One page that undoes a chain — a runaway received as a brother.
"I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my ______."
Philemon is Paul's shortest letter — twenty-five verses asking one man to forgive one runaway slave, Onesimus, and receive him 'a brother beloved.'
Onesimus means 'profitable' — and Paul can't resist the pun: he 'in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me.'
Paul offers to pay Onesimus's debts personally — 'put that on mine account' — then reminds Philemon he owes Paul his very soul. Holy negotiating at its finest.
Decades later, a bishop of Ephesus named Onesimus appears in early church letters. Many love to believe it's the same man — the runaway who came home.