Philemon 1:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See how and when he mentioned the offense: at the end, after he had said much about him.

Since loss of property usually irritates people most of all, he mentions this now so that Philemon might not complain about it.

For something had probably been stolen from him. He says, “If he has wronged you in anything.”

He did not say, “If he has stolen anything,” but how? “If he has wronged you in anything.”

Here he both acknowledged the offense and presented it not as the offense of a slave, but as though of a friend toward a friend.

He expressed it by a term that signifies injustice rather than theft.

“Charge this,” he says, “to me,” that is, reckon this debt to me. I will repay.

He did not say, “he stole,” but more gently, “he wronged thee, or owes thee anything.” It is likely that he spent what he had stolen. Therefore he says: charge this to me as a debt. Count me as the debtor.

The word “this” indicates that, having stolen something, he spent it unjustly. Onesimus committed the theft, yet the divine Apostle asks Philemon to reckon this offense to him. Then, with great generosity, he acknowledges his debt.

“If he has wronged you in anything.” The Apostle Paul undertakes to compensate Philemon for the material loss that Onesimus caused him by his flight.

On this basis St. John Chrysostom and Theodoret suppose that Onesimus stole from Philemon and fled with it.

Yet one can hardly admit that Onesimus, who belonged to the Seventy Apostles, could have committed such an offense.

He was sent by Christ Himself to preach repentance before the approaching Kingdom of God and received from Him gifts of healing and miracles (Lk 10:9).

True, it is also unclear how one Apostle could have found himself in slavery to another.

Most likely some misunderstanding arose between them. In a moment of bitter and probably unjust offense, the Apostle Onesimus fled to the Apostle Paul for its resolution.

He went to him as to an elder who enjoyed Philemon’s respect.

According to the laws, however, a runaway slave was subject to severe scourging and imprisonment. Instead, the Apostle asks that he be received as a brother.

If Philemon suffered any losses from the self-willed departure of Onesimus, the Apostle promises to repay them. At the same time he says that Philemon owes him his very self.

That is, the Apostle Paul set him, from the destructive path of paganism, upon the Christian path to eternal salvation.

The Apostle expresses new motives for Philemon’s gracious reception of Onesimus by asking him to receive, in Onesimus’s person, Paul himself.

And if Onesimus proves to have any debt, Philemon is to reckon this debt to Paul.

All this is an expression of the highest love and the tenderest care for Onesimus, and at the same time for Philemon.

Philemon was not to be troubled in the least by the visible outward inequality with his slave, since in him he could receive Paul.

So our Lord Jesus Christ urged the reception of all kinds of poor people, the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked.

The last obstacle is removed: he caused loss. It cannot be asserted that the Apostle considered Philemon covetous, since he knew how generously Philemon gave.

But he could not fail to consider it possible that such a thought might arise in his heart.

This would be regret over the loss caused, not from covetous motives, but as in a householder.

Such a man zealously cares that everything in the household economy be in order, and also seeks to increase the means for charity.

Supposing this, the Apostle heals the weakness. He does not enter into lengthy reasoning, though from the foundations of faith he could have brought strong motives for counting the loss as nothing.

Instead, he cuts it off at once: “Charge it to me; I will repay.”