Within Philemon 8-9, the apostle Paul was leading up to making a request of a fellow Christian named Philemon. As the specific request begins (mid-sentence in the NIV translation, I’m afraid, but that’s where the verse division fell), we meet someone named Onesimus.
that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
Philemon 1:10-11 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/phm.1.10-11.NIV
Now, if we were reading this book of the Bible on our own, we might stumble over how to pronounce this name, and if we hadn’t finished the chapter yet, things might not make complete sense at this point. So, what should we do when we encounter something like this when reading the Bible? What do we do when the names don’t make sense and we don’t know how these people and situations all fit together? I suggest two “tactics”:
First, keep reading. While Philemon already knew who Onesimus was, so Paul didn’t have to explain that in this letter, we – as outside readers – might need more context to piece things together. In fact, the rest of this story comes together if we study the whole chapter. While not every big question in the Bible is as neatly wrapped up as certain topics in this short (25-verse) book, we can’t just stop when we get stuck.
Secondly, this is where another Bible study technique might be useful: we can get help! There are lots of external sources from which we can learn more about the Bible, ranging from pastors and other Christians to commentaries and reputable sites on the Internet. In fact, at least two Bible translations (a couple that I used when preparing this lesson) included help right in their footnotes. Both of them mentioned that the name “Onesimus” means “useful”. I appreciate the translators including these notes. After all, I’m not a scholar of the Greek language, but translators – by definition – should already have those skills.
So, even though the meaning of his name doesn’t tell us who Onesimus is, we can see that Paul was using a little wordplay here. Onesimus – “useful” – became useless to Philemon, but later he was useful both to Philemon and to Paul. (Today, for a similar style of illustration, I suppose that we might talk about a girl named “Hope” who lost hope, but then realized the love of God and became hopeful again.)
In addition, using a modern Bible search site (which is much faster than the days when I used a concordance to find references in the Bible), we might also discover that while Philemon’s name only appears in the Bible within this book, the name Onesimus also shows up in Colossians 4:9, which suggests that Philemon and those of his household were from the ancient city of Colossae.
Continuing to learn more about this book from the verses so far, we find a detail about Paul’s situation: Paul is writing from prison. (While verse 10 could leave open the possibility that Paul was previously in prison when he met Onesimus, other verses suggest that Paul was still a prisoner at the time of his writing here.) This imprisonment was implied by his self-introduction as “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” (see Philemon 1), but verse 10 adds weight to the idea that the earlier comment wasn’t just a metaphor or description of Paul’s commitment to Jesus.
From elsewhere in the Bible and other first-century sources, Paul’s imprisonment might have been what we call “house arrest” today, but the fact is that Paul’s freedom – at the time of this letter – was limited. And, Paul’s lack of physical freedom was a result of his expression of his faith in Jesus.
In Philemon 12-14, we learn that Paul was sending Onesimus back to Philemon. So, if Onesimus was with Paul, but was being sent back to Philemon (and had been separated from Philemon, per verse 15), we can safely conclude that Onesimus was previously with Philemon. Now, we’re starting to get more of the story: Philemon didn’t need an explanation about who Onesimus was, because they already knew each other.
And, we find that Onesimus was helping Paul. Whether Paul was chained to a soldier or to the floor; whether he was in a jail or in a house: Roman imprisonment limited what someone could do. So, Paul definitely needed help, and rather than him just using a local delivery service, it sounds like Onesimus was helping him continue his ministry even when Paul couldn’t get up and travel from place to place whenever he wanted to.
As much as Paul appreciated Onesimus’s help, though, he sought Philemon’s permission to continue that arrangement. Even if we don’t know the rest of this story yet – even without the rest of the chapter – we might be starting to figure out what is going on here. More on that in the next article, but you’re welcome to read the entire book of Philemon on your own. Hopefully, if you’ve been following along, some of the earlier articles’ suggestions (for how to read the Bible and learn on your own) will prove helpful in that.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for August 17, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – Philippians, Colossians & Philemon, by Anthony L. Ash. © 1994 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 