Philemon 1

How many masters has he who has forsaken the One! But let us not forsake Him. Who would forsake Him Whom they follow bound with chains indeed, but chains of love, which set free and do not bind, those chains in which they who are bound boast, saying: "Paul the bondservant of Jesus Christ, and Timothy." It is more glorious for us to be bound by Him, than to be set free and loosed from others. Who then would flee from peace? Who would flee from salvation? Who would flee from mercy? Who would flee from redemption?

In order to make the letter's authority from himself, he began by acknowledging his wrongdoing. Just as being bound is a disgrace because of sin, so on the contrary, for Christ to endure the chains of imprisonment is the greatest glory. For at the time he sent this letter, he was in custody. However, although Philemon was not a cleric, he nevertheless participated in the needs of the Church out of devotion, hence he says that he is a participant in these labors. For there are indeed many who, although worthy, excuse themselves, judging themselves unworthy of such a ministry; hence they appear truly worthy.

Philemon was not endowed with the dignity of ecclesiastical ordination, but he was an honorable man, one from the common people. For this reason, Onesimus, his servant and friend, writes him a letter; so that he may not only forgive him, but also give thanks to God; because he received him in such a way that he does not consider him a slave, but a most beloved brother.

Now concerning those bishops which have been ordained in our lifetime....Of Colossæ, Philemon. Of Borea in Macedonia, Onesimus, once the servant of Philemon. (7.4)

Those who refuse to receive among the Epistles of Paul the one which is written to Philemon say that the Apostle did not always, nor in all things, speak with Christ speaking in him. For, they argue, human weakness could not have borne the one unbroken course of the Holy Spirit; nor would the necessities of this poor body always be fulfilled in the presence of the Lord: such as arranging a meal, taking food, being hungry, being filled, digesting what has been taken in, replenishing what has been used up. I say nothing of the other things which they unfold in an elaborate and forced manner, so as to affirm that there was some time in which Paul would not dare to say: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20); and this: "Or do you seek a proof of him who speaks in me, Christ" (2 Cor. 13:3)? What sort of proof of Christ is it, they say, to hear: "The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come bring with you" (2 Tim. 4:13)? And this to the Galatians: "Would that they were even cut off who trouble you" (Gal. 5:12). And in this very Epistle: "But at the same time also prepare me a lodging". And this, they say, happened in like manner not only to the apostles but also to the prophets. Hence it is quite often found written: "The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel" (Ezek. 22), or to any other of the prophets, because after the prophecy had been completed, returning again into himself, he became an ordinary man instead of a prophet; and in no one except our Lord Jesus Christ did the Holy Spirit abide permanently. This sign John the Baptist too had received: that he upon whom he saw the Holy Spirit descending and remaining in him, he should know to be the one (John 1). From this he shows that the Holy Spirit indeed descends upon many, but that this is the distinctive mark of the Saviour, that he abides permanently in him. By these and other arguments of this kind they hold either that the Epistle which is written to Philemon is not Paul's, or that, even if it is Paul's, it has nothing that can edify us; and that it was rejected by most of the ancients, since it was written merely for the purpose of commending, not of teaching. But on the contrary, those who defend it as of genuine authority say that it would never have been received throughout the whole world by all the churches unless it were believed to be Paul the apostle's. And by this rule, they say, those men ought not to receive even the second Epistle to Timothy, and that to the Galatians, from which he himself also published examples of human weakness: "The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come bring with you"; and: "Would that they were cut off who trouble you". Very many things are found both in Romans and in the letters to the other churches, and especially to the Corinthians, dictated in a more relaxed way and in almost everyday speech, in which the Apostle says: "But to the rest I say, not the Lord". These too, because they contain something of the sort, must either not be thought epistles of Paul; or, if these are received, that to Philemon must also be received, on the precedent of similar letters already received. And those men, they say, err greatly and naively if they think that buying food, preparing a lodging, procuring clothes, is a sin, and assert that the Holy Spirit is put to flight if for a little while we serve the necessities of the poor body. "Do not", says the Apostle, "grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed in the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). By what works the Holy Spirit is grieved the prophet records, having set out many vices and sins in order, and adding at the end: "In all these you grieved me". Otherwise, would offering a cup of cold water, washing feet, sacrificing a calf, preparing a meal, be a sin, when we know that through these things certain people are adopted as sons of God? This is not the time to answer everything, since we have not brought forward everything that they are accustomed to propose. But if they do not think that small things belong to those who own the great things as well, then, according to Valentinus, Marcion and Apelles, they must bring in for me one Creator of the ant, of worms, gnats and locusts, and another of heaven, earth, sea and the angels. Or rather, is it not a mark of the same power not to withhold in lesser things also the skill which you have exercised in greater? And since we have made mention of Marcion, let them be taught that the Epistle to Philemon is Paul's at least on Marcion's authority. Although he either did not receive the other Epistles of the same Apostle, or changed and gnawed away certain things in them, on this one alone he did not dare to lay hands, because its brevity defended it. But they seem to me, while they accuse the epistle of simplicity, to betray their own lack of skill, not understanding what power and wisdom lies hidden in its individual words. These things, while you pray, and with the Holy Spirit himself, by whom they were written, prompting us, we shall try to explain in their places. But if brevity is held in contempt, let Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah and the others of the twelve prophets be despised, in whom the things that are related are so wonderful and so great that you would not know whether you ought to admire in them the brevity of the words or the greatness of the meanings. But if those who reject the Epistle to Philemon understood this, they would never despise brevity, which, in place of the long-trailing burdens of the Law, has been written with the beauty of the Gospel, since the Lord makes a word shortened and completed upon the earth. But now the very words of the Apostle are to be set down, which begin thus.

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy the brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow worker, and to Apphia the sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that is in your house: grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

You have been pleased to have me dictate to you on the Epistles of Paul in a back-to-front and inverted order. For when you, O Paula and Eustochium, often asked me to do it, and I stubbornly refused, you compelled me at least to discuss a short one, and one which seemed to you the last in sense and order as well as in the number of its verses. I shall therefore attempt at the end what belongs to the beginning. Another commentator would ask at once, in his introduction to the Apostle, why, or at what time, or by whose naming, he received the name of Paul in place of Saul. I am now compelled to do this, although before this day I had never dared to utter even a mu about him, as the saying goes. Nor indeed should it be thought, as the simpler Latins read it, that he was formerly called Saulus and not Saul; for he was of the tribe of Benjamin, in which this name was quite familiar. Indeed, that well-known Saul, king of Judea, the persecutor of David, was also of the tribe of Benjamin. But as for his being called Saulus by us, it is no wonder that Hebrew names are declined after the likeness of the Greek and Roman cases, so that just as Josephus is said for Joseph, and Jacobus for Jacob, so Saulus too is said for Saul in our language and speech. The question, then, is why, or at whose command, he either lost his old name or took a new one. That Abram should be called Abraham was accomplished by God's bidding (Gen. 17, etc.); that the name Sarai should become Sarah was likewise God's command. And to come to the New Testament: that Simon should receive the name of Peter (Mark 3), and that the sons of Zebedee should be called BANE REEM (בני רעם), that is, "sons of thunder", was ordained by the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ (ibid.). But why he was called Paul instead of Saul, no Scripture records. I shall therefore act boldly, but perhaps truly, in setting out my conjectures from the Acts of the Apostles. We read in them that the Holy Spirit said at Antioch: "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have taken them up. Then, fasting and praying and laying hands on them, they sent them away" (Acts 13:3 ff.). They went down to Seleucia of Syria and sailed to Salamis of Cyprus, which is now called Constantia. They had John with them in the ministry (on whose account a quarrel edifying to the Church was later stirred up). When they had travelled through the whole island and come as far as Paphos, they found a certain magician, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus, with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a prudent man. The proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God from them. So when the magician resisted and was perverting Sergius from the right faith, "Saul" (says Scripture) "who is also Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looking upon him said: O full of all guile and all deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, do you not cease to subvert the right ways of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and darkness fell upon him, and going about he sought someone to give him his hand. Then the proconsul, when he had seen what was done, believed, marvelling at the teaching of the Lord. And when Paul and those who were with him had sailed from Paphos, they came to Perga of Pamphylia". Note carefully that it is here that he first received the name of Paul. Scipio, having subdued Africa, took for himself the name of Africanus; Metellus, having subjugated the island of Crete, brought back to his family the distinction of Creticus; and Roman emperors down to the present day are styled Adiabenicus, Parthicus and Sarmaticus from the nations they have subdued. In the same way Saul, sent to preach to the Gentiles, brought back the trophies of his victory from the first spoil of the Church, the proconsul Sergius Paulus, and raised his standard, so that he was called Paul instead of Saul. But if the meaning of the name is also sought, Paul in Hebrew means "wonderful". And truly it is a wonder that after being Saul, which means "sought after" (because he had been demanded by the devil to harass the Church), he should become, from a persecutor, a vessel of election. This has been discussed at greater length perhaps than was fitting, but necessarily. As for what follows, prisoner of Jesus Christ: in no Epistle has he used this title, although in the body of the Epistles, namely those to the Ephesians, the Philippians and the Colossians, he testifies that he is in chains for his confession. And it seems to me a mark of greater loftiness to call himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ than an apostle. For the apostles gloried that they had been worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 5:41); but the authority of the chains was necessary. Since he was about to plead for Onesimus, he had to plead as one who could obtain what he asked. Happy indeed is he who glories not in wisdom, not in riches, not in eloquence and worldly power, but in the sufferings of Christ. With such words he also concludes his Epistle to the Galatians: "For the rest," he says, "let no one trouble me; for I bear the marks of our Lord Jesus Christ in my body" (Gal. 6). Not everyone who is a prisoner, however, is a prisoner of Christ. Whoever is bound for the name of Christ and for confessing him, he is truly called a prisoner of Jesus Christ; and only that shed blood makes a martyr which is poured out for the name of Christ. He writes to Philemon, then, as a prisoner in prison at Rome, at the time when, it seems to me, the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians were dictated. I place the Epistle to the Philippians there for this reason: first, because he writes with Timothy alone, as he also does in this Epistle. Next, because he says that his chains have become manifest for Christ throughout the whole praetorium. What the praetorium is, he indicates at the end of that same Epistle: "All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household". Sent to prison by Caesar and having become better known to his household, he made the persecutor's house a church of Christ. Then he says: "But some proclaim Christ out of contention, not sincerely, thinking to stir up affliction for my chains" (Phil. 1:17). Further, the opening to the Colossians is also similar: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy the brother". And in what follows: "Of which I, Paul, have been made a minister, who now rejoice in sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking of the sufferings of Christ, for his body, which is the Church" (Col. 1:2, 23, 24). And at the end: "My greeting by the hand of Paul. Be mindful of my chains" (Col. 4:18). I cite this so that we may know that these Epistles too were dictated from prison and in chains. But the Epistle to the Colossians has this peculiar feature, that the same Onesimus who is now commended to Philemon was also the bearer of that letter. Accordingly he says: "All that concerns me Tychicus will make known to you, the dearest brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent to you for this purpose, that he may know what concerns you and comfort your hearts, with Onesimus, the dearest and faithful brother, who is one of you" (ibid. 7, 8). Now Philemon, to whom this epistle is written, is the master of Onesimus, or rather has begun to be his brother in the Lord. And the Colossians are told that Onesimus is one of them. If so, reason itself and the order of things lead us to conclude two things: that Philemon too was a Colossian, and that Onesimus carried the letter common to the whole church at the same time as he took up the private letter commending him to his master. There is also another indication: in this same epistle Archippus too is named, to whom the present letter is written along with Philemon. "Say", he says, "to Archippus: See to the ministry which you have received from the Lord, that you fulfil it". What is the ministry which Archippus received from the Lord? In the letter to Philemon we read: "And to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that is in your house". From this I think that he was bishop of the Colossian church and is admonished to preside over it zealously and diligently, as a preacher of the Gospel. Or, if that is not so, this suffices me for the present: that Philemon and Archippus, and Onesimus himself who carried the letters, were Colossians, and that the four Epistles (as we said before) were written at the same time. I place the Epistle to the Ephesians there for this reason. Here too he says that he is a prisoner for Christ. At the end of this Epistle he also enjoins the same things he had commanded the Colossians: that wives be subject to their husbands, and husbands love their wives; that children obey their parents; that fathers not provoke their children to anger; that slaves obey their masters according to the flesh; that masters lay aside threats and grant their slaves what is just. And at the very end he concludes his Epistle thus: "What I am doing Tychicus will make known to you, the dearest brother and faithful minister in the Lord, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know what concerns me, and that he may comfort your hearts". Now Tychicus is the one who is also sent to the Colossians with Onesimus, and he had Onesimus as his travelling companion at the time when Onesimus was carrying the letter to Philemon.

