If you count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself.
All Commentaries on Philemon 1:17 Go To Philemon 1
John Chrysostom
AD 407
No procedure is so apt to gain a hearing, as not to ask for everything at once. For we see Paul only introduces the heart of the matter after praising Philemon and with much preparation. After having said that Onesimus is “my son,” that he is a partaker of the gospel, that he is “my very heart,” that you receive him back “as a brother” and “regard him as a brother,” then Paul has added “as myself.” And Paul was not ashamed to do this. For he who was not ashamed to be called the servant of the faithful but confesses that he was such, much more would he not refuse this.
