Philemon 1:16

Philemon 1:16. No longer as a servant. He could no more be looked on as the mere slave, as before. It was not necessary that his freedom should be given to him, that might or might not be done, as seemed best to Philemon, but having been called in the Lord, he has become, though a bond-servant, the Lord's freeman. And this is to be free indeed. And the master, being himself a brother in Christ, can no longer think of Onesimus as a slave.

but above a servant. The Christian master was to render to his slaves under all circumstances that which was just and equal (Colossians 4:1); but now that Onesimus had become a believer, he was lifted, in the eyes of the apostle, to a higher level, and his master would admit his greater claims to consideration, because in return the slave who was a Christian was a better servant than any other would ever be. His work was labour for a brother, and so would be zealously cared for, and in return his position in point of affection and trust would be higher than his fellows.

a brother beloved, specially to me. For St. Paul has already called him not ‘brother,' but by the tenderer name of ‘child.'

but how much more unto thee. He already in thought anticipates the result of Philemon's act of forgiveness. He knows how an act of Christian love, bestowed as he is sure this will be, makes the recipient an object of still greater affection; and so, though he has rated his own love for Onesimus most highly, he describes Philemon's as greater still.

both in the flesh, in those temporal relations, which now, instead of being strained as in former times, will become a labour of love, for the slave will strive ever to show his sense of the forgiveness.

and in the Lord. For the spiritual bond of brotherhood in Christ was now added to the ties which existed between master and servant.