I. HE DID SEND HIM BACK. "Whom I have sent back to thee in his own person, that is, my very heart."

1. Onesimus did not return of his own accord. He might, perhaps, have had some not unnatural misgivings as to the character of the reception he would meet with as a returned slave who had acted a dishonest part, and might have been ashamed besides to appear again in a community where his misdeeds had been made known.

2. The apostle recognized Philemon's right to the restored services of his fugitive slave. The gospel does not abolish civil rights. The conversion of Onesimus did not secure his manumission. Yet the gospel planted principles in society which in due time abolished slavery everywhere. "Wast thou called being bond-servant? Care not for it: but if thou canst become free, use it rather" (1 Corinthians 7:21).

3. He did not even wait till he had received an answer from Philemon as to the terms in which Onesimus would be received back into the Colossian household. He sent Onesimus at once in charge of his two letters, namely, that to the Colossian saints and that to Philemon himself.

4. Yet the apostle acted in the whole matter with the deepest affection for the poor bond-servant. He speaks of him as "his own heart." What account Christianity makes of the meanest classes of society!

II. THE APOSTLE'S EXPLANATION OF HIS CONDUCT AND MOTIVES IN THE WHOLE TRANSACTION.

1. His first feeling was to retain Onesimus about his person to do him the service that Philemon himself would have gladly done. He had now. become profitable, according to the happy significance of his name. But it was not for the apostle to interfere with another man's servant.

2. The true cause of his sending Onesimus was that he would do nothing without the consent of his master. "But without thy mind would I do nothing." But the motive that prompted this determination was that "thy goodness should not be as of necessity, but of free will." If the apostle had kept Onesimus for the sake of the benefit to be derived, from his personal ministration, the whole transaction would have worn a semblance of constraint. We have no right to extort benefits from our friends against their will.

3. The providential aspect of the matter. "For perhaps he was therefore parted from thee for a season, that thou shouldest have him forever."

(1) Nothing in this statement extenuates the misdeeds of Onesimus, which God overruled for good.

(2) The acts of the meanest individual in society are included in the sphere of Divine providence.

(3) God makes up for the losses of his saints in his own time and way. Philemon has his once unfaithful servant restored to him on an entirely new footing of advantage.

(4) The restoration of the fugitive slave is to an eternal relationship. The earthly tie is sundered by death, but grace gives an eternity to the holy relationships of earth.

4. The new relation established between master and servant. "Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, most of all by me, but more than most of all by thee, in the flesh and in the Lord." The apostle does not say, "not a servant," but "not as a servant;" for grace did not abrogate the old tie of master and servant.

(1) The brotherhood of saints is common to all the relationships of life. Philemon and Onesimus are now brethren beloved.

(2) Pious servants are to be more regarded, as they are more faithful, than servants without religion.

(3) There are none dearer to ministers than their converts.

(4) There was a double obligation to duty on Philemon's part corresponding to the double tie - that of the flesh and that of the Spirit - by which he was now connected with Onesimus. - T.C.

Servants must not be detained without their masters' liking. Eustathius, Bishop of Armenia, was deposed from his see because under a colour of piety he had taken servants from their masters.

(W. Jones, D. D.)

from this passage justly deduces as a conclusion that St. Paul held the principle that nothing in moral action is good which is not voluntary. He applies it to the solution of the question which has been so often asked — "Why God did not make men absolutely good?" God might have made man good without man's will. But, had He done so, the good would not have been voluntary, but necessary. But what is necessarily good is not good in the highest sense, and is even relatively and in another point of view evil. Therefore, in leaving us to our own free will, He made us more truly after His image and likeness.

Freedom is essential to virtue. If a man "could not help it" there is neither praise nor blame due. That freedom Christianity honours and respects. So in reference to the offer of the gospel blessings, men are not forced to accept them, but appealed to, and can turn deaf ears to the pleading voice, "Why will ye die?" Sorrows and sins and miseries without end continue, and the gospel is rejected, and lives of wretched godlessness lived, and a dark future pulled down on the rejecters' heads, and all because God knows that these things are better than that men should be forced into goodness, which indeed would cease to be goodness if they were. For nothing is good but the free turning of the will to goodness, and nothing bad but its aversion therefrom. The same solemn regard for the freedom of the individual and low estimate of the worth of constrained service influence the whole aspect of Christian ethics. Christ wants no pressed men in His army. "Must" is not in the Christian vocabulary, except as expressing the sweet constraint which bows the will of him who loves to harmony, which is joy, with the will of Him who is loved. Christ takes no offerings which the giver is not glad to render.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

It is a received axiom — That which is good of necessity, is not good, yet this is to be understood of a coacted necessity, not of a voluntary. God is necessarily, yet willingly, good. Death comes necessarily upon all; yet some die willingly. But the good which is done upon a constrained necessity, loses the name of good: patience perforce is no patience. A willing mind in a good action is all in all. If Solomon had not willingly built the temple, it had not been pleasing to God; if the centurion had not willingly set up the synagogue, God would not have respected it; if the woman of Shunem had not willingly entertained the prophet, it had been no good work in the sight of God; if Dorcas had not made the coats willingly, they had not been acceptable to God.

