Philemon
Philemon is the shortest of Paul's letters and one of the most quietly revolutionary. Onesimus, a slave of Philemon in Colossae, had left his master, found Paul in prison, and become a Christian, useless once, Paul puns on his name, but now useful indeed. Paul sends him back carrying this letter, declining to command what love should freely give: receive him no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother. Charge any wrong to my account, Paul writes, in a miniature of the gospel itself. The letter shows grace patiently transforming social realities from the inside.
The apostle Paul, with Timothy, writing from prison
AD 60–62
Philemon, a church host in Colossae, with Apphia and Archippus
To persuade Philemon to receive back his slave Onesimus as a beloved brother in Christ.