Philemon

Purpose & theme

Philemon is the shortest and most personal of Paul’s letters: a single, tender chapter of just twenty-five verses, and yet a jewel of the gospel in miniature. It is a private letter written to a Christian named Philemon, a well-to-do believer in Colossae in whose home the church met, concerning his runaway slave Onesimus. Onesimus had apparently fled from Philemon, perhaps after wronging or robbing him, and had somehow come into contact with the imprisoned Paul, through whom he was converted to Christ. Now Paul sends Onesimus back to his master, but no longer merely as a slave. Paul writes to appeal, with exquisite tact and warmth, that Philemon receive Onesimus back “no longer as a slave but... as a beloved brother” (v. 16), forgiving him and welcoming him as he would welcome Paul himself.

The theme of this little letter is the transforming power of the gospel to reconcile and to remake relationships. Paul does not issue a command, though he could; instead he appeals “for love’s sake,” modeling the very grace he asks Philemon to show. In the heart of the letter, Paul offers to pay whatever Onesimus owes, “charge that to my account” (v. 18): a beautiful picture of Christ’s own work, taking upon Himself the debt of guilty sinners so they might be received by God. The letter quietly but powerfully undermines the whole institution of slavery by placing master and slave on the same footing as brothers in Christ, and it shows how the gospel reaches into the most ordinary and difficult human situations, turning what is “useless” into what is “useful” (a play on Onesimus’s name, which means “useful”), and enmity into family. Philemon is a small window onto the vast reconciling love of God.