Philemon 1:21

thy obedience The obedience of love, as to a father and benefactor. Cp. Philippians 2:12. Not love of authority, but a tender gravity in a case so near his heart, speaks here.

I wrote Better, in English epistolary idiom, I have written.

also do more than I say He means, surely, that Philemon will emancipate his slave-brother. But he does not say so in set terms. "The word emancipation seems to be trembling on his lips, and yet he does not once utter it" (Lightfoot, p. 389). See further Introd., ch. 4.