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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Philemon 1:16 - 1:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
No longer as a servant (ouketi hōs doulon). “No longer as a slave.” So it has to be here. So it should be always. Paul sends Onesimus, the converted runaway slave, back to his legal master, but shows that he expects Philemon the Christian to treat Onesimus as a brother in Christ, not as a slave.
But more than a servant (all' huper doulon). “But beyond a slave.”
A brother beloved (adelphon agapēton). A brother in Christ.
How much rather to thee (posōi de māllon soi). “By how much more to thee,” because of Philemon’s legal ownership of this now Christian slave. “In the flesh Philemon had the brother for a slave; in the Lord he had the slave for a brother” (Meyer).