God’s work of reconciliation—which Paul elaborated upon in 2 Corinthians 5:20—is being thought out in the context of the outcome Paul envisions from Onesimus’s return to Philemon. Paul is not sending Onesimus back to Philemon so that he can reenter the same master/slave relationship from which he had earlier escaped. Paul wishes the house church over which Philemon presided to exemplify the agape¯ love to which he refers in the opening salutation.