And Timothy the brother. In other epistles Sosthenes and Silvanus are associated with him, and sometimes Timothy the brother. In only four is Timothy named alone, because they were dictated either at the same time, or with Timothy and the others present. I think this was done for a twofold reason. First, so that the Epistle might have greater authority, since it was not written by one man. Second, there was no rivalry among the apostles: if perhaps, while Paul was dictating, the Spirit had suggested something to another, Paul added it without any vexation to the letter he was dictating. He did so in accordance with what he himself enjoined on the Corinthians: if, while one is prophesying, something is revealed to another, he who was prophesying first should be silent (1 Cor. 14). Thus he too fulfilled his own precept in deed, and because of the few things he had added at another's suggestion, he headed the epistle as another's as well as his own. To Philemon, he says, the beloved. The Greek does not have ἠγαπημένῳ, which is rendered "beloved" (dilectus), but ἀγαπητῷ, that is, "lovable" (diligibilis). Between beloved (dilectus) and lovable (diligibilis) there is this difference: even one who does not deserve love can be called beloved, but only one who is loved for his merit is lovable. Thus we are commanded to love even our enemies, who are beloved, but not lovable. For we love them, not because they deserve to be loved, but because we are commanded not to hold them in hatred. Again, what is set down in the title of the forty-fourth Psalm, "for the beloved", is better in the Greek, "for the lovable"; and this passage is most plainly understood of Christ. The Jews think that Solomon is called IDIDIA (ידידיה), that is, "loved by God", because that name was given him by God on account of his wisdom (2 Sam. 12). Yet who can more truly be called loved by God than he of whom the Father speaks in the Gospel: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear him" (Luke 9:36)? So also in Isaiah it is written thus: "I will sing to the beloved a song of the lovable one for my vineyard. A vineyard was made for the beloved" (Isa. 5:1). The circumcision thought that this was to be understood of the Jewish people, and so struck against the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal. They did not reflect that the vineyard transplanted from Egypt is the house of Israel, and that it is Christ who is here called either lovable or beloved. For he both deserves to be loved by the saints, and the saints love him, offering him love rather than demanding any rewards for their love. Paul and Timothy therefore write to Philemon, dearest and fellow worker; he is called dearest for this reason, that he is engaged in the same work of Christ.

According to the Jews, Paul means "admirable"; Timothy, "beneficent"; Philemon, "wonderfully gifted" or "mouth of bread", from os "mouth", not os "bone"; Apphia, "continent" or "liberty"; Archippus, "length of work"; Onesimus, "answering"; Epaphras, "fruitful" and "seeing", or "growing up"; Mark, "exalted by commandment"; Aristarchus, "mountain of greater work"; Demas, "silent"; Luke, "himself rising up". If you wish to understand these names according to their meaning, it is not difficult to see that the admirable and beneficent one writes above all to him to whom all faults have been forgiven and whose mouth lies open to the heavenly bread. Next he writes to the continent woman, the free woman, and to the length of work, because he never desists from holy labour. He writes on behalf of him who answers to his own testimony. He writes also that greeting is given to him to whom the Epistle is specially dedicated, by growing fruitfulness. And the one who has been made more exalted through the commandments sends greeting, and the greeting comes from him who through greater works has grown up even into a mountain. It comes also from him who set a guard on his mouth and a fortified door on his lips, who perhaps kept silent for this reason, that he had for a little while abandoned the Apostle. And last, it comes from him who, rising up through himself, is daily increased and makes progress, while the world is filled with his Gospel, and he grows as often as, being heard and read, he edifies.

"Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ," saith he, "and Timothy the brother." Great is the designation of Paul: no title of principality and power, but he speaks of bonds and chains! Truly great indeed! Although many other things made him illustrious; his being caught up into the third heaven, his being transported to Paradise, his hearing unutterable words; yet he sets down none of these, but mentions the chain instead of all, for this made him more conspicuous and illustrious than these. And why so? Because the one were the free gifts of the Lord's lovingkindness; and the other the marks of the constancy and patience of the servant. But it is customary with those who love, to glory more in the things which they suffer for those who are beloved, than in the benefits they receive from them. A king is not so proud of his diadem, as Paul gloried in his chains. And very justly. For a diadem affords but an ornament to the crowned head; but the chain is a much greater ornament as well as a security.… But he, instead of all such titles, says, "Paul the prisoner." And very rightly. For those magisterial offices are no complete evidences of virtue in respect to the soul; for they are to be purchased by money, and obtained by the solicitations of friends; but this distinction that is obtained by bonds is a proof of the soul's love of wisdom, and the strongest sign of a longing for Christ.

These things are said to a master in behalf of a servant. Immediately at the outset, he has pulled down his spirit, and not suffered him to be ashamed, he has quenched his anger; calling himself a prisoner, he strikes him with compunction, and makes him collect himself, and makes it appear that present things are nothing. For if a chain for Christ's sake is not a shame but a boast, much more is slavery not to be considered a reproach. And this he says, not exalting himself, but for a good purpose doing this, showing thence that he was worthy of credit; and this he does not for his own sake, but that he may more readily obtain the favor. As if he had said, "It is on your account that I am invested with this chain." As he also has said elsewhere, there indeed showing his concern, but here his trustworthiness.

Nothing is greater than this boast, to be called "the stigmatized of Christ." "For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." (Gal. vi. 17.)

"The prisoner of the Lord." For he had been bound on His account. Who would not be struck with awe, who would not be humbled when he hears of the chains of Christ? Who would not be ready to give up even his own life, much less one domestic?

"And Timothy our brother."

He joins another also with himself, that he, being entreated by many, may the more readily yield and grant the favor.

"Unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellow-laborer."

If "beloved," then his confidence is not boldness nor forwardness, but a proof of much affection. If a "fellow-laborer," then not only may he be instructed in such a matter, but he ought to acknowledge it as a favor. For he is gratifying himself, he is building up the same work. So that apart from any request, he says, thou hast another necessity for granting the favor. For if he is profitable to the Gospel, and thou art anxious to promote the Gospel, then oughtest thou not to be entreated, but to entreat.

"Paul, a prisoner". Immediately from the opening words he instructs the master not to shame the servant. For all things, even chains, are good for Christ. And that it is right for grace to be given to the prisoner for Christ.

"and Timothy our brother". He includes Timothy as a partner in the supplication.

"to Philemon our beloved". If beloved, he will grant favor; if a coworker, he will not put the servant to shame in the service of the preaching. Onesimus, having been given, will also fulfill the work of the master Philemon.

The wearing of such chains would be a vile thing only if Paul refused them out of lack of concern for the salvation of others.

"Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." Straightaway from the very beginning he teaches the master not to be ashamed of his slave who has become a fellow slave. For on account of Christ all things are noble, even bonds, in which he himself also rejoices, so that he is even named after them. By this he strongly entreats, showing that it is only right to do a favor for one who is held in bonds for Christ.

"And Timothy the brother." As if considering himself not sufficient for the entreaty, he joins Timothy also as a fellow-petitioner, so that Philemon might yield to the request of many.

"Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker." If he is beloved, he will show mercy. If he is a fellow worker, he will not detain his servant, but will send him back again to the ministry of preaching, which he himself also serves. For the servant too will fulfill such a task of the master, if he is returned again.

'If you have a faithful servant, let him be to you as your own soul' (Sirach 33:31). The wise man shows three things concerning master and slave, namely, what is required on the side of the servant; what ought to be the feeling of the master towards the servant; and what is the use of the servant. From the servant fidelity is asked, for in this he is a good servant, because what he is and all that he has he ought to give to the master. Matthew 24:45: 'Who, do you think, is the faithful and prudent servant...' And he says, 'if he is faithful', because fidelity is found in few. Proverbs 20:6: 'But who shall find a faithful man?' The master ought to feel towards his servant as a friend, hence it is said, 'as his own soul'. For this is proper to friends, that they are of one mind in what they will and what they do not will. Acts 4:32: 'Now the multitude of the believers were of one heart and one soul.' By which we are given to understand that there is a consensus of master and servant, when the faithful servant becomes a friend. As for his use, he should be treated like a brother, for he is a brother, both with respect to generation of nature, because they have the same author — Job 31:13: 'If I have despised to abide judgement with my man-servant'; Malachi 2:10: 'Have we not all one father? Did not one God created us?' — and with respect to the generation of grace, which is the same for both. Galatians 3:27-28: 'For all you who have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor freeman; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.' Matthew 23:8: 'And all you are brothers.' These words are relevant to the matter of this epistle. For as it was shown above how spiritual prelates should relate to their subjects, so here he shows how temporal masters should relate to their temporal servants, and how the faithful servant to his master.

The occasion of the epistle is this. At Colossae an important Christian had a servant who secretly fled to Rome where he was baptized by the Apostle who now writes on his behalf. First he gives a greeting, followed by the narrative of the epistle. In the greeting he mentions persons who send their greeting and then the recipients and finally the good hoped for.

Therefore he says Paul, — a name to be revered by all the faithful who have been taught by him — a prisoner. 2 Timothy 2:9: 'in which I suffer even to bonds, as a criminal'. For now he is a prisoner in Rome, but of Christ Jesus, to give the reason for his chains. For it is highly praiseworthy to be imprisoned for the sake of Christ; for in this he is blessed. Matthew 5:10: 'Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice' sake...' 2 Peter 4:15: 'Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a slanderer, or as one coveting what belongs to others. But if he suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God under this name.' Acts 5.41: 'So they departed from the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.'

And our brother Timothy... They are brothers with regard to perfect faith. Philippians 2:20: 'For I have no one so like-minded who is so genuinely solicitous for you.' He joins Timothy to himself, that he might more easily succeed, because it is impossible that the prayers of many will not be heard.

Then he mentions the persons greeted. And first the principal person greeted, then others, particularly the husband and wife whose house it is, to whom the servant is obliged. To Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker, and to Appia, beloved sister... Beloved, he says on account of her good works. John 13:34: 'This is my command, that you love one another.' Fellow worker, because he ministers to the saints. Proverbs 18.19: 'A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city.'

However, although Philemon was not a cleric, he nevertheless participated in the needs of the Church out of devotion, hence he says that he is a participant in these labors. For there are indeed many who, although worthy, excuse themselves, judging themselves unworthy of such a ministry; hence they appear truly worthy.

They write also to Apphia the sister, who had in her nothing of a false and feigned sisterhood. And they write to Archippus the fellow soldier: I think that, fighting with Paul and Timothy against adversaries for the name of Christ, he proved victorious, and is therefore now called fellow soldier because he prevailed in the same contest and war. It is written also to the church that is in his house. But this is ambiguous: is it the church in the house of Archippus, or the one in the house of Philemon? It seems to me that it should be referred not to the person of Archippus but to that of Philemon, to whom the epistle itself is assigned. For although Paul and Timothy write jointly to Philemon, Apphia, Archippus and the church, yet what follows proves that Paul alone is writing to Philemon, one conversing with one: "I give thanks to my God always, and making remembrance of you". You will be able to find this manner of writing in a number of his epistles: several persons, writing to several, are set down in the preface, but afterwards, throughout the whole body of the Epistle, one alone is brought in as discoursing. Writing to the Galatians, the Apostle says that in the faith of Christ it makes no difference whether one is a Gentile or a Jew, man or woman, slave or free (Gal. 3:28); this too becomes clear in this place. For between two men, and apostolic men, between Paul's fellow worker and his fellow soldier, the name of Apphia is inserted in the middle, so that, supported on either side by such company, she may be seen to hold her rank by merit, not by sex.

"And to our beloved Apphia."

It seems to me that she was his partner in life. Observe the humility of Paul; he both joins Timothy with him in his request, and asks not only the husband, but the wife also, and some one else, perhaps a friend.

"And Archippus," he says, "our fellow-soldier."

Not wishing to effect such things by command, and not taking it ill, if he did not immediately comply with his request; but he begs them to do what a stranger might have done to aid his request. For not only the being requested by many, but the petition being urged to many, contributes to its being granted. And on this account he says, "And Archippus our fellow-soldier." If thou art a fellow-soldier, thou oughtest also to take a concern in these things. But this is the Archippus, about whom he says in his Epistle to the Colossians, "Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it." (Col. iv. 17.) It seems to me too, that he, whom he joins with him in this request, was also one of the Clergy. And he calls him his fellow-soldier, that he may by all means cooperate with him.

"And to the Church in thy house."

Here he has not omitted even the slaves. For he knew that often even the words of slaves have power to overthrow their master; and more especially when his request was in behalf of a slave. And perhaps it was they particularly who exasperated him. He does not suffer them therefore to fall into envy, having honored them by including them in a salutation with their masters. And neither does he allow the master to take offense. For if he had made mention of them by name, perhaps he would have been angry. And if he had not mentioned them at all, he might have been displeased. Observe therefore how prudently he has found a way by his manner of mentioning them, both to honor them by his mention of them, and not to wound him. For the name of the "Church" does not suffer masters to be angry, even though they are reckoned together with their servants. For the Church knows not the distinction of master and servant. By good actions and by sins she defines the one and the other. If then it is a Church, be not displeased that thy slave is saluted with thee. "For in Christ Jesus there is neither bond nor free." (Gal. iii. 28.)

He did not start off immediately by asking for grace, but he started off by admiring and applauding the man for his excellent love, and to praise him for his faith in the Lord, and also the other generous saints.

"and to Apphia our beloved, and Archippus". Perhaps Apphia was the wife of Philemon, and Archippus. But see the humility, for it also urges these to join in the supplication.

"our fellow soldier". If a fellow soldier, he also struggles in this. This is the one about whom he writes to the Colossians: Tell Archippus, "Take heed to the ministry which you have received." (Co. 4:17)

"and to the church in your house". He invites the whole household, and slaves.

Archippus is a deacon of the church, as suggested in Colossians 4:17.

Paul makes a point of greeting Philemon and Apphia equally. He wishes to indicate thereby that in no way is there a difference of faith or strength of faith between men and women.

Archippus was their son.

While keeping the social order here, Paul does not call some indiscriminate multitude "the church," but only those who are bound together in faith. This bond sets the frame for Paul's appeal in the letter.

