Philemon - Marianne Manley

Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, robbed his master and fled to Rome. He became a convert through Paul, wh sent him back with this letter.
This is a personal letter; it is almost as if we are reading it over the shoulder of Philemon.
This is one of Paul’s prison epistles written during his first Roman imprisonment. Paul mentions Timothy, “our brother” to help Philemon to grasp the new relationship between him and Onesimus.
Paul himself serves as a type of Christ as he offers to pay the debt of another. These verses are a picture of the SUBSTITUTION of Christ for the sinner and IMPUTATION of Christ’s Spirit to the believer.
We were lawbreakers, rebels, and enemies. We were slaves to Satan and sin, and trying to run away from God and doing things our own way.
The Lord Jesus gave His life and shed His blood to pay our sin debt. Our sins (demerits) were laid on Christ who had no sin; He put His righteousness on us (His merit).
The cost to Christ for our salvation was immense. A gift can cost the giver dearly but is free to the receiver. The Father loves His Son more than anything and He had to let Him go and rescue us. He bought us to set us free.
Paul probably wrote the IOU part of the letter in his own hand. He would repay any debt Onesimus had. Paul reminds Philemon that UOMe thine own self besides (his soul’s salvation).
Before we were saved we were unprofitable to God, but now with His Spirit in us as we renew our minds daily in His word rightly divided we can be profitable servants here and up there.
Christ in us makes us profitable to God when we obey our instructions in Romans to Philemon.
God did preserve His words and translated them perfectly in the King James Bible.