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Phm_1:8. Διό ] explains the ground for the following διὰ τ . ἀγάπ . μᾶλλον παρακαλῶ : Wherefore (because I have so much joy and solace from thee), although I am by no means wanting in great boldness (1Ti_3:13; 2Co_3:12; Php_1:20) to enjoin upon thee what is becoming, I will rather for love’s sake exhort, will make exhortation take the place of injunction. Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact (comp. also Theodoret), Erasmus, Michaelis, Zachariae, and others attach διό to the participial assertion. This is unpsychological; what Paul has said in Phm_1:5 [7] accords not with commanding, but with entreaty.
ἐν Χριστῷ ] In Christ, as the element of his inner life, Paul knows that his great confidence has its basis. But this fellowship of his with Christ is not merely the general Christian, but the apostolic, fellowship.
τὸ ἀνῆκον ] that which is fitting, that is, the ethically suitable; Suidas: τὸ πρέπον ; not used in this sense by Greek writers. Comp. however, Eph_5:4; Col_3:18; 1Ma_10:40; 1Ma_10:42; 1Ma_11:35; 2Ma_14:8. Thus Paul makes that, which he desires to obtain from Philemon, already to be felt as his duty.
διὰ τὴν ἀγάπην ] is understood by some of the love of Philemon (Calvin and others, Cornelius a Lapide: “ut scilicet solitam tuam caritatem in servum tuum poenitentem ostendas”); by others, of the love of the apostle to Philemon (Estius and others); by others again, ἣν κἀγὼ ἔχω πρός σε , καὶ σὺ πρὸς ἐμέ (Theophylact; comp. Oecumenius and others; Grotius: “per necessitatem amicitiae nostrae”). But all these limitations not expressed in the text are arbitrary; it is to be left general: on account of love, in order not to check the influence of the same (which, experience shows, is so great also over thee), but to allow it free course. It is the Christian brotherly love in abstracto, conceived of as a power; 1 Corinthians 13.