“Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ — the Pauline grace-peace formula (charis kai eirēnē) anchors the letter in soteriological blessing despite its personal content. The invocation of God as Father and Christ as Lord establishes theological ground for the ethical argument to follow: reconciliation reflects the reconciling work of Christ.
Church Fathers on Philemon 1:3
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,…
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