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Philemon: An Appeal for Grace and Forgiveness

Artwork for God’s Masterwork, Volume 6: Letters to God’s People—A Survey of Romans-Philemon

About six years before his execution, Paul wrote a postcard to his longtime friend Philemon, a citizen of Colossae. This, the shortest of the Apostle’s writings, is one of the grandest illustrations of grace and forgiveness in all of Scripture. It is a warm, passionate appeal to a slave owner to accept back, forgive, and reinstate his runaway slave Onesimus. Because of the obvious analogy with our being accepted by God and forgiven through His grace, this little letter has become one of the most treasured in the New Testament. See if you don’t agree as we work our way through these 25 verses.