"And to Apphia, (our) beloved (sister), and to Archippus, our fellow soldier." Perhaps Apphia was the wife (of Philemon), and Archippus a friend. If he is a fellow soldier, then he will take part in this as well. This was the very same (Archippus) about whom he writes in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received" (Col. 4:17).

"And your household church." The apostle calls "church" all the believers in the house (of Philemon), including even the slaves. Notice the humility — he appeals to them as well, so that they might assist him in his request.

Then he mentions Archippus our fellow soldier, who was so powerful at Colossae that all Christians were under his protection.

That is why he brings in the whole Church there, of which he was the bishop, writing in Colossians 4:17, 'And say to Archippus: "Look to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfil it."' And he calls Archippus 'fellow soldier' because all prelates are, as it were, spiritual soldiers of the Church. 2 Corinthians 10:4: 'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal...' And to the church... He adds this in order to move him to hear plainly the expected good that is set forth, as was customary.

The benefit of both the Father and the Son reveals the upliftment of the human race. It does not indicate a lesser Son when it calls him our Lord, nor a greater Father when it calls him our God. Because the Father will not be a true God unless he is also Lord, and the Son will not be a true Lord unless he is also God.

The grace of God, by which our sins are forgiven, is the condition of our being reconciled to Him, whereas peace is that wherein we are reconciled.

As for his saying, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, it is still written by two to several. In almost all the Epistles the opening is the same, calling down upon them grace and peace from God the Father and Christ the Lord. From this it is shown that the nature of the Son and of the Father is one, since the Son can bestow what the Father bestows, and the Father is said to bestow what the Son bestows. Now grace is that by which we are saved through no merit or work. Peace is that by which we have been reconciled to God through Christ, as in the passage: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20).

"Grace to you, and peace."

By mentioning "grace," he brings his own sins to his remembrance. Consider, he says, how great things God has pardoned in thee, how by grace thou art saved. Imitate thy Lord. And he prays for "peace" to him; and naturally: for it comes then when we imitate Him, then grace abides. Since even that servant who was unmerciful to his fellow-servants, until he demanded the hundred pence, had the grace of his master abiding on him. But when he made that demand, it was taken from him, and he was delivered to the tormentors.

"Grace to you". How then will the grace of God be with you? If you also forgive those who owe you. How then is peace? If you are reconciled to the servant.

In what way will the grace of God be with us? If we too forgive our debtors. And in what way will there be peace? If you too are reconciled with your servant.

I give thanks to my God always, making remembrance of you in my prayers, hearing of your love and the faith which you have in the Lord Jesus and in all his saints: that the sharing of your faith may become evident in the full knowledge of every good which is in you in Christ.

These words he now speaks not as Paul and Timothy to Philemon and the rest, but as Paul alone to Philemon alone: I give thanks, he says, to my God always making remembrance of you in my prayers. It is said ambiguously, however, whether he gives thanks to his God always, or makes remembrance of him in his prayers always. And both can be understood. For he who instructs others to give thanks to God in all things can be hemmed in by no straits so tight that he does not himself render thanks to God always. But if Paul always prayed for the saints and for all the better sort (and Philemon too is holy, having in himself such faith and love that he was known to him not only by report but also by deed), it is credible that Paul also prayed always for Philemon. He prayed, namely, that the faith and love which Philemon had in Christ and in all his saints might be preserved by Christ's mercy, through the sharing of faith and the operation of full knowledge in every good.

He does not immediately at the commencement ask the favor, but having first admired the man, and having praised him for his good actions, and having shown no small proof of his love, that he always made mention of him in his prayers, and having said that many are refreshed by him, and that he is obedient and complying in all things; then he puts it last of all, by this particularly putting him to the blush. For if others obtain the things which they ask, much more Paul. If coming before others, he was worthy to obtain, much more when he comes after others, and asks a thing not pertaining to himself, but in behalf of another. Then, that he may not seem to have written on this account only, and that no one may say, "If it were not for Onesimus thou wouldest not have written," see how he assigns other causes also of his Epistle. In the first place manifesting his love, then also desiring that a lodging may be prepared for him.

If ever "I" make "mention of you", I always do, "I give thanks to God" for you. Why? "Hearing of your love and faith", he says. Do you see that he does not immediately seek favor from the beginning?

"hearing of your love". which, if it were not great, would by no means be heard from Phrygia all the way to Rome.

Every time, he says, I remember you – and I remember you always when I pray – so many times I thank God for your virtue. What this virtue is, he explains further.

Then when he says, I give thanks to my God, the burden of the letter begins. First, he gives thanks; then he makes his plea, For this reason...; finally, he concludes, For I had great joy...

Again, first he expresses thanks; second he gives the reason for his gratitude: as I hear of your charity...; third, the reason why he thanks God: For I had great joy and consolation... I give thanks to my God. Colossians 3:15: 'Show yourself thankful.' Philippians 4.6: 'With thanksgiving let your petitions be made to God.' As if he said: I give thanks for past things in order that I might pray for future things. Therefore he says: always making remembrance of you in my prayers... Philippians 1:7: 'Because I have you in my heart, all of you, alike in my chains.' Isaiah 49:15: 'Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet will not I forget you.'

And concerning the love which he had in Christ Jesus and in all his saints, the interpretation is indeed not difficult: it is the love by which, after God, we bid [men] to love our neighbors too. Now the question is this: how can anyone have the same faith in Christ Jesus and in his saints? For, by ἀπὸ κοινοῦ, the phrase sounds both ways: the love which you have in the Lord Jesus and in all his saints, and the faith which you have in the Lord Jesus and in all his saints. To expound this passage let us take an example from Exodus: "The people believed God and Moses his servant" (Exod. 19). One and the same belief is directed to Moses and to God, so that the people who believed in the Lord is said to have believed equally in the servant. And this holds not only in Moses but in all his saints, so that whoever has believed God cannot receive faith in him in any other way unless he also believes in his saints. For that love and faith toward God is not perfect which is thinned by hatred and unbelief toward his ministers. What I mean is this. Someone has believed in God the Creator. He cannot believe unless he has first believed that what is written about his saints is true: that Adam was formed by God; that Eve was fashioned from his rib and side; that Enoch was translated; that Noah alone was saved when the world was shipwrecked; that Abraham, the first to be commanded to go out from his land and his kindred, left to his descendants the circumcision which he had received as a sign of the offspring to come; that Isaac was offered as a victim, and that a ram, sacrificed in his place and crowned with thorns, foreshadowed the Lord's passion; that Moses and Aaron afflicted Egypt with ten plagues; that at the voice and prayers of Joshua the son of Nun the sun stood still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Aijalon. It would be long to run through all the deeds of the Judges, and to draw the whole story of Samson to the mystery of the true sun (for that is what his name signifies). I shall come to the books of Kings: when at harvest time, at Samuel's entreaty, rains and streams suddenly poured down from heaven; and David was anointed king; and Nathan and Gad prophesied mysteries; when Elijah was caught up in a fiery chariot, and Elisha, with a double spirit, though dead raised the dead. Unless one has believed all these things and the rest that are written about the saints, he will not be able to believe in the God of the saints. Nor can he be brought to faith in the Old Testament unless he has accepted as true whatever the history narrates about the patriarchs and prophets and other distinguished men: so that from the faith of the Law he may come to the faith of the Gospel, and the righteousness of God may be revealed in him from faith to faith, as it is written: "But the just lives by faith" (Hab. 2). It is also commanded in another place: "Be holy, because I am holy, says the Lord your God" (Lev. 19:2). The same holiness is owed to the servants and to the Lord: for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one. Let us not think it slight praise of Philemon that he has the same faith in the saints as in God. He who believes God to be holy certainly does not err. But if anyone believes a man who is not holy to be holy, and joins him to fellowship with God, he violates Christ, of whose body we are all members. "He who says", he says, "that the just is unjust and the unjust just, both are abominable before God" (Prov. 7:15). Likewise he who says that the holy is not holy, and again asserts that the unholy is holy, is abominable before God. All believers, according to the Apostle, are made the body of Christ (1 Cor. 6). Whoever errs and slips with regard to the body of Christ, asserting that a member of it is holy when it is not, or not holy when it is holy, see what a charge he becomes liable to: "Woe", says Isaiah, "to those who call sweet bitter and bitter sweet, making darkness light and light darkness" (Isa. 5:20). Sweet, I think, is holiness; bitter is what is contrary to holiness. Likewise holiness can be understood as light, and darkness as what is contrary to holiness. Which of us, do you think, though a moneychanger skilled in testing coins, will not err in discerning the saints?

"Hearing," he says, "of thy love."

This is wonderful, and much greater than if being present he had seen it when he was present. For it is plain that from its being excessive it had become manifest, and had reached even to Paul. And yet the distance between Rome and Phrygia was not small. For he seems to have been there from the mention of Archippus. For the Colossians were of Phrygia, writing to whom he said, "When this Epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea." (Col. iv. 16.) And this is a city of Phrygia.

Here he praises him for his goodness. From Phrygia it would not have been heard in Rome about his love and faith, if it had not been great. Since you love all the saints, that is, the faithful, you should also love Onesimus, for he too is now a believer — so that through this you may show yourself as one who loves the Lord as well. Do you see what compelling thoughts he gathers in his mind toward the fulfillment of the request?

Stating the matter of his giving thanks and of his prayer, he shows what he asks when he prays for them. The matter of this was the needs and goods of Philemon, namely, both charity and faith. For without charity nothing avails and through it all things are had. 1 Corinthians 13:1: 'If I should speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have charity, I have become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.' Again, without faith no one can love God, because he does not truly know God. He makes no mention of hope, because it is midway between and is understood in the others. But in whom should they have faith and charity? In our Lord Jesus. 1 Corinthians 16:22: 'If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.' This is necessary, because from Christ more sweetly comes love for the members; because he who does not love the members, does not love the head. 1 John 4.20: 'For how can he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, love God, whom he does not see?'

And towards all the saints... Faith is based on doctrine insofar as it is manifested through Christ, 'because no one has seen God', John 1:18; and, 'You believe in God, believe also in me,' John 14:1. We have Christ, therefore, through faith. Towards all the saints can be understood in two ways. In one way, because from the faith they have in Christ proceed the prayers made for the saints. Or, faith consists principally in the divinity as it is announced by Christ, and not only by Christ, but also by the saints. Matthew 28:19: 'Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...' Therefore we ought to believe not only what was said by Christ but also what was said by the saints. Hebrews 2:3: 'For it was first announced by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by those who heard him.'

He who has equal love and faith in God and in his saints ought to have a sharing of that faith which is not unequal: so that as he believes and loves, so he may complete his love and faith in deed. Hence he says: May become evident in the full knowledge of every good; or, as it stands better in the Greek, "effective". For ἐνεργής can properly be rendered effective or operative: so that we may not merely believe that faith and love in God and in his saints can suffice for us, but that what we believe may be fulfilled in deed. It can happen, however, that someone has faith and completes it in deed, but simply and barely, without having full knowledge or knowledge of it, according to that saying of the Apostle: "I confess that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (Rom. 10:2). There are today many among the simple who do works of righteousness and have no knowledge of the things they themselves do. Hence he added: That the sharing of your faith may become operative in the full knowledge of every good. By what great steps and what great leaps does the apostolic word stretch itself toward higher things? Someone has love and faith in God and in his saints, but perhaps he does not share it with all in an equal balance. Perhaps he shares it with all, but does not carry it out in deed. Someone may fulfil it in will and in deed, yet he cannot have a perfect understanding of his own actions. Let there also be such a one as has both the work and the knowledge, yet he does not have the full knowledge of every good. For though he performs many things justly, gently and zealously, he is unequal in some part to his own virtues. Is not Philemon such a one? For he has the sharing of an operative faith and love in the full knowledge of every good. And since this is in the apostles, let us not think it perfect merely because it is in them, but entire in this, that it is Christ's. So whatever good is both praised in Philemon and taken from the example of the apostles is good for this reason, that it is drawn from the fountain of Christ.

I pray, he says, "that the communication of thy faith may become effectual in the knowledge of every good thing which is in Christ Jesus." Dost thou see him first giving, before he receives, and before he asks a favor himself bestowing a much greater one of his own? "That the communication of thy faith," he says, "may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus"; that is, that thou mayest attain all virtue, that nothing may be deficient. For so faith becomes effectual, when it is accompanied with works. For "without works faith is dead." (Jas. ii. 26.) And he has not said, "Thy faith," but "the communication of thy faith," connecting it with himself, and showing that it is one body, and by this particularly making him ashamed to refuse. If thou art a partaker, he says, with respect to the faith, thou oughtest to communicate also with respect to other things.

"that the fellowship of your faith". It unites him to himself, just as if he said: Fellowship of faith is that which makes one and common. But why do you give thanks to God? So "that the" "fellowship of your faith", he says, "may become effective". But how will it be effective? If it proceeds to every work of virtue. Blessed Paul interprets himself. But how will it be "effective"? By this, that you have "the knowledge" and accomplish "every good thing".

"that is in us". He says that which is now also in us. (Matt. 25:40)

"for Christ Jesus". For whoever does good to someone, does it to Christ, especially to the saints.

