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Philemon was a church official, we believe, somewhere in Collossae or the surrounding area. He had a slave called Onesimus who ran away and found himself on Paul's doorstep. The name Onesimus means 'useful'.

An absconding slave, in those days, would have been executed if caught. Instead of Paul sheltering the fugitive slave, he sent him back to Philemon with a letter - a letter that can still be read in the New Testament today.

In it Paul reminded Philemon that he was owed a favour by Philemon as Paul had been instrumental in his conversion - in fact Paul was so bold as to say that Philemon owed him his very life! He then implored Philemon to take back Oneisimus, who has also now become a Christian, not as a slave, but as a fellow Christian and a brother, as he should put his new Christian principles into action.

It seems that Philemon obeyed Paul to the letter. We hear of Onesimus later in another one of Paul's letters, but we are uncertain that he and Onesimus are one and the same. More probably, Onesimus went on to become Bishop at Ephesus as there are early records suggesting that this actually happened.

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11y ago

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