written and transmitted at the same time as that to the Colossians. It may be regarded as a personal
postscript to it.
It was a letter of recommendation of Onesimus (i.e., Profitable),^1187 a slave of Philemon,
who had run away from his master on account of some offence (probably theft, a very common sin
of slaves),^1188 fell in with Paul at Rome, of whom he may have heard in the weekly meetings at
Colossae, or through Epaphras, his fellow-townsman, was converted by him to the Christian faith,
and now desired to return, as a penitent, in company with Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to the
Colossians (Col. 4:9).
Paul and Slavery.
The Epistle is purely personal, yet most significant. Paul omits his official title, and
substitutes the touching designation, "a prisoner of Christ Jesus," thereby going directly to the heart
of his friend. The letter introduces us into a Christian household, consisting of father (Philemon),
mother (Apphia), son (Archippus, who was at the same time a "fellow-soldier," a Christian minister),
and a slave (Onesimus). It shows the effect of Christianity upon society at a crucial point, where
heathenism was utterly helpless. It touches on the institution of slavery, which lay like an incubus
upon the whole heathen world and was interwoven with the whole structure of domestic and public
life.
The effect of Christianity upon this gigantic social evil is that of a peaceful and gradual care
from within, by teaching the common origin and equality of men, their common redemption and
Christian brotherhood, by, emancipating them from slavery unto spiritual freedom, equality, and
brotherhood in Christ, in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male
nor female, but all are one moral person (Gal. 3:28). This principle and the corresponding practice
wrought first an amelioration, and ultimately the abolition of slavery. The process was very slow
and retarded by the counteracting influence of the love of gain and power, and all the sinful passions
of men; but it was sure and is now almost complete throughout the Christian world; while paganism
and Mohammedanism regard slavery as a normal state of society, and hence do not even make an
attempt to remove it. It was the only wise way for the apostles to follow in dealing with the subject.
A proclamation of emancipation from them would have been a mere brutum fulmen, or, if effectual,
would have resulted in a bloody revolution of society in which Christianity itself would have been
buried.
Paul accordingly sent back Onesimus to his rightful master, yet under a new character, no
more a contemptible thief and runaway, but a regenerate man and a "beloved brother," with the
touching request that Philemon might receive him as kindly as he would the apostle himself, yea
as his own heart (Philem. 16, 17). Such advice took the sting out of slavery; the form remained,
the thing itself was gone. What a contrast! In the eyes of the heathen philosophers (even Aristotle)(^1187) Hence the good-humored play on the meaning of the word, Philem. 11, ἄχρηστος, εὔχρηστος ,"unprofitable to thee, but
now profitable to thee and to me;" and the play on the name, Philem. 20, ὀναίμην, "let me have comfort in thee."
(^1188) Philem. 18 seems to describe the actual offence, though the case is stated hypothetically, εἰ δέ τι ... ὀφείλει (a mild word
for ἔκλεψεν, stole). The apostle would not wound the feelings of the slave, nor irritate the master, and offers himself to discharge
the debt.
A.D. 1-100.