Paul's Prison Epistles: Paul and PhilemonSample

Confidence: Philemon 21-25

After presenting his petition to Philemon, Paul ended with a statement of confidence in verse 21. Here, Paul expressed his belief that Philemon would do as the apostle asked. We read these closing words to Paul’s petition in Philemon 21:

Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask (Philemon 21).

Paul had two strong reasons for believing that Philemon would grant his request. First, Philemon respected and loved Paul, and therefore would have been motivated to please him. And second, Philemon loved the church, which Onesimus had just joined. 

Scripture does not record Philemon’s response for us, nor does it tell us what happened to Onesimus. For many centuries it was believed that Philemon released him and that he eventually became bishop of Ephesus, dying as a martyr in Rome in A.D. 95. And there certainly was a bishop Onesimus who succeeded Timothy in the first century. 

But in truth, Onesimus was a common name, so the slave may not have been the same man as the bishop. At the same time, a Christian trained by Paul easily could have risen to prominence, so we should not rule out the possibility.

In any event, Paul’s confidence in Philemon should incline us to suspect that he did whatever was best for Onesimus. And according to some scholars, the fact that we even possess Paul’s letter to Philemon implies that Philemon did the right thing since he probably would have destroyed the evidence of Paul’s request if he had not granted it. 

Now that we have looked at Paul’s petition to Philemon, we should turn to the last section of the letter, the Final Greetings to Philemon and his household, found in Philemon 22-25. 

This section contains rather standard greetings in verse 24, and a fairly standard blessing in verse 25. But two details in the earlier verses are worthy of special attention.

First, in verse 22 Paul expressed his expectation that he would be released from prison rather quickly, and he asked Philemon to prepare a room for him. No doubt this would have encouraged Philemon to grant Paul’s request as he would have to face the apostle himself in the near future.

Second, Paul sent a special greeting from Epaphras in verse 23, indicating that Epaphras served as a remote witness to the Philemon’s resolution of the matter with Onesimus.