Paul's Letter To Shilemon Analysis

Paul’s Letter to Philemon Though Philemon was Paul’s shortest letter that exists today, it deals with a quite substantial topic. The topic is that of the relationship between Christian slave holders and the slaves they owned. In just one chapter Paul explains his purpose for the letter and a proposal to fix the situation at hand. In his letter to Philemon, Paul argues his stance on the topic very well in order to win over Philemon, and we can use this argument and learn from it in our lives today, even though slavery is not a prominent issue in our society today. Paul’s letter to Philemon was focused on one main topic, slavery. Philemon’s slave, Onesimus, stole money or property from Philemon, his owner, and then fled. On his journey Onesimus found Paul, whether it was intentional or unintentional, and he explained his problem to Paul. Paul converts Onesimus to Christianity, then decides that it is best …show more content…
By repaying and replacing anything that Onesimus had stole he frees Philemon of any worries he may have had, and possibly even subdues some anger Philemon had toward Onesimus. Paul may have even been the one to lead Philemon to his belief in Christ. Paul writes, “May I not tell you that you owe me your very self” (v. 19), indicating that Philemon is in some kind of debt to Paul, which is very influential in his case of accepting Onesimus back. Also, Paul is an apostle. This means he is extremely well known and influential. It is substantially hard to not meet the requests of an apostle. At the end, Paul also tells Philemon that he expects to be freed soon and to “prepare a guest room” (v. 23) because he will soon be paying Philemon a visit. He is practically ensuring that his requests of Philemon will be fulfilled. Paul uses his position as an apostle throughout his argument in order to guarantee that his requests will be followed, and that Onesimus will be accepted back, treated better, and possibly even