Christian brothers. Paul did not write the letter to send a runaway slave back to his master or out of any convictions regarding the abiding validity of the institution of slavery and the importance of keeping this social structure intact. Rather, he wanted to bring Philemon and Onesimus together on a new footing established by the reconciling work of Christ, a topic to which Paul devotes considerable space in other epistles. The epistle to Philemon then at least implicitly raises the question how