1Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; 2through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will hardly die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good person someone would even dare to die. 8But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. 10For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.
11Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 12Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death passed to all men because all sinned. 13For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 14Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come.
15But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16The gift is not as through one who sinned; for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift followed many trespasses to justification. 17For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ.
18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous. 20The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, 21that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul wrote this epistle to Philemon. Three times Paul claims to be its author. In addition to Philemon being the letter’s main recipient, Paul also directs the letter to Appia, Archippus, and the church. Tradition holds that Philemon lived in or near Colossae some 100 miles from Ephesus. Paul calls Philemon “our beloved friend and fellow laborer.”
The message of Philemon is a plea by Paul to Philemon to accept back and forgive Onesimus. Paul even offers to pay any debt incurred by Onesimus against Philemon. Moreover, having become a Christian, it is likely Onesimus shared Paul’s desire to set things right, since from all evidence, Onesimus was voluntarily going back to Philemon, knowing the law allowed Philemon to put him to death if he wanted.
This small church congregated at the home of Philemon. It is, thus, speculated that he was a wealthy believer since he was able to host a church body and perform services inside of his home. Moreover, we see that he was able to afford slaves. It is often assumed Appia is Philemon’s wife and Archippus was his son. Philemon appears to have been a fairly wealthy individual, since he could afford slaves, and his house was big enough to host a church.
This epistle, which is also very common to the style and vocabulary we observe in Colossians, dates around A.D. 60 for a few reasons. First, this letter was most likely written by Paul during his first imprisonment. Second, we believe that this epistle was sent along with the epistle to the Colossians since Philemon lived so close to Colossae. Moreover, the various early church fathers, including Origen, Tertullian and Eusebius had no good reason to deny Pauline authorship. Instead, they all assumed and affirmed that Paul was its author. Finally, this epistle was also included in the Muratorian Canon.
Onesimus had run away from Philemon before he became a Christian. At some point, he ended up in Rome and, by providence, met Paul and came to faith in Christ. Although he assisted Paul for a time, Paul felt compelled to send him back to Philemon. However, under Roman law, runaway slaves could be punished with death. Although as an Apostle, Paul says he could command Philemon to forgive Onesimus and accept him back, or even keep Onesimus with him in Rome. But Paul does not exploit his apostolic authority, so that Philemon would not feel compelled, but accept Onesimus “voluntarily.”
While some might question the relevance and possibly even divine inspiration of this epistle, there are good reasons to see its Christian relevance and affirm inspiration and two key theological points.
It wasn’t necessarily Paul’s intention, but he gives us a human example of the deep theological doctrines of substitution and imputation. Paul says to accept Onesimus “as you would me.” This is the same concept of Christ’s death on the cross. God accepts this sacrifice in the place of the sinner. Paul also says to put on his “account” anything Onesimus owed Philemon. This is an example of the doctrine of imputation. Rom 5:15-18 teaches that Adam’s sin is imputed (put in the account) to all people. In turn, when a sinner comes to faith in Christ, their sin is imputed to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers.