Philemon 1:16 says that Philemon would have Onesimus back forever, no longer as a bondservant, a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother. Does that mean that Paul wanted Philemon to release Onesimus from his slavery? Well, he does not say so, but it is hard to imagine receiving someone and loving them as a beloved brother, and then leaving them in the cruel chains of slavery.
Paul does not address slavery itself in this letter, rather his concern is simply that the grace that believers receive from God through his Son, would radically change and transform our lives and our relationships. That is his message. David Garland notes that as a companion to Paul's letter to the Colossians, which is written to a member of the Colossians at the same time, this brief personal letter to Philemon makes this point: that getting relationships straight is just as important as getting doctrine straight. That is what Paul is saying here. Paul made this very point in the letter to the Colossians - he urges believers to put to death therefore whatever is earthly within you (Colossians 3:5) and to put on the new self in Christ (Colossians 3:9–12). He talks about what the result is you will forgive one another; you will be forbearing with one another (Colossians 3:13). Philemon is a case study for Christians living between two worlds. We live in the earthly kingdom, with its laws and its ways of doing life, its norms and rules, but as Christians, we also live in the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Kingdom of Christ is about righteousness, peace and love in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). And so by Roman law, Philemon can do whatever he wants with his slave. But here Paul gently presses upon him the rule of love that is in Christ.
The letter of Philemon makes this same point [about the gospel changing relationships] to us — whether we experience pain inflicted upon us by persecution or social injustices, whether we have grievances with neighbors who do not comply with our expectations, or with political enemies who malign and oppose us, and especially with fellow Christians who have dared to disappoint us. The question Paul poses, that he wants us to address, , is how the facts of the gospel change our minds, change our attitude, change our hearts, change our thinking and acting. Jesus died for our sins while we ourselves were sinners. We deserved condemnation and yet we have received mercy by grace alone. He has given us a new and heavenly life by the Holy Spirit. He has brought us into a church body with a call that we will love one another. So here is the question: “How does that then change the way that we think and how we act? One scholar puts it this way, the reconciliation between Philemon and Onesimus becomes an active parable of the gospel itself, which breaks into the world of sin, suspicion, anger, pride and fear - with the good news that Jesus Christ has revealed God's purposes of salvation, of human wholeness, of loving and forgiving fellowship.1
Richard D. Phillips
16 non plus comme un esclave, mais comme supérieur à un esclave, comme un frère bien-aimé, de moi particulièrement, et de toi à plus forte raison, soit dans la chair, soit dans le Seigneur.