have great joy and encouragement in your love because the hearts of the saints 📖 are refreshed 📖 by you, brother.
Paul’s request concerning Onesimus
8 📚Therefore, though I could be very bold in Christ to order you to do what is fitting, 9 📚yet instead, for love’s sake, I appeal to you as Paul an old man 📖 and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
1:8-9 As a servant of Christ Paul could have set before Philemon his duty as a believer, and the commands of Scripture. But Philemon had already shown that he had love in his heart (v 7), and so Paul appeals to him on that basis.⚜
10 📚I appeal to you on behalf of my son 📖 Onesimus; in my chains I have become his father. 11 📚In time past he was not profitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
1:11 The name Onesimus means “useful”. He was a slave of Philemon (v 16) who had run away and become useless to him. But having become a child of God he became useful in a far higher sense.⚜
12 📚I have sent him back to you. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart 📖. 13 📚I wanted to keep him with me, so that in your place he could be of service to me in the bonds of the gospel, 14 📚but without knowing your mind I would do nothing, so that your good deed would not be like something forced, but voluntary.
1:13-14 Paul was sure that Philemon would have gladly been a help to him if he had been where Paul was. But he would not try to use another man’s servant without consent. If a favor is forced and not free, it is no favor at all. This is true also of any gift we make to God or to His people – 2 Cor 9:7.⚜
15 📚For perhaps he left you for a time that you might receive him for ever, 16 📚not now as a slave 📖, but more than a slave, a dear brother 📖, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the body and in the Lord?
17 📚So if you count me a partner, receive him as myself. 18 📚If he has wronged you, or owes you anything, put that to my account. 19 📚I Paul have written this with my own hand, I will pay it back; but I do not need to tell you that you owe me even your very self 📖.
1:17-19 Paul had learned this from Christ. He knew that God accepts believers as He does His own Son – Acts 15:8; Rom 5:2; 14:3; Eph 2:18. He knew that we must accept one another as Christ accepts us – Rom 15:7. He knew that accepting someone a person sends is the same as accepting the person who sent him – John 13:20. He knew that all the wrongs, sins, and spiritual debts of believers have been put to Christ’s account and that Christ paid them in full – Isa 53:5-6; Rom 8:33-34; 2 Cor 5:19-21. Paul had learned what love is and what these divine principles mean, and was happy to put them into practice. So must we be. We should be happy to pay the debts of other believers as Christ has paid our debts, and to accept other believers who have offended us as God has accepted us who have offended Him.⚜
20 📚Yes, brother, let me rejoice in the Lord because of you. Refresh 📖 my heart in the Lord.
1:20 This benefit was not for himself but for one who was dear to him.⚜
21 📚I have confidence in your obedience 📖 and so write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
Paul’s request concerning himself
22 📚Moreover, prepare a place for me to stay, for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted to you.
1:22 Because of the prayers of Philemon (and others) Paul expected to be released from prison. Compare Acts 12:5-11.⚜
Closing remarks
23 📚Epaphras 📖, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, 24 📚as do Marcus 📖, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas 📖, my fellow workers.
25 📚The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.