(W. Jones, D. D.)

I. A PREFERENCE WITH RESPECT TO GOODNESS. Paul was anxious not simply about the pardon of Onesimus, but as to —

1. The moral quality of the action of Philemon. Spontaneousness is an element of the highest goodness. The necessity which dictates to the Christian should be from within rather than from without.

2. The principle it was to illustrate. That Christianity is not a mere adjustment of external relations, but a spirit which interpenetrates and transfigures all.

3. Its spiritual effect upon the age. It has a greater effect upon the receiver, and upon onlookers, when a good deed is perceived to be spon taneous and not due to the influence of another.

II. A SPIRIT OF CONSIDERATION FOR THE FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY OF A FELLOW CHRISTIAN. St. Paul's behaviour throughout this episode is an example to us all of the courtesies that ought to soften and dignify the general relations of life; but of greater value is its suggestiveness in the spiritual sphere. It teaches us —

1. To do justice to the spiritual life of others.

2. To respect the diverse operation of the One Spirit.

3. To maintain a confident faith in the promptings of Christian principle.

(A. F. Muir, M. A.)

1. Seeing no man must perform any holy duty to God or man upon compulsion, or against his will, but with all his mind and might, we learn that every action or duty is accounted of by God, not according to the greatness of the worker, or outward show of the work, but according to the will and affection of the doer; it is the manner of doing that God more accepteth than the action or deed itself. A child in his obedience to his father is esteemed for his reverent, loving, obedient, and dutiful heart, and not for the greatness or worthiness of his work. For what can he do when he hath endeavoured to the utmost to pleasure his father? So it is with us, when we have done all that we can, we must confess we have been unprofitable servants, and therefore God more respecteth the intention than the action, the workman than the work, the affection than the effect.

2. Seeing only that duty which is done freely and not by compulsion deserveth due commendation, this reproveth all those things that are done upon wrong grounds and evil foundations. It is not enough to do a good thing, but we must do it well; it is not sufficient to do those things that are godly, but we must do them in a godly manner.

3. This confuteth those who ascribe all to the work done, and regard nothing at all either the mind of the doer or the manner of doing. Outward observations of religion will deceive us if we rest upon them and put our trust in them. If we perform a worship to God without the heart, we dishonour God, we deceive our own souls, and we increase our condemnation. We must make the house of God a paradise, or place of pleasure; we must make His word our meat and drink, and our continual hearing must be a daily refreshing unto our souls.

4. Seeing all Christian duties must be performed of us willingly, we are hereby guided and directed in our obedience, that we are not to hinder the necessary duties of Christianity belonging unto us by objecting fleshly reasons, as it were laying stumbling blocks in our own ways, to keep us back from a willing, free, and cheerful going forward in the works of our calling, and in the parts of God's worship.

(W. Attersoll.)

Apphia, Archippus, Aristarchus, Demas, Epaphras, Lucas, Luke, Marcus, Mark, Onesimus, Paul, Philemon, Timotheus, TimothyColossaeAction, Anything, Apart, Approval, Benefit, Compulsion, Consent, Deed, Effect, Favor, Forced, Free, Freely, Goodness, Heart, Kind, Mind, Necessity, Nothing, Order, Preferred, Pressure, Spontaneous, Voluntary, Willed, Willing, Willingly, Willingness, Wished, Works, Yours1. Paul rejoices to hear of the faith and love of Philemon,
8. whom he desires to forgive his servant Onesimus, and lovingly to receive him again.

Philemon 1:14

     5861   favour, human
     6672   grace, in relationships
     6696   necessity

Philemon 1:8-14

     5910   motives, examples

Philemon 1:8-16

     5524   servants, bad

Philemon 1:8-21

     5010   conscience, matters of
     7448   slavery, in NT

Philemon 1:10-21

     6682   mediation

Philemon 1:12-16

     5404   masters

The Epistles of the Captivity.
During his confinement in Rome, from a.d. 61 to 63, while waiting the issue of his trial on the charge of being "a mover of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5), the aged apostle composed four Epistles, to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians. He thus turned the prison into a pulpit, sent inspiration and comfort to his distant congregations, and rendered a greater service to future ages than he could have …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I

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