The main purpose of this brief letter is to convince Philemon to take in his runaway slave, Oenisimus. A couple of things stand out to me in Paul’s appeal. One is that Paul is pretty insistent that Philemon do as Paul requests concerning Oenisimus, while still giving Philemon room to do it voluntarily. A second idea in this letter is that God can redeem missteps on our part and turn them to his good purpose, which in turn becomes a good purpose for those around us.
Onesimus, 11 who was formerly useless to you, but is now useful to you and me.
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15 For perhaps it was for this reason that he was separated from you for a little while, so that you would have him back eternally,16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a dear brother.
Philemon 1:11, 15, 16
Again, as at the end of the Colossians letter, we get to hear about several of those real people that were a part of Paul’s mission and work.
