Verse 16 Not now as a servant; not as a slave. Philemon was