Philemon 1:17 If you count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. Philemon and the apostle had been at one time associated as partners in their secular calling. The latter accordingly now falls back upon the language which business men who are so connected use in writing to each other. "If thou count me a partner, receive him as myself. Let the runaway slave stand on the footing of my agent, and be treated as the agent of a partner ought to be." But then there came the fact which, both for the sake of justice and of the penitent himself, St. Paul had no wish to gloss over, that there had been a wrong committed. Onesimus had stolen or embezzled. How was that to be dealt with? Here also he falls into the business language of partners. "If he hath wronged thee," etc. He was ready to debit himself with that responsibility. (Dean Plumptre.) Parallel Verses KJV: If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.WEB: If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would receive me. |
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