I thank, says the apostle, God for your love, praying also that your faith, which you have in common with us, may be effective — active and living in your knowledge of every good work, that is, that you may love it and put it into practice. For faith is alive when we are diligent in every good work, just as it is dead when it is without good works. He added "which is in you" to show that even now Philemon already has every good work in himself, as if saying: (in the knowledge) of every good work even now in you, that is, already existing in you. Having said "the communion of faith," St. Paul unites Philemon with himself and makes them one. The faith is common and unifying, so that you must also be of one mind with me. Or by the communion of faith he means almsgiving, which comes from great faith. Thus the apostle says: I make mention of you, praying that your generous and bountiful disposition may never cease, but more and more may you pour out upon those in need every good thing "which is in you," that is, which you have.

To Christ Jesus, he says, is credited every good thing that you do for those in need, especially the saints. So also now, if you receive Onesimus and do me this kindness, you will have done it for Christ Himself.

May the sharing of your faith... This is shared in two ways. In one way, that it might be a sign. Be made evident in full knowledge... That is, so great is your charity, that the sharing of your faith... I give thanks... always making remembrance... That he might show what he seeks for him in praying. And the sharing of the faith can be understood in two ways. Either because in faith they share with all the saints, not having any new faith, like heretics. 1 Corinthians 1:10: 'That you all say the same thing.' Or, sharing, whereby you share good things with the saints, proceeding from faith. 1 Timothy 6:17: 'Charge the rich of this world not to be proud, or to trust in the uncertainty of riches, but in God, who provides all things in abundance for our enjoyment.'

Made evident in full knowledge... That is, that the good hidden in the heart become evident in good works. In full knowledge of all the good that is in you... And this in Christ Jesus. James 2:18: 'Show me your faith without works, and I from my works will show you my faith.' Or, there are in the world many works which are good for men, and yet are not good for God, because they do not come about rightly. Proverbs 14:12: 'There is a way which seems just to a man: but in the end it leads to death.' Ecclesiastes 8:10: 'I saw the wicked buried: who also when they were yet living were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as men of just works.' But this is manifested through correct faith, when reward comes from God, who only rewards the righteous. Therefore he says made evident in full knowledge, that is, that this might be made evident, that you might know every good. Or that all the good that is in you might become known, which is the fruit of divinity. Exodus 33:19: 'I will show you all good.' Wisdom 7:11: 'Now all good things come to me together with her.'

It is evident that he expresses himself as being joyful because he was ministering to the needs of the saints: from which he rejoices even more, being certain that he was obeying his commands, whom he knows to be superior.

For we have had great joy and consolation in your love, because the bowels of the saints have found rest through you, brother.

He drives home and explains more fully why he had said: "I give thanks to my God, always making remembrance of you in my prayers". For it was indeed fitting to give thanks to God for the love of Philemon, who, by receiving them, had refreshed the inner affection of the heart and the deep recesses of the saints' souls. And this is an apostolic idiom: he always says "bowels" when he wishes to show the full love of the mind. Therefore, rejoicing with those who rejoice, and believing that he himself had been refreshed along with those who had found rest, he has a joy that is not passing and light, nor such as might come about by chance. It is great, and as surpassing as the love that was in Philemon. That joy was increased by the consolation over Philemon's love, a consolation coming down, full, from the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.

Nothing so shames us into giving, as to bring forward the kindnesses bestowed on others, and particularly when a man is more entitled to respect than they. And he has not said, "If you do it to others, much more to me"; but he has insinuated the same thing, though he has contrived to do it in another and a more gracious manner.

"I had joy," that is, thou hast given me confidence from the things which thou hast done to others. "And consolation," that is, we are not only gratified, but we are also comforted. For they are members of us. If then there ought to be such an agreement, that in the refreshing of any others who are in affliction, though we obtain nothing, we should be delighted on their account, as if it were one body that was benefited; much more if you shall refresh us also. And he has not said, "Because thou yieldest, and compliest," but even more vehemently and emphatically, "because the bowels of the Saints," as if it were for a darling child fondly loved by its parents, so that this love and affection shows that he also is exceedingly beloved by them.

"we have great joy". Not only, Paul says, did we rejoice, but such was the pleasure that it even brought us comfort while in bonds.

"because the hearts of the saints". See! He wishes to say: If you grant favors to others, much more grant them to me; thus he does not say; but otherwise more skillfully. For he knows the memory of benefits done to others makes those who are urged more obedient.

"have been refreshed through you". For, Paul says, they find rest in your love. They rest because of you. Since you are such a one toward the saints as to also give them rest, I have the boldness to command you. Having boldness because of Christ; to command you a fitting thing; for this is what is proper. But I said to command, not because I rule over you, but because of the love which I love you and am loved by you, I seem to command, but I do not command. For even if I appear to command you, it is out of love that I do not command but rather encourage. Thus, I do the matter with great regard. Being such a one, as Paul an elder. And I exhort, being such a one as one ought to be, he says, to persuade.

That is, we have joy, and not only joy, but also great consolation in bonds on account of your love, that is, your compassionate and generous disposition of heart.

Very wisely the apostle undertakes the matter, reminding him of his benefactions to others, in order to soften him all the more, while he considers that if he gives to others, to strangers, then all the more he ought to do this for Paul, his teacher. And he did not simply say: "you give to the saints," but you refresh "the hearts of the saints," that is, that they wholeheartedly receive your kindness, as it is offered to them generously and with comforting hospitality.

The reason he gives thanks is joy. And he says, For I had great joy and consolation... 3 John 4: 'I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.' For this joy alleviates anxiety. That is why he adds consolation. Psalm 94:19: 'When anxieties are increased in my heart, your comfortings delight my soul.' He explains why, saying because through you, brother, the hearts of the saints have found rest. Colossians 3:12: 'Put on, therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience.' 3 John 2: 'Beloved I pray that in all things you may prosper and be in health...'

As much as reason required, it was fitting to command a disciple as a master by the authority of the apostolic faith: but because Philemon was a good man, he entices him through affection to obedience, as if he were a companion in age, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ, that is, bound by the affairs of the Lord, or subject to his name in chains, just as the apostles themselves were. For indeed, there were Judas and Silas, who were leaders among the brothers, being from the common people, they had committed themselves to the Lord's work (Acts 15:22 and following); so that they could work together with the apostles for the sake of faith in God. Hence, Silas is found to be a partner in the apostle's labors.

I do not issue orders to you, as if I were some great person. For though I am bound for the name [of Christ], I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. For now I begin to be a disciple, and I speak to you as fellow-disciples with me. For it was needful for me to have been stirred up by you in faith, exhortation, patience, and long-suffering. But inasmuch as love suffers me not to be silent in regard to you, I have therefore taken upon me first to exhort you that ye would all run together in accordance with the will of God. For even Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the [manifested] will of the Father; as also bishops, settled everywhere to the utmost bounds [of the earth], are so by the will of Jesus Christ.

Wherefore, having much confidence in Christ Jesus to command you what is profitable for love's sake, I rather beseech, since you are such a one, as Paul an old man, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

Many praises of Philemon have been set out beforehand. The matter for which he is asked is also such as to be useful both to the one who grants it and to the one who asks. Paul therefore could have commanded rather than requested. This came from that confidence: one who had accomplished such great works for Christ's sake could surely not be unequal to himself in other matters. But he prefers to ask rather than to order, having first set forth the great authority of the one who asks, by which it is at once the Apostle who beseeches, and an old man, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Now the whole matter for which he asks is this. Onesimus, Philemon's slave, heaping theft upon flight, had pilfered certain things belonging to the household. Setting out from there for Italy, so that he could not be caught so easily close at hand, he had squandered his master's money in riotous living. Lest anyone think this rashly said and invented by us at our pleasure, let him learn it from what follows. For Paul would never say: "If he has done you any harm or owes you anything, charge this to me: I Paul have written it with my own hand, I will repay." Nor would he become guarantor for property taken away unless what had been taken had been squandered. This man, then, when Paul was in prison at Rome for confessing Christ, believed in Christ. Baptized by him, he wiped away the stains of his former life by a worthy penitence, so much so that the witness of his conversion was that apostle who had once rebuked Peter for not walking with a straight foot in the truth of the Gospel (Gal. 2). So far, therefore, as concerns the sin and the crime by which he had wronged his master, he does not deserve pardon. But so far as concerns the testimony of the Apostle, who knows him to be fully converted, great weight presses upon the one who is asked, that the man who from a runaway slave and robber had been made a minister of the Apostle (and what other ministry does the Apostle have but that of the Gospel of Christ Jesus?) should now be pardoned, no longer as by a master but as by a fellow servant and fellow evangelist, since he was likewise a servant and minister of Christ.

Observe how cautious he is, lest any of the things which were spoken even from exceeding love should so strike the hearer, as that he should be hurt. For this reason before he says, "to enjoin thee," since it was offensive, although, as spoken out of love, it was more proper to soothe him, yet nevertheless from an excess of delicacy, he as it were corrects it by saying, "Having confidence," by which he implies that Philemon was a great man, that is "Thou hast given confidence to us." And not only that, but adding the expression "in Christ," by which he shows that it was not that he was more illustrious in the world, not that he was more powerful, but it was on account of his faith in Christ,-then he also adds, "to enjoin thee," and not that only, but "that which is convenient," that is, a reasonable action. And see out of how many things he brings proof for this. Thou doest good to others, he says, and to me, and for Christ's sake, and that the thing is reasonable, and that love giveth...

"Paul". And this alone is sufficient to persuade,

"the aged, but now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ". Do you see the motives for persuading?

Since, he says, you are such toward all the saints, that their hearts are refreshed by you, all the more I in Christ, that is, as having begotten you in Christ, I had boldness to command you, not as your master, but out of the love which I have for you and you for me. "That which is fitting," either — he commands you what is fitting, that is, that you fulfill what I need; or — that you honor all the saints: therefore I also, in accordance with what is fitting, that is, what falls to my lot, I had boldness to command you, yet I beseech. For I have such a necessary matter as to entreat you.

Then when he says For this reason, he makes his plea. And first he states the confidence with which he asks; second, the petition itself, I plead with you...; third, his reason, Perhaps, indeed... He says, For this reason, that is, because you so abound in charity, I have great trust in Christ Jesus, as if to say, not from me, but from the authority of Jesus Christ, in which faith I gave birth to you. Therefore, I could command you as a father both concerning your own and common matters. Otherwise a prelate would not have had the power to command what was for his usefulness, or the Church's, or of the good morals of the Christian religion.

He is called younger still, who had not yet reached the mature age of the white-haired faith, who had not yet grown into a perfect man, into that full measure of the age of the fullness of Christ (Eph. IV, 13). Finally, he is only called young there (Acts VII, 57), where he was keeping the garments of those stoning Stephen. And for this reason, he desired Philemon to be like him not in his youth but in his old age, as he wrote: I beg you even more, now that I am old like Paul (Philem. 9). Therefore, he advises that younger widows should be avoided (I Tim. V, 11), not because of their age but because of a certain lasciviousness of youthful transgressions and immaturity of virtue. However, there is greater praise for chastity in a young person than in an old person.

As much as reason required, it was fitting to command a disciple as a master by the authority of the apostolic faith: but because Philemon was a good man, he entices him through affection to obedience, as if he were a companion in age, and a prisoner of Jesus Christ, that is, bound by the affairs of the Lord, or subject to his name in chains, just as the apostles themselves were. For indeed, there were Judas and Silas, who were leaders among the brothers, being from the common people, they had committed themselves to the Lord's work (Acts 15:22 and following); so that they could work together with the apostles for the sake of faith in God. Hence, Silas is found to be a partner in the apostle's labors.

As there are chains of coercion, so too there are chains of love, as the Lord says: "I drew them with chains of love." For indeed great are these chains, and chains of ineffable love, for those who are bound with them rejoice in their fetters. Do you want to know whether this is true? Hear how the Apostle Paul exults and rejoices in his chains, when he says: "I therefore a prisoner in the Lord beseech you." And again: "I beseech thee, whereas thou art such an one as Paul the aged, and now a prisoner also of Jesus Christ." You see how he rejoiced in the dignity of his chains, by the example of which he actually stirred up others. But there can be no doubt that where there is single-minded love of the Lord, there is also single-minded delight in chains worn for the Lord's sake: as it is written: "But the multitude of the believers was of one heart and one soul."

As if he had said, I know indeed that I can effect it by commanding with much authority, from things which have already taken place. But because I am very solicitous about this matter, "I beseech thee." He shows both these things at once; that he has confidence in him, for he commands him; and that he is exceedingly concerned about the matter, wherefore he beseeches him.

"Being such an one," he says, "as Paul the aged." Strange! how many things are here to shame him into compliance! Paul, from the quality of his person, from his age, because he was old, and from what was more just than all, because he was also "a prisoner of Jesus Christ."

For who would not receive with open arms a combatant who had been crowned? Who seeing him bound for Christ's sake, would not have granted him ten thousand favors? By so many considerations having previously soothed his mind, he has not immediately introduced the name, but defers making so great a request. For you know what are the minds of masters towards slaves that have run away; and particularly when they have done this with robbery, even if they have good masters, how their anger is increased. This anger then having taken all these pains to soothe, and having first persuaded him readily to serve him in anything whatever, and having prepared his soul to all obedience, then he introduces his request, and says, "I beseech thee," and with the addition of praises, "for my son whom I have begotten in my bonds."

Paul shows here what power his name alone has.

Being such an ambassador, he says, I am worthy of being heard, as befits Paul the aged, that is, one who has authority both by virtue of his teaching dignity and by his age, and who has now received yet another, more important distinction — namely, being in chains for Christ. Do you see how many grounds for persuasion there are?

