"I beseech you concerning my son, whom I have begotten in chains, Onesimus, who was once useless to you, but is now useful to both you and me, whom I have sent back to you. But you, receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, so that he might serve me on your behalf in the chains of the gospel. " In wishing to obtain what he asks for, he now asserts that he is pleading not for Philemon's slave, but for his own son. And regarding that son whom he has begotten in the chains of the gospel, that is, which he endured for the sake of Christ's gospel: who, although he was once useless to his master (for a slave who steals and runs away harms no one but his own master), now on the contrary, by way of compensation for his usefulness to both his master and Paul, and to others through Paul, he deserves more love than he had previously deserved hatred. He says, "Who was useless to you at one time." "To you alone," he says, "not to others: but now it is useful to both me and you." It is useful to the master in that he could serve Paul as his master; Paul, however, is useful in this: that he could minister to him in the Gospel while he was being held in prison and chains. And at the same time we admire the magnanimity of the apostle and his fervent mind in Christ. He is held in prison, is bound in chains, is oppressed by the filth of his body, by separation from his loved ones, is cramped by penal darkness, and yet he feels no wrong, he is not tortured by pain, he knows nothing else but to think about the Gospel of Christ. He knew the slave, he knew the fugitive, he knew that he had been converted to the faith of Christ by a kidnapper. It is a great effort for a man to persevere in what he has begun. Therefore, he impresses, repeats, and urges his son and the son of bonds, and minister of the Gospel who is imprisoned, that Philemon, praised only in the preface, would not dare to refuse, lest he appear unworthy of his own praises. And what he says: "But you accept him, that is, my heart," this is what I said a little earlier, that "heart" signifies the internal affection of the heart and the full willingness from the soul, when everything that is in us is received from the one asking. But otherwise, all children are the parents' hearts.
Ver. 12. "Thou therefore receive him, that is my own bowels."
And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that might move him, which is more affectionate than son. He has said, "son," he has said, "I have begotten" him, so that it was probable he would love him much, because he begot him in his trials. For it is manifest that we are most inflamed with affection for those children, who have been born to us in dangers which we have escaped, as when the Scripture says, "Woe, Barochabel!" and again when Rachel names Benjamin, "the son of my sorrow." [Genesis 35:18]
"Thou therefore," he says, "receive him, that is my own bowels." He shows the greatness of his affection. He has not said, Take him back, he has not said, Be not angry, but "receive him"; that is, he is worthy not only of pardon, but of honor. Why? Because he has become the son of Paul.
Whom I have sent again to you.
By this also he has quenched his anger, by delivering him up. For masters are then most enraged, when they are entreated for the absent, so that by this very act he mollified him the more.
Thou therefore receive him, that is my own bowels.
And again he has not given the bare name, but uses with it a word that might move him, which is more affectionate than son. He has said, son, he has said, I have begotten him, so that it was probable he would love him much, because he begot him in his trials. For it is manifest that we are most inflamed with affection for those children, who have been born to us in dangers which we have escaped, as when the Scripture says, Woe, Barochabel! and again when Rachel names Benjamin, the son of my sorrow. Genesis 35:18
Thou therefore, he says, receive him, that is my own bowels. He shows the greatness of his affection. He has not said, Take him back, he has not said, Be not angry, but receive him; that is, he is worthy not only of pardon, but of honor. Why? Because he has become the son of Paul.
Then when he says, I am sending him back to you, he makes his request. First, he makes it, then he answers a question: I had wanted to keep him here. And so he says, and do you welcome him as though he were my very heart. And this because I have seen him changed, the sign of which is, I send him back to you. On the contrary, Deuteronomy 23.15: ‘Thou shalt not deliver to his master the servant that is fled to you.’ I reply that is true when the master seeks him in order to put him to death. Therefore, he says, I did not want to do anything...’ Philippians 1-7: ‘I have the right to feel so about you, because I have you in my heart, all of you, alike in my chains.’
[AD 420] Jerome on Philemon 1:10-13