The Epistle to Philemon

The Epistle to Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters, and the most personal. Onesimus, a slave who had fled his master Philemon, had met Paul in prison and been converted. Paul sends him back to his master, with this note asking that he be received no longer as a slave, but as a brother.

A slave become a brother

Paul does not with one word break the institution of slavery, but he makes its foundation fall from within. Onesimus returns, but all has changed between him and his master, for the two are now brothers in Christ: “no longer as a slave, but as more than a slave: as a dear brother.” Philemon 1:16 Two men whom society separated into master and slave find themselves members of one family, equal before God. Paul obtains all this without imposing anything: he could command, he prefers to ask, and sends Onesimus back leaving Philemon free in his response. “but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your kindness might not be forced but voluntary.” Philemon 1:14 Charity does not compel; it waits for a free consent. This is the seed that would later bring down slavery itself, as the article on slavery in the Bible shows. The name Onesimus, in Greek Onēsimos (Ὀνήσιμος), means “useful,” and Paul plays on it: “who was once useless to you, but who now is truly useful both to you and to me.” Philemon 1:11 The slave whose name meant useful has become so at last, in becoming a Christian.

Put it to my account

Paul goes further: he stands surety for the debt Onesimus might have contracted in fleeing, and takes it upon himself in his place. “if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account.” Philemon 1:18 A third party takes upon himself the debt of the guilty one so that the relationship may be restored: this gesture sketches in small what Christ accomplishes for all men, bearing their debt to reconcile them with the Father. The briefest of Paul’s letters thus contains, in a concrete case, the whole Gospel of reconciliation.