AUTHOR: This is one of the four letters the Apostle Paul wrote during his imprisonment in Rome [Phm 1:1].

THEME: The theme of Paul's epistle to Philemon is reconciliation. Paul wrote this letter probably during his first imprisonment in Rome [Acts 28:16-31]. It is a personal request of the apostle Paul on behalf of a slave. Philemon was a member of the Colossian Church, a friend of Paul and the legal owner of the slave Onesimus, who had robbed his owner and fled to Rome, where he met the Apostle Paul and there responded to the Good News of Salvation and was converted to faith in Christ [ Phm 1:10]. Paul wrote this epistle begging Philemon, as a brother in the Christian faith, to take Onesimus back, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ, offering to make good the damage done. Under Roman law, a runaway slave was punishable by death. Paul's intercession for Onesimus illustrates what Christ did for us who were slaves to sin. Just as Onesimus was reconciled to Philemon, we are reconciled to God through Christ. Just as Paul offered to pay a slave's debts, Christ paid our sin debt.

COMPILATION: This epistle was sent by the same messenger, Tychicus, who carried the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, and was written about the same period as the Epistle to the Ephesians A.D. 59/61. or 62 A.D. It consists of 1 chapter and 25 verses.