Philemon 1:21 Having confidence in your obedience I wrote to you, knowing that you will also do more than I say. What was the something which lay outside of, beyond, and over, the wide range of all that St. Paul bad claimed — forgiveness of two great offences on the part of Onesimus — deletion of his debt, his exaltation and ennoblement into a brother? There were overwhelming reasons why St. Paul should not demand the manumission of Onesimus. The slave would thus have been forced by St. Paul's action into a position in which he would have derived an enormous gain from gross wrong-doing. Philemon, besides, would have been a pecuniary loser without a free and hearty consent. Yet there has been a very general feeling that the word "liberty" fills St. Paul's heart, hangs upon his lips though unuttered, and hovers over his pen though unwritten. (Bp. Wm. Alexander.) Parallel Verses KJV: Having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say. |
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