Yet for the sake of charity I prefer to plead... Proverbs 18:23: 'The poor will speak with supplications...' And why? Since you are such as you are.

There are two things on account of which one ought to plead. Because of old age. 1 Timothy 5:1: 'Do not reproach an old man, but ask him as a father.' Again, because of the honourableness of virtue, for where we are not deficient, we are equals. Sirach 32:1: 'Have they made you ruler? Be not lifted up: be among them as one of them.' Therefore he says, since you are such as you are, as Paul, an old man, as if to say, if you were a boy, I would demand this of you, but you too are old. You are of the same stage of life as I. Not that they are such and so much simply speaking, but in a way similar, which he says out of his humility. Romans 12:10: 'anticipating one another with honour'. Origen said that it is rare to find a useful teacher in the Church who is not old, thinking of Peter and Paul.

It is not a great thing to humble oneself when one is lowly, but it is commendable for a noble man to humble himself. Therefore, the Apostle asks him, to whom he has the authority to command, to be in all things a model for the advancement of merits. Therefore, when Onesimus, a fugitive, returned to seek divine assistance, the Apostle baptized him while he was in custody in the city of Rome, seeing the hope of usefulness in him.

Of Borea in Macedonia, Ones Imus, once the servant of Philemon.

I beseech you for my son, whom I have begotten in chains, Onesimus, who was once unprofitable to you, but now is profitable both to you and to me: whom I have sent back to you. But do you receive him, that is, my bowels, whom I had wished to keep with me, so that in your stead he might minister to me in the chains of the Gospel.

Wishing to obtain what he asks, he declares that he is now pleading not for Philemon's slave but for his own son, and for that son whom he had begotten in the chains of the Gospel, that is, the chains he was enduring for the Gospel of Christ. Before, this man had been unprofitable only to his master (for a slave who is a thief and a runaway has harmed no one but his master). Now, on the contrary, he is useful to his master himself and to Paul, and through Paul to the rest. By this compensation of usefulness he deserves more love than he had before deserved hatred. Hence he says: Who was once unprofitable to you. To you, he says, alone, not to the rest; but now profitable both to me and to you. He is profitable to his master in this, that he could also serve Paul in his master's stead; and profitable to Paul in this, that while Paul was held in prison and in chains, he could minister to him in the Gospel. At the same time we must marvel at the greatness of soul of the Apostle, and at his mind burning toward Christ. He is held in prison, he is bound tight with chains, he is hemmed in by the squalor of his body, by separation from those dear to him, by the darkness of punishment; and yet he does not feel the injury, he is not tormented by pain, he knows nothing else but to think about the Gospel of Christ. He knew that a slave, he knew that a runaway, he knew that one who had once been a robber had been converted to the faith of Christ. It is a matter of great labor for such a man to persevere in what he has begun. Therefore he presses home and repeats "his son," and "the son of his chains," and "the minister of the Gospel to one placed in chains." He does this so that Philemon, whom he had prudently and by way of accommodation praised so highly in the preface, would not dare to refuse, lest he seem unworthy of his own praises.

And mark, on the other hand, the fervency of Paul also. Bound, scourged, thus he preached the Gospel. Oh, that blessed chain, with how great travail did it travail that night, what children did it bring forth! Yea of them too may he say, "Whom I have begotten in my bonds." Mark thou, how he glories, and will have the children thus begotten, to be on that account the more illustrious! Mark thou, how transcendant is the glory of those bonds, in that they give lustre not only to him that wore them, but also to them who were on that occasion begotten by him. They have some advantage, who were begotten in Paul's bonds, I say not in respect of grace, (for grace is one and the same,) nor in respect of remission, (for remission is one and the same to all,) but in that they are thus from the very outset taught to rejoice and to glory in such things.

Again the chains are mentioned to shame him into compliance, and then the name. For he has not only extinguished his anger, but has caused him to be delighted. For I would not have called him my son, he says, if he were not especially profitable. What I called Timothy, that I call him also. And repeatedly showing his affection, he urges him by the very period of his new birth, "I have begotten him in my bonds," he says, so that on this account also he was worthy to obtain much honor, because he was begotten in his very conflicts, in his trials in the cause of Christ.

Indeed the epistle was written in behalf of the slave, and having returned him, though he had done wrong, he was improving through the Apostle's teaching. Now many have benefitted from it, indeed, first and foremost those who are zealous. For if Paul makes such great haste for the fugitive and repentant thief, how much more shall we not be lazy for the brethren. Secondly, one must not give up on the servile class, even if it strains the uttermost limits of wickedness. Oh how the thief and fugitive became so virtuous! Thirdly, its not appropriate for slaves to run away from their masters. For if Paul now insures Philemon that Onesimus was now thankful to serve him and not wishing to defy his superior, how much more should we ought not to do it. For if the wonderful servant is still fit to remain in his job, and their masters realize it, then he may be useful in everything else in the household.

Paul mentions Philemon first, praising the servant as a beloved child, because he says he also baptized him. For this is the one, "I have begotten while in my chains." Therefore, having calmed his anger through these things, he thus gives the name "Onesimus", he says.

Now Paul uses the name of Onesimus, but only after signaling the profound change that has occurred [i.e., Onesimus's conversion].

He has not yet mentioned the name of the one on whose behalf he is interceding. He first softens Philemon with praise of the servant, calling him his son. Why does he call him so? Because, he says, I begot him, that is, I instructed him with the Gospel and commanded that the one who believed be baptized, and this in difficult circumstances: in chains. Having thus softened his heart, he finally mentions the name.

Having expressed his confidence in Philemon's goodness, here he states his request. And first he indicates the person on whose behalf he pleads; second, he concludes the request. The first is subdivided into two, because first by describing the person he shows that he has received him in spiritual birth; second, by a change of status. Therefore he says, I plead with you for my own son, whom I have begotten in prison, for Onesimus, who is his present concern. And acquiring a son in default of time, he loves him more, as an old man loves sons born to him in his old age. Genesis 37:3: 'Now Israel loved Joseph above all his sons, because he had him in his old age.' This one [Onesimus] was given birth in chains.

Therefore, when Onesimus, a fugitive, returned to seek divine assistance, the Apostle baptized him while he was in custody in the city of Rome, seeing the hope of usefulness in him. He commends him in such a way that he indicates his suitability to serve in secular as well as divine duties, having been transformed from useless to useful.

All bound slaves who flee to religious communities for refuge should be admonished and sent back to their masters in better dispositions, after the example of St. Paul who, although he had begotten Onesimus through the gospel, sent him back to Philemon. He had convinced Onesimus that the yoke of slavery, borne in a manner pleasing to the Lord, would render him worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Paul not only urged Philemon to annul the threat against his servant, being mindful of the Lord's own words: "If you forgive men their offenses, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offenses." But also, in order that Philemon might be more kindly disposed toward Onesimus, Paul writes: "For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from you that you might receive him again forever; not as a servant, but instead of a servant, as a most dear brother." If, however, it should be the case of a wicked master who gives unlawful commands and forces the slave to transgress the command of our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is our duty to oppose him, so that the name of God not be blasphemed by that slave's performing an act displeasing to God.

See how great is his prudence, how he confesses the man's faults, and thereby extinguishes his anger. I know, he says, that he was unprofitable.

"But now" he will be "profitable to thee and to me."

He has not said he will be useful to thee, lest he should contradict it, but he has introduced his own person, that his hopes may seem worthy of credit, "But now," he says, "profitable to thee and to me." For if he was profitable to Paul, who required so great strictness, much more would he be so to his master.

"formerly useless to you". For he knows that the acknowledged sin is to extinguish the master's anger.

"but now indeed useful both to you and to me". If such faithfulness is useful to Paul, who demands so much, it is clearly also useful to Philemon.

"He was once useless to you." He knows that confession of sin extinguishes wrath; therefore he speaks thus.

"But now is useful both to you and to me; I am sending him back." Since he became pious and holy, and therefore, he says, he is useful to both of us. If he is useful to Paul, who requires such great zeal, then certainly to Philemon as well. At the same time, he also implies that if he is useful to me, then he ought to be sent back to me. That is, I hand him over to you; use him as you wish. By handing him over, he all the more appeases his anger.

Second, there is the change in status. For if he had persevered in sin, he would not be worthy of leniency. Note that Paul says little and means much. For as Cicero taught, one ought to make little of one's own deed as much as possible. Thus the Apostle speaks lightly of his offence, saying, He once was useless to you, that is, harmful in taking away your possession, but now, converted from evil to the state of virtue, he is useful for the service of God and man. 2 Timothy 2:21: 'If anyone, therefore, has cleansed himself from these, he will be a vessel for honourable use...' Proverbs 25:4: 'Take away the rust from silver, and there shall come forth a most pure vessel.'

As for his saying: But do you receive him, that is, my bowels, this is what I said a little earlier: bowels signify the inner affection of the heart and a full and heartfelt will, when the one who is asked receives everything whatever that is in us. Otherwise, all children are the bowels of their parents.

By this also he has quenched his anger, by delivering him up. For masters are then most enraged, when they are entreated for the absent, so that by this very act he mollified him the more.

"Thou therefore receive him, that is mine own bowels."

And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that might move him, which is more affectionate than son. He has said, "son," he has said, "I have begotten" him, so that it was probable he would love him much, because he begot him in his trials. For it is manifest that we are most inflamed with affection for those children, who have been born to us in dangers which we have escaped, as when the Scripture saith, "Woe, Barochabel!" and again when Rachel names Benjamin, "the son of my sorrow." (Gen. xxxv. 18.)

"Thou therefore," he says, "receive him, that is mine own bowels." He shows the greatness of his affection. He has not said, Take him back, he has not said, Be not angry, but "receive him"; that is, he is worthy not only of pardon, but of honor. Why? Because he is become the son of Paul.

"whom I have sent back". To hand Onesimus over to the master, rather extinguished his anger.

"to receive him as my very heart". What do I mean by "receive him"? Receiving this one, you will receive my own very "heart". Thus he says, I love him as one calls him his own "heart". And "receive" means to accept with love.

That is, receive him with love, or rather not him, but my very heart, for so much do I love him and carry him in my soul.

Then when he says, I am sending him back to you, he makes his request. First, he makes it, then he answers a question: I had wanted to keep him here. And so he says, and do you welcome him as though he were my very heart. And this because I have seen him changed, the sign of which is, I send him back to you. On the contrary, Deuteronomy 23:15: 'Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to you.' I reply that is true when the master seeks him in order to put him to death. Therefore, he says, I did not want to do anything... Philippians 1:7: 'I have the right to feel so about you, because I have you in my heart, all of you, alike in my chains.'

Dost thou see after how much previous preparation, he has at length brought him honorably before his master, and observe with how much wisdom he has done this. See for how much he makes him answerable, and how much he honors the other. Thou hast found, he says, a way by which thou mayest through him repay thy service to me. Here he shows that he has considered his advantage more than that of his slave, and that he respects him exceedingly.

"so that he might serve me in the chains of the gospel on your behalf". Do you see that Paul has brought the master to the very place, little by little? For he says that "he serves me on your behalf". Here he shows that he wishes what is more advantageous for the master. For if you say that you ought to serve, and he does this instead of you, the benefit is yours.

"in the chains of the gospel". In chains for the sake of the Gospel.

Paul indicates that had he kept Onesimus, the result would have been that he could serve Paul as an extension of Philemon's service and thus have been a source of gain for Philemon.

Pay attention to the wisdom of the apostle, how he gradually placed him (the servant) in the position of the master. "That in thy stead," he says, "he might minister unto me." He also shows that he desires the benefit of the master. If, he says, you are obligated to minister to me, and he does this in your stead, then clearly this is gain for you.

And he responds to a question, because it might be said if he is useful to you, why do you not keep him unto death? And he gives the reason for sending him back. First, he considers why he might keep him; second, why he rejects that idea: but I did not want to do anything without your counsel. Therefore, he says to Philemon who, although he is a great man, is accustomed to minister to the Apostle. Matthew 20:26: 'On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.' Out of this confidence he proposed to keep him, so that in place of Philemon he might minister to him. I had wanted to keep him here with me that in your stead he might wait on me in my imprisonment for the Gospel. This was something especially needed since he was in chains for the sake of Christ, for one is provided for when he suffers for his master.

And addressing himself to Philemon, Paul says: "that your kindness may not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary." … Now wherever there is the express statement not to do this or that, and whenever the performance of the will is required to do or refrain from some action, in keeping with God's commandments, that is sufficient proof of the free choice of the will. Let no one, therefore, blame God in his heart whenever he sins, but let him impute the sin to himself.

But without your counsel I wished to do nothing, so that your good might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary.

