Refresh my heart in Christ.
Beloved:
I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the holy ones
have been refreshed by you, brother.
Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ
to order you to do what is proper,
I rather urge you out of love,
being as I am, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I should have liked to retain him for myself,
so that he might serve me on your behalf
in my imprisonment for the Gospel,
but I did not want to do anything without your consent,
so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.
Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.
And if he has done you any injustice
or owes you anything, charge it to me.
I, Paul, write this in my own hand: I will pay.
May I not tell you that you owe me your very self.
Yes, brother, may I profit from you in the Lord.
Refresh my heart in Christ.
Paul writes from prison, being a prisoner for 5-6 years altogether. He writes to his old friend, Philemon, asking for a favor to receive Onesimus as a free man. The request is enormous because Onesimus is a runaway slave of Philemon. Philemon hosted a church in Colossus in his house, his family followed Christ and helped Paul before. Paul is writing to a co-worker in ministry and a friend of Jesus, entrusting him with a precious request to free his old slave who has proven to be worthy of becoming one of them. It is a very bold request, and he connects it with deep-seated feelings and agape love.
In both instances, v 7 and 20, for the word ‘heart’ he doesn’t use typical Gr, ‘cardia’ but ‘splanchna’ which means ‘the inward parts, the heart, affections, seat of the feelings’. And in both instances for ‘refresh he uses “anapauó” meaning t’o give rest after completing the task, give intermission from labor’.
God wants you to be refreshed emotionally IN CHRIST. God cares about your daily labor, ministry, family, more than you can imagine.
It is good to reach out to friends for help when you are in a prison. Prison, meaning, outward circumstances which bring turmoil and stop our call’s advancement as we thought it should go. It makes us turn toward Christ and rely on others. But when outwardly circumstances, no matter how hard, are not having the best of us, we can think, pray, act in the freedom of hearts seeking the Kingdom everywhere. We can be outwardly in prison but have enough freedom to ask away for big things.
By freeing Onesimus, Philemon will experience freedom on another level. In Orthodox tradition, Onesimus becomes an apostolic missionary and bishop of Ephesus.