The question asked by very many, and very often taken up again, is why God, in making man, did not create him good and upright. It can be resolved from the present passage. For if God is good voluntarily, and not of necessity, then in making man he ought to have made him after his own image and likeness, that is, so that man too would be good voluntarily, and not of necessity. But those who assert that he ought to have been made such that he could not admit evil are saying this: he ought to have been made such that he would be good by necessity, and not by will. Yet if he had been made such as to accomplish good not by will but by necessity, he would not be like God, who is good because he wills it, not because he is compelled. From this it is manifest that they are demanding two things contrary to each other. For when they say, 'Man ought to have been made like God,' they are asking that he be made with free will, as God himself is. But when they infer, 'He ought to have been made such that he could not admit evil,' they impose upon him a necessity of good, and so they want man not to be made like God. So the Apostle Paul too could have kept Onesimus with him for his ministry without Philemon's will. But if he had done this without Philemon's will, it would indeed have been good, but not voluntary. And what was not voluntary would be shown on another ground not to be good. For nothing can be called good except what is spontaneous. From this we should consider the prudence of the Apostle: he sends the runaway slave back to his master for this reason, that he may be of profit to his master. He could not be of profit if he were kept while his master was absent. The question above, then, is resolved thus: God could have made man good without man's will. But if he had done this, the good would not have been voluntary, but of necessity. And what is good by necessity is not good, and on another ground is shown to be evil. Therefore, by leaving us to our own free choice, he made us all the more after his own image and likeness. And to be like God is absolutely good.

This particularly flatters the person asked, when the thing being profitable in itself, it is brought out with his concurrence. For two good effects are produced thence, the one person gains, and the other is rendered more secure. And he has not said, That it should not be of necessity, but "as it were of necessity." For I knew, he says, that not having learnt it, but coming to know it at once, thou wouldest not have been angry, but nevertheless out of an excess of consideration, that it should "not be as it were of necessity."

"without your consent". This was especially humiliating for him, that he did not do something so necessary for him without your consent.

"so that your good deed would not be forced but voluntary". Paul did not say, "By force," but, "would not be forced;" as if he had said, "I knew that even against your will, forcing Onesimus on you, I would not cause you pain. But so that it may not seem to be done by force, I was not willing," he says.

God does not tyrannize but rules, and when he rules, he does not coerce but encourages and he wishes that those under him yield themselves willingly to his direction so that the good of someone may not be according to compulsion but according to his free will. This is what Paul with understanding was saying to Philemon in the letter to Philemon concerning Onesimus: "So that your good be not according to compulsion but according to free will." Thus, the God of the universe hypothetically might have produced a supposed good in us so that we would give alms from "compulsion" and we would be temperate from "compulsion," but he has not wished to do so.

It is to be noted that he wished no one to do anything good by necessity, lest that person lose the reward of freely choosing to do the right thing.

And by this he softens Philemon most of all. The matter was so necessary: in chains, and moreover for God's sake, he intended to serve him; however, the apostle did not want to do this against Philemon's will. Therefore, should one not show mercy to him who could have made use of it himself, but did not want to?

He did not say: by necessity, but: "as it were by necessity," as if saying: of course, even by keeping him against your will, I would not truly have grieved you; nevertheless, to many it would have seemed that this was done by compulsion and against your will. Therefore now I preferred that this should in no case appear to anyone as forced, but, without doubt, voluntary.

The reason he rejected the idea was that he did not want to use another's property without the owner's knowledge. Hence, but I did not want to do anything... As if he said: if I should keep him, it would please you who do not wish to resist but it would be a kind of force. But I did not want that, indeed I wanted it to come about voluntarily. Exodus 25:2: 'Of every man who offers of his own accord, you shall take them,' that is, the first fruits. 2 Corinthians 9:7: 'Let each one give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or from compulsion, for "God loves a cheerful giver."'

For perhaps he therefore departed from you for an hour, that you might receive him eternal. No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a dearest brother, especially to me: but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

Sometimes evil becomes the occasion of good things, and God turns the crooked counsels of men to what is right. What I say will be made clearer by an example. Joseph's brothers, spurred on by the goads of their jealousy, sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty gold pieces (Gen. 37). This was the beginning of all good things for his father, for his brothers, and for all Egypt. Finally, he himself afterward said to his brothers: "You", he says, "thought evil things concerning me: and God thought good things concerning me" (Gen. 45:8). We can understand something similar in Onesimus too: evil beginnings were the occasions of a good thing. For if he had not run away from his master, he would never have come to Rome, where Paul was a prisoner in prison. If he had not seen Paul in chains, he would not have received faith in Christ. If he had not had the faith of Christ, he would never have been made Paul's son and sent into the work of the Gospel. From this, little by little and step by step, with the reasoning running back in reverse, Onesimus was made a minister of the Gospel precisely because he ran away from his master. But by adding perhaps he finely tempered his statement. For the judgments of God are hidden, and it is rash to pronounce as if on a certainty what is doubtful. Perhaps, he says, he therefore departed: cautiously, timidly, with trembling, and not with the whole foot firmly planted. For if he had not put perhaps, all slaves would have to run away in order to become apostolic men. As for his adding for an hour, we ought to take "hour" for "time". For in comparison with eternity, all time is short.

That you might receive him eternal. No one is the eternal master of his slave: for his power, and the condition of each of them, is ended by death. But Onesimus, who was made eternal through the faith of Christ, having received the spirit of liberty, began, from a slave, to be no longer a slave but a brother to Philemon, who is eternal because he too had believed in Christ: a dearest brother, an eternal brother; also to the eternal Apostle himself and to his master, to whom, as the condition of the flesh joined Onesimus before, so afterward the spirit joins him. And indeed then, when he was subject to him in the flesh, he was not joined to him in the Lord; but now he is joined to him both in the flesh and in the Lord. From this we understand that a slave who has believed in Christ is bound to his master by a twofold law: he is joined to him for a time by the necessity of the flesh, and united to him forever by the spirit.

He has well said, "perhaps," that the master may yield. For since the flight arose from perverseness, and a corrupt mind, and not from such intention, he has said, "perhaps." And he has not said, therefore he fled, but, therefore he was "separated," by a more fair sounding expression softening him the more. And he has not said, He separated himself, but, "he was separated." For it was not his own arrangement that he should depart either for this purpose or for that. Which also Joseph says, in making excuse for his brethren, "For God did send me hither" (Gen. xlv. 5), that is, He made use of their wickedness for a good end. "Therefore," he says, "he was parted for a season." Thus he contracts the time, acknowledges the offense, and turns it all to a providence. "That thou shouldest receive him," he says, "for ever," not for the present season only, but even for the future, that thou mightest always have him, no longer a slave, but more honorable than a slave. For thou wilt have a slave abiding with thee, more well-disposed than a brother, so that thou hast gained both in time, and in the quality of thy slave. For hereafter he will not run away. "That thou shouldest receive him," he says, "for ever," that is, have him again.

"No longer as a bond-servant, but more than a bond-servant, a brother beloved, especially to me."

Thou hast lost a slave for a short time, but thou wilt find a brother for ever, not only thy brother, but mine also. Here also there is much virtue. But if he is my brother, thou also wilt not be ashamed of him. By calling him his son, he hath shown his natural affection; and by calling him his brother, his great good will for him, and his equality in honor.

Since Onesimus has changed his mind from being a wicked one, he himself turns it to the doubtful, as if he said: For perhaps he fled for reasons of caution.

"for this reason he was separated". With a euphemistic name, Paul called it separation, so that the memory of the separation would not provoke the master. Then he also limits the time, calming the anger, or he speaks in terms of a season of the year.

"so that you might have him back forever", you have, that is, you receive.

"But more than a slave". Do you see that escaping brought many benefits? For instead of an hour of escape, you have an eternal one. (For the escape is but one hour compared to eternity.) And instead of a worthless slave, you have received "a beloved brother".

"how much more to you". If to me, much more to you, even in worldly services. For this is "in the flesh." And in spiritual matters. For this is "in the Lord."

Clearly Onesimus's flight has served to reverse the wickedness of his judgment. The "perhaps," however, makes Paul more persuasive [i.e., Paul puts this thought forward as a consideration for Philemon].

Onesimus's flight has become the source of good things to him.

Since Onesimus ran away with evil intent, Paul turns this flight into something beneficial. Perhaps, he says, he ran away by the providence of God. He also commendably calls the flight a separation, so as not to irritate the master with the word "flight." And by shortening the time, he calms his anger. "For an hour," he says, "he was separated." At the same time he also shows that however long he was with Paul, he was also with Philemon. Therefore he was absent only for the time he spent before meeting Paul; and this is an insignificant amount of time, as if a single hour. Therefore from now on, if he, having been released by you, remains with me, then understand that he is serving you.

"To receive him back forever." You will make use of it.

Then when he says, Perhaps, indeed..., he gives the reason why he ought to receive him kindly, first, on the side of God, second, on the side of the Apostle: If therefore you count me as a partner...; third, on the part of Philemon himself: Trusting in your compliance... On the side of God, because the providence of God often permits what is evil to come about, in order that good might follow from it, as is clear from the sale of Joseph, that he might free Egypt and the family of his father. Genesis 45:5: 'For God sent me before you into Egypt for your preservation.' He says Perhaps because the judgements of God are incomprehensible, Romans 11:33.

Onesimus, having offended his own master, fled on a long journey to the Apostle; to show that he did not depart for the purpose of being guilty of a crime, but so that, with sins forgiven, he might return useful to such an extent that he would not only become equal to his master in merits, but also a brother to the master himself. And so that Philemon may not suffer any disdain of pride, as is usual, as if the master were against the servant, he humbles himself when he calls him his brother both in the flesh and in the Lord; so that with the removal of the cause of human condition, because we are all descended from one Adam, we may recognize ourselves as brothers: especially when faith comes in the middle, which cuts off all pride.

Shall I show you freedom arising from slavery? There was a certain Onesimus, a slave, a good-for-nothing runaway. He escaped and went to Paul. He obtained baptism, washed away his sins and remained at Paul's feet.… Do you see his nobility? Do you see a character that brings freedom? Slave and free are simply names. What is a slave? It is a mere name. How many masters lie drunken upon their beds, while slaves stand by sober? Whom shall I call a slave? The one who is sober, or the one who is drunk? The one who is the slave of a man, or the one who is the captive of passion? The former has his slavery on the outside; the latter wears his captivity on the inside.

Much, he says, benefit the flight brought: instead of one hour, you have him forever. For even the whole life of a man, in comparison with eternity, is nothing; much more so the time of flight. So instead of a slave, receive a brother; instead of an unprofitable one — a beloved one; "both in the flesh," that is, even in worldly matters he is worthy of love, as one who is serviceable, "and in the Lord," that is, in spiritual matters.

And he says instead of a slave, that is, in place of a slave. Matthew 23:8: 'For one is your master and all are your brothers.' And not only yours, but mine in comparison to God, though he is a son to the ministry.

How much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. This can be expounded in two ways. First, as referring to the first origin of the divine creation, and thus he is a brother. Deuteronomy 32:6: 'Is not he your father, that hath possessed you, and made you, and created you?' Malachi 2:10: 'Have we not all one father? Did not one God created us?' Again, by trust in God. Or it might rather be for the good of Philemon, because he is close to him in the flesh, since that is how he is his slave, because whatever he is bodily belongs to Philemon. Hence one is moved by charity for two reasons, by love which has its origin in the flesh, or by spiritual love. On the part of the Apostle, he first declares his friendship, under which aegis he wants Philemon to take Onesimus back; second, he offers to pay any damages; third he shows the function of receiving.

So if you consider me as a partner, receive him as you would receive me. He shows such concern for Onesimus that he says Philemon, whom he praises above, should consider him as his own companion if he welcomes him as he would welcome an apostle. This is what Solomon said: A wise servant will have free people serving him (Eccles. 10:28). This saying is meant to scare Philemon, so that he may at least take him in for this reason if he cannot be swayed by love.

If therefore you have me as a partner, receive him as me.

Philemon desired to have Paul as a partner, and, believing in Christ, he certainly wished to make such progress as to become like Paul and to share with him in his chains. Let us consider, therefore, how greatly Onesimus is praised here, and how far he is said to have progressed: for he is to be received as the Apostle is, and his master ought to desire his companionship just as he desires Paul's. In brief, what he says is this: If you wish to have me as a companion, have Onesimus too, whom I hold as my companion, and my son, and my bowels; if you do not receive him and are unwilling to have him, you yourself understand that you cannot have me.

No procedure is so apt to gain a hearing, as not to ask for everything at once. For see after how many praises, after how much preparation he hath introduced this great matter. After having said that he is "my son," that he is a partaker of the Gospel, that he is "my bowels," that thou receivest him back "as a brother," and "hold him as a brother," then he has added "as myself." And Paul was not ashamed to do this. For he who was not ashamed to be called the servant of the faithful, but confesses that he was such, much more would he not refuse this. But what he says is to this effect. If thou art of the same mind with me, if thou runnest upon the same terms, if thou considerest me a friend, receive him as myself.

"So if you consider me a partner". That is, if you think and wish the same things as I do.

"welcome him as you would me". Wow, how great is the magnitude of those words!

Paul argues that what he desires of Philemon is consistent with the shared faith and shared condition of believers. The injunction to receive Onesimus as if he were Paul does not mean Philemon should receive him as an apostle but "as you would personally receive me."

That is, if you acknowledge that you are of one mind with me, then receive him as you would me. Who would not be put to shame by the apostle? Who would not desire to receive Paul?

Therefore, he says, If, therefore, you count me as a partner, welcome him. 1 John 1:7: 'But if we walk in the light as he also is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.' And he says as you would me because he is linked with me. Matthew 10:40: 'Who receives you, receives me.'

If, however, something has hurt you, or he is a debtor, impute this to me. Now he undermines the excuse of anger, lest perhaps he would complain that he was hurt by him in such a way that it would not seem fitting to forgive him. But if it were so, he says it must be imputed to himself, through whom the heirs of the kingdom of heaven will be in the future, who have sinned before.

But if he has harmed you in anything, or owes you, charge this to me.

He imitates his Lord and has Christ speaking in him, so he ought to do, as far as his strength allows, the things that Christ does. For if He bore our infirmities and grieved over our wounds, the Apostle rightly puts himself forward on behalf of Onesimus and pledges to pay what Onesimus owed. But, as we said above, the whole of it is what was taken by theft and squandered in luxury and could not be repaid. Philemon weighed this against a great price: in return for a runaway slave and money lost, he would receive both a dearest brother and an eternal brother, and through him he would make the Apostle his debtor.

"If he hath wronged thee at all." See where and when he has introduced the mention of the injury; last, after having said so many things in his behalf. For since the loss of money is particularly apt to annoy men, that he might not accuse him of this, (for it was most likely that it was spent,) then he brings in this, and says, "If he hath wronged thee." He does not say, If he has stolen anything; but what? "If he hath wronged thee." At the same time he both confessed the offense, and not as if it were the offense of a servant, but of a friend against a friend, making use of the expression of "wrong" rather than of theft.

"Put that to mine account," he says, that is, reckon the debt to me, "I will repay it." Then also with that spiritual pleasantry, "I Paul write it with mine own hand." At once movingly and pleasantly; if when Paul did not refuse to execute a bond for him, he should refuse to receive him! This would both shame Philemon into compliance, and bring Onesimus out of trouble. "I write it," he says, "with mine own hand." Nothing is more affectionate than these "bowels," nothing more earnest, nothing more zealous. See what great concern he bestows in behalf of one man. "Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides." Then that it might not appear insulting to him, whom he requests, if he had not the confidence to ask and obtain in behalf of a theft, he in some measure relieves this, saying, "That I say not unto thee how thou owest to me even thine own self besides." Not only thine own things, but thyself also. And this proceeded from love, and was according to the rule of friendship, and was a proof of his great confidence. See how he everywhere provides for both, that he may ask with great security, and that this may not seem a sign of too little confidence in him.

"And if he has wronged you". Paul did not say, "He stole," but the verb is cut short. He says he "wronged" "or owes".

"charge that to me". For it was likely that they themselves had consumed together the things that had been stolen, and Paul says, "charge this to me," that is, charge these things as a debt to me, let the obligation be held against me.

"I, Paul, write". He wrote with spiritual grace, as if he said, But for safe keeping, that I will repay the debt, I have made the letters with my own hand.

"to avoid saying to you that you owe me your own self as well". So that Paul may not seem to insult him by not daring to appeal to him openly on behalf of the runaway slave (for this would show Philemon to be somewhat harsh), it shows that Paul is also very confident in Philemon. For he says not only your own things, but also yourself you owe to me.

He did not say: stole, but more gently: "wronged, or owes anything." It is likely that he had spent what was stolen. Therefore he says: charge it to my account, consider me the debtor.

Second, he offers to make good any injury to Philemon, saying, And if he did you any injury or owes you anything, namely by leaving his service, charge it to me. As if to say, I will make satisfaction. Galatians 6:2: 'Bear one another's burdens.' And more, because he first offers to make it good; second, he shows that Philemon is in his debt, not of necessity but of will.

I Paul have written with my own hand. I will repay, not to say to you that you owe me even your own self.

What he says amounts to this: What Onesimus carried off by theft, I pledge that I will repay. Of this pledge this Epistle is witness, and so is my own hand, for I did not dictate it in the usual way but wrote it out myself with my own hand. Believe me, therefore, when I make a promise on behalf of Onesimus. But I say this as though speaking to a stranger. Otherwise, if I return to my own right: because of the word of Christ which I preached to you as the Gospel, and you were made a Christian, you owe me your own self. But if you are mine, then all that is yours is also mine: Onesimus too, who is yours, is mine. I could therefore have used him as my own; but I leave it to your will, so that you may have a reward by pardoning.

Paul says, "I make this promise to you, since you yourself see the abundant rewards that God's mercy has in store when you exercise goodness toward Onesimus. You ought to think on these things in the light of what you owe to me, though I ought not to refer to it."

He says this excellently, writing with spiritual grace and as if saying: for greater assurance that I will pay the debt, my own handwritten letter serves as guarantee.

Lest it seem reproachful to Philemon that the apostle, as though not trusting him, does not simply ask him concerning the slave-thief, but also gives a written guarantee in his own hand — for this would signal that Philemon is hard-hearted and inattentive to his teacher — the apostle (by the words cited) gives him to understand that he trusts him, and greatly so. For not only with your own possessions, he says, but beyond that, you owe me even your very self.

Therefore he says, I, Paul, as if to say, that you might be certain of restitution. I write it with my own hand. And this not out of necessity, because you owe me your very self, because I snatched you from eternal death, and thus he should do this for his liberator. Tobias 9:2: 'If I should give myself to be your servant, I should not make a worthy return for your care.'

But when you have joy of a man in God, it is God rather than man that you enjoy. For you enjoy Him by whom you are made happy, and you rejoice to have come to Him in whose presence you place your hope of joy. And accordingly, Paul says to Philemon, "Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord." For if he had not added "in the Lord," but had only said, "Let me have joy of thee," he would have implied that he fixed his hope of happiness upon him, although even in the immediate context to "enjoy" is used in the sense of to "use with delight." For when the thing that we love is near us, it is a matter of course that it should bring delight with it. And if you pass beyond this delight, and make it a means to that which you are permanently to rest in, you are using it, and it is an abuse of language to say that you enjoy it. But if you cling to it, and rest in it, finding your happiness complete in it, then you may be truly and properly said to enjoy it. And this we must never do except in the case of the Blessed Trinity, who is the Supreme and Unchangeable Good.

Yes, brother, may I enjoy you in the Lord.

The Latin tongue does not render the Greek idiom. For in what he says, ναὶ, ἀδελφέ, ναὶ is a kind of adverb, as it were, of one who speaks coaxingly. But we, in translating it yes (ita), brother, give out a sound that is somehow more watery and diluted, something rather other than what is written. For just as that Hebrew ANNA (אנה), for which the Seventy translators frequently rendered ὦ δή, signifies in its own language the feeling of one who entreats (whence Symmachus sometimes rendered ANNA as δέομαι, that is, "I beseech"), so we too suffer the same strain with the Greek language that the Greeks endure with the Hebrew. But what he says, may I enjoy you in the Lord, is understood as something far different from what is supposed. The Apostle enjoys no one except him who has in himself many virtues in harmony with one another, and all that Christ is called according to the variety of occasions: namely wisdom, justice, continence, gentleness, temperance, chastity. These he invokes upon Philemon, so that when he abounds in them, Paul himself, enjoying him to the full, may be filled. And lest you think that the enjoyment meant is that by which we often delight in one another's presence, he added, in the Lord: so that from the fact that the name of the Lord was joined to it, it might be understood that there is also another enjoyment, by which one may enjoy apart from the Lord.

Refresh my bowels in Christ. Just as he himself wishes to enjoy Philemon in the Lord, so he wishes his own bowels, Onesimus, whom he also called by the same name above, to be refreshed through Philemon. And it is said ambiguously: whether Onesimus is Paul's bowels in Christ, or whether Paul's bowels, Onesimus, are to be refreshed in Christ through Philemon. If you choose to take the former, Onesimus will rightly be called Paul's bowels in Christ, since Paul begot him for Christ in chains. If the latter, Onesimus is to be refreshed in Christ by Philemon, while he is instructed in Christ by Philemon's words.

What is, "Yea, brother"? Receive him, he says. For this we must understand though unexpressed. For dismissing all pleasantry, he again pursues his former considerations, that is, serious ones. And yet even these are serious. For the things that proceed from Saints are of themselves serious, even when they are pleasantry.

"Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord, refresh my heart in Christ." That is, thou grantest the favor to the Lord, not to me. "My heart," that is, toward thyself.

"Yes, brother". Again, from what is pleasing it advances to what is serious. "Yes," he said, "brother." What? Accept it yourself. I will take advantage from you in things that are according to Christ.

"May I enjoy". That is, I delight in your excellent works in the Lord. May I see you growing rich in all spiritual blessings.

"refresh my heart". Paul says, Refresh my love for you for the sake of Christ.

From heartfelt speech the apostle again passed to something more important, imploring: "let me have joy," he says, "of thee," that is, let me enjoy thy good deeds, not in worldly matters, but in those which are in the Lord.

Give rest, he says, to my love for you, or my heart for Christ's sake. For it is not to me that you do a kindness, but to Christ.

And he adds, Yes, indeed, brother, may I too make use of you, as if to say, if you want me for a partner, take him back, and I will so use you, brother, that is, if you do it, you will fill my wishes with joy. For to make use is to use the fruit and thus it is to use for the useful, as I enjoy fruit. It implies the sweetness of the fruit; Song of Songs 2:3: 'And his fruit was sweet to my palate.' And the end, because the ultimate produce of the tree is its fruit. Therefore, to enjoy is properly to have something which is pleasant and final. Hence Augustine says that we enjoy thinking of things in which the will delights because of their sweetness. Again, to enjoy is to adhere to something for its own sake. Sometimes 'enjoy' and 'use' are taken commonly as implying enjoyment without the contrary. Sirach 8:10: 'and to serve great men without blame'. Therefore he says, May I too make use of you, because you are against me in nothing. And if in this you please me, there will be nothing in my heart concerning you that saddens me, and thus you will delight me. But if we take enjoyment as something final, then one does not enjoy man, but God alone. Contrary to this seems to be Wisdom 2:6: 'Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present: and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.' Hence he adds in the Lord, that is, May I, too, make use of you in the delight of God, rejoicing in the divine good that is in you, because his action is love, and the enjoyment of its effect, namely, charity. That is why he adds console my heart. A man is consoled spiritually when the desires of his heart are fulfilled. As if he said: fulfil the deepest desires of my heart. And not with respect to evil, but in the Lord, and thus the fulfilment of desire is good.

Having confidence in your obedience, I have written to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. I am now being affectionate, so that his obedience may be voluntary, in order to bear fruit. For by doing so, he provokes him to do more than is demanded of him; it often happens that when one sees themselves being thought highly of, they present themselves as even better.

Confident of your obedience, I have written to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say.

He who presumes upon the one he is about to ask in some way forestalls him by that very presumption, so that he is not free to refuse what is asked. Moreover, if the one who makes the request knows that the person asked will do more than he asked, he asks for lesser things for this reason: so that the one asked may have a voluntary reward, and one made greater by what he performs. But if Philemon does these things at a man's command, how much more will he do them for the love of God? Hence he is deservedly praised by the voice of the Apostle, because he anticipates his commands in deed and can say: "Let the voluntary offerings of my mouth be pleasing to you, O Lord" (Ps. 118:108); and because, doing more than was commanded, he surpasses those who did only what they were ordered, and who are bidden to say: "We are unprofitable servants; what we ought to have done, we have done" (Luke 17:10). For this reason virginity too is crowned with a greater reward: it has no commandment of the Lord, and it reaches beyond what is commanded.

"Having confidence in thy obedience, I write unto thee." What stone would not these things have softened? What wild beast would not these things have rendered mild, and prepared to receive him heartily? After having borne witness to him by so many great testimonies of his goodness, he is not ashamed again to excuse himself. He says, Not barely requesting it, nor as commanding it, nor arbitrarily, but "having confidence in thy obedience I wrote unto thee." What he had said at the beginning, "having confidence," that he also says here in the sealing up of his letter.

"Knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say." At the same time in saying this he excited him. For he would have been ashamed, though for nothing else, if having such credit with him as this, that he would do more than he said,-he should not do so much.

"confident". Paul said, "You do this not for me, but for Christ."

"confident in your obedience". I did not write to you as one commanding or stubbornly dealing with you, but having confidence "in your obedience". Whom would these things not soften, even if he were made of iron?

"knowing that you will also do more than I say". Paul said this, persuading Philemon in every way to accept Onesimus, if not for any other reason, then at least so as not to destroy his own reputation if he had any with the Apostle.

I, he says, wrote to you, not commanding and not out of self-love, but hoping in your obedience. What iron would not be softened by these words?

Then when he says Trusting in your compliance, he provides a reason on the side of Philemon, and a commendation of his obedience. First he shows how he is confident in his obeying; second he adds to it something similar. Therefore he says, Trusting in your compliance. 2 Corinthians 7:16: 'I rejoice that in all things I can have confidence in you.' 1 Samuel 15:22: 'For obedience is better than sacrifices.' But he writes more cautiously because a man listens more closely to one he expects to see again than if he despairs.

To make him more anxious and obedient, it is indicated that he will come; for those who are absent are usually despised. And the reason why the Apostle does not consider himself unworthy to be here yet, who has always suffered weariness and dangers, murders, persecutions, and chains, and whose rest was only in Christ alone? But for the progress of the believers, and to confound the enemies of the cross of Christ, he offered his own flesh to sufferings, in order to obtain crowns of immortality for his soul and body.

At the same time, also prepare me a lodging.

I do not think the Apostle was so rich, or so encumbered with baggage, that he needed a lodging prepared for him. Nor do I think he was not content with a single little cell, he who would think a house small by the measure of his body most spacious. He says this rather so that, while Philemon expects him to come to him, he may all the more do what he has been asked. But if anyone thinks that this was commanded not by way of accommodation but in earnest, that a lodging should be prepared for him, then the lodging must be prepared for the apostle rather than for Paul. He was about to come to a new city, to preach the Crucified, and to bring doctrines never heard before, and he knew that very many would flock to him. It was therefore necessary, first, that the house be in a frequented part of the city, where people could easily gather. Next, that it be free of every disturbance; that it be ample, to hold a great many hearers; that it not be next to the places of the public shows; that it not be detestable for a shameful neighborhood; and lastly, that it be situated on the ground floor rather than in an upper room. For this reason I think that at Rome too he stayed two years in a rented house. Nor, I suppose, was the dwelling small to which crowds of Jews flocked daily.

For I hope that through your prayers I shall be given to you. God, when asked, grants a son to his father, and a brother is often saved by a brother's prayer. The Apostle, however, is granted at the prayers of the whole Church, for the benefit of those who are going to hear him. And this gift is said to be not so much toward him who, though prepared for martyrdom, is brought back from martyrdom, as toward those to whom the Apostle is sent. Paul himself says in another place that he was often in prison and was set free from chains: "In prisons frequently" (2 Cor. 11). He was released from these sometimes by the Lord's help, and frequently because the persecutors themselves found nothing in him worthy of death. For no decrees of the senate had yet been passed concerning the Christian name, and Nero's sword had not yet consecrated Christian blood. But because the preaching was new, the peoples were stirred to fury, either by the Jews out of envy or by those who saw their idols being destroyed. Then the preachers were sent to prison, and when the violence and fury had subsided they were let go again. The Acts of the Apostles testify that this is as we say, for there Felix too speaks to Agrippa: Paul could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar (Acts 25). Felix also says that he had found no charge except certain questions about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, whom Paul preached to be alive. From this we observe that they could likewise have been released by the other judges too, the Lord bringing this about so that the new preaching might be spread through the whole world.

"But withal prepare me also a lodging: for I trust that through your prayers I shall be given unto you." This also was the part of one who was exceedingly confident-or rather this too was in behalf of Onesimus, that not being indifferent, but knowing that he upon his return would know the things relating to him, they might lay aside all remembrance of the wrong, and might the rather grant the favor. For great was the influence and the honor of Paul residing among them, of Paul in his age, of Paul after imprisonment. Again, it is a proof of their love that he says that they pray; and to attribute to them so much as that they pray for "him." For although I be now in danger, yet nevertheless you will see me if ye pray for it.

"prepare a lodging for me". Paul says that he did not write only because of Onesimus (for Philemon would have said, if not for himself, that I was not worthy of even a word), but also for this reason, he says, that you might "prepare a lodging for me". And Philemon was even afraid that if he did not receive Onesimus, the Apostle would come and it would be known that he had been disobedient.

"for I hope that through your prayers". Great indeed is the power of prayers, and great also is the humility of Paul, because he was in need of those prayers.

It might have occurred to Philemon: if it were not for Onesimus, you would not have deemed me worthy of even a word. The Apostle heals this in advance, saying: I wrote not for his sake only, but also to ask you to prepare me a lodging; and at the same time, also to frighten him, because the Apostle will come and condemn him if he does not receive Onesimus.

Two things we learn from this: first, how great is the power of prayer, if even the great Paul needs their help; second, that one must be humble, if Paul needs the prayers of his disciples.

Therefore he says, At the same time make ready a lodging for me too. For it was his custom when he was in Colossae to stay in his home. Chrysostom asks what we are to make of this remark in which a poor man commands a rich man by letter from across the expanse of the earth to prepare a lodging for him. What would have to be prepared for one content with bread and cheap victuals? It should be said that it was not for the sake of the preparation of lodging that he says this, but to insinuate familiarity and love; in this way he will be prompt to obey. The Apostle therefore does not say this on account of external trappings but out of his devotion. For I hope that through your prayers I shall be restored to you.

Against this is the fact that he never returned to them but died in Rome, therefore his hope was dashed. I reply that the hope of the just is of two kinds, the chief of which is for his own good, and this is never dashed; another secondary hope is the proof of others, and this is sometimes dashed, because their merits are contrary, as the just man is sometimes not heeded by others. But was he deceived in his trust? It should be said that God alone knows the future; that is not for human knowledge, except the prophetic. And no prophet knows all the future events that concern himself. Only Christ did, because he did not have the Holy Spirit in a limited way. Thus Isaac the great prophet was deceived in Jacob. So it is not to be wondered at in an apostle if he does not know.

Epaphras my fellow captive in Christ Jesus greets you, he says. As to who Epaphras, Paul's fellow captive, may be, we have received the following story. They say that the parents of the Apostle Paul were from the district of Gischala in Judea. When the whole province was being laid waste by the Roman hand and the Jews were being scattered across the world, they were removed to Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, and the young Paul followed his parents' lot. In this way, they say, what he testifies of himself can stand: "They are Hebrews, so am I: they are Israelites, so am I: they are the seed of Abraham, so am I" (2 Cor. 11:22). And again elsewhere: "A Hebrew of Hebrews" (Phil. 3:5), and the other things which mark him as a Jew rather than a man of Tarsus. If this is so, we can suppose that Epaphras too was taken captive at the same time that Paul was taken, and that, having been settled with his parents at Colossae, a city of Asia, he afterwards received the word of Christ. Hence, as we said above, it is written to the Colossians: "Epaphras greets you, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, always anxious for you in prayers" (Col. 4:12). If this is the case, Aristarchus too, who in the same Epistle is called his fellow captive, will be brought to the same understanding. That holds unless perhaps something hidden and sacred, as some think, is shown in the word captivity: namely, that captured and bound alike, they were brought into this valley of tears. But if neither explanation is accepted, then from the fact that in Christ Jesus has been added here, we can suppose that he endured at Rome the same chains for Christ as Paul did, and that, just as he could be called a prisoner of Christ, so he could also be called His captive. Or at any rate it may be in this sense: that he too is noble among the apostles, like Andronicus and Julia, of whom it is written to the Romans: "Greet Andronicus and Julia, my kinsmen and my fellow captives, who are noble among the apostles, who also were in Christ Jesus before me" (Rom. 16:7). So much about Epaphras.

Epaphras my fellow captive in Christ Jesus greets you: Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.

What we were saying at the beginning, that the Epistle to the Colossians was written at the same time and through the same bearer of the letters as the letter to Philemon, is also shown by the names of those who are introduced as sending greetings. For in that Epistle too it is written thus: "Aristarchus my fellow captive greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, and Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ" (Col. 4:10, 12); and a little further on: "Luke the dearest physician greets you, and Demas; and say to Archippus: See the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfil it" (ibid. 14, 17); and: "Be mindful of my chains" (ibid. 18). But suppose someone thinks that they were not written together, because the Epistle to the Colossians has a few names that are not found written here. Let him know that not everyone is either a friend or an acquaintance of everyone, and that it is one thing for a private letter to be written to one man, and another for a public letter to be written to a whole church.

"Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus, saluteth thee." He was sent by the Colossians, so that from this it appears that Philemon was also at Colossae. And he calls him his "fellow-prisoner," showing that he also was in much tribulation, so that if not on his own account, yet on account of the other, it was right that he should be heard. For he that is in tribulation, and overlooks himself, and is concerned for others, deserves to be heard.

And he puts him to shame from another consideration, if his countryman is a fellow-prisoner with Paul and suffers affliction with him, and he himself does not grant him a favor in behalf of his own servant. And he has added, "my fellow-prisoner in Christ Jesus," instead of on account of Christ.

"Epaphras, my fellow prisoner". This man was sent from the Colossians to Paul, as it is clear that Philemon was from Colossae. He is called a fellow prisoner, indicating that he too was in great distress. Moreover, this also honors him; for Epaphras was indeed a fellow prisoner, whereas this one did not even show kindness to Onesimus, who was a prisoner for the Lord.

This Epaphras was sent to Paul by the Colossians; from this it is clear that Philemon was from Colossae. He calls him "fellow prisoner," showing that Epaphras too was in great distress, thereby making Philemon feel that if Epaphras suffers with Paul, will Philemon really not show mercy to Onesimus for his sake? "Fellow prisoner," he says, not for any human reason, but for the sake of Christ Jesus, suffering together with me for the Gospel.

Then he ends his letter with a greeting, and first on the part of others, second on his own. He says, they send you greetings, and we read of them at the end of Colossians.

There are one or two more things on which he wishes condemnation to be passed. One is this: that these men say that the body is a prison, and like a chain round the soul; and that they assert that the soul does not depart, but returns to the place where it originally was. Let me give quotations to show his opinion on this point also.... And in the Commentary on Paul's Epistle to Philemon, at the place where he says "Epaphras my fellow-prisoner greeteth you," some way down he says: "Possibly, however, as some think, a more recondite and mysterious view is set before us, namely, that the two companions had been captured and bound and brought down into this vale of tears." You see how he represents these opinions as things which are held as a kind of esoteric mystery by certain persons, of whom, however, he is one.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you. Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers, also send their greetings. They all send their greetings and testify to their share in his glory.

As for the rest, in writing the letter to Philemon he names as fellow workers in the Gospel and in his chains Mark, whom I take to be the writer of the Gospel; and Aristarchus, whom we mentioned above; and Demas, of whom he complains in another place: "Demas has forsaken me, loving the present world, and has gone to Thessalonica". And he names Luke the physician, who, in leaving the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles to the churches, was turned from a physician of bodies into a physician of souls, just as the apostles were made from fishers of fish into fishers of men (Matt. 4). Of him it is said in another place also: "I have sent", he says, "with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel through all the churches" (2 Cor. 8:18). As often as his book is read in the churches, so often his medicine does not cease.

"Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workers." Why then does he put Luke last? And yet he elsewhere says, "Only Luke is with me" (2 Tim. iv. 11), and "Demas," he says, was one of those who "forsook him, having loved the present world." (2 Tim. iv. 10.) All these things, although they are mentioned elsewhere, yet nevertheless ought not to be passed over here without enquiry, nor ought we merely to hear them as things of course. But how comes he to say that he who forsook him salutes them? For "Erastus," he says, "abode at Corinth." (2 Tim. iv. 20.) He adds Epaphras, both as known to them, and being of their country. And Mark, as being himself also an admirable man. Why then does he number Demas with these? Perhaps it was after this that he became more remiss, when he saw the dangers multiplied. But Luke being last became first. And from these indeed he salutes him, urging him the more to obedience, and calls them his fellow-laborers, and in this way shames him into granting the request.

"Aristarchus, Demas". About this, Paul wrote to Timothy, "Demas abandoned me." (2 Tim. 4:10)

[PHOTIUS] They say that this Demas again turned away to Hellenism and became a priest of idols. [end of the Photius excerpt]

[OECUMENIUS] And if that was at first, now he has repented. But if later, after these things he became negligent. [end of the excerpt by Oecumenius]

"Luke". The last became first. For if in the second letter to Timothy he says, Luke is the only one with me. (2 Tim. 4:11) And he calls them "co-workers", showing that these also, he says, are encouraging you with me.

Demas at first enjoyed respect, as is attested here concerning him as a fellow worker of Paul, but afterwards through frivolity he fell away from Paul, as indeed Paul writes about this in the epistle to Timothy, written evidently after this epistle. "For Demas has forsaken me; only Luke is with me" (2 Tim. 4:9). Thus Luke, placed here last, became first of all when Demas fell away. So no one should place hope in himself, but let him who stands take heed lest he fall. By saying "fellow worker," he shows that they too together with me ask you, and it is worthy to show favorable attention to such persons.

But this can be doubted since he mentions Demas. How can this be, since he said in 2 Timothy 4:10, 'For Demas has deserted me, loving this world'? How, then, can he use his name?

It might be said that he returned to him, but this does not seem to be the case, because this letter was written after that to Timothy and here he says, I hope that through your prayers, and there he foretells his death, saying, 'The time of my deliverance is at hand.' Therefore it should be said that Paul was in Rome for nearly nine years, and this letter was written at the beginning, whereas the second letter to Timothy was written at the end of his life and then Demas weary of imprisonment deserted him. The letters of Paul are not arranged chronologically, because the letters to the Corinthians were written before the letter to the Romans, and this before the last letter to Timothy. That is placed first because of its matter, which is worthier.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, amen. This is the subscription of the Apostle confirming the sent letter.

Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Just as the people of Israel is numbered by the better part of man, the head, as Scripture says, according to their heads (Num. 1:2), so the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed in the whole man and in every part of the saints. But by synecdoche it is said of the whole man, from the greater and better part, that is, the spirit: Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And when grace is in the spirit, it makes the whole man spiritual, so that the flesh too serves the spirit, and the soul is not overcome by the flesh, and, brought together into a spiritual substance, cleaves to the Lord; for he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6).

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen."

He hath closed his Epistle with a prayer. And indeed prayer is a great good, salutary, and preservative of our souls. But it is great when we do things worthy of it, and do not render ourselves unworthy. And thou too, therefore, when thou goest to the priest, and he shall say to thee, "The Lord will have mercy on thee, my son," do not confide in the word only, but add also works. Do acts worthy of mercy, God will bless thee, my son, if indeed thou doest things worthy of blessing. He will bless thee, if thou showest mercy to thy neighbor. For the things which we wish to obtain from God, of those we ought first to impart to our neighbors. But if we deprive our neighbors of them, how can we wish to obtain them? "Blessed," He says, "are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." For if men show mercy to such, much more will God, but to the unmerciful by no means. "For he shall have judgment without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy."

This is, the Lord who grants the grace, not me. It was written to Philemon from Rome.

His own greeting here is the same one that ends the second letter to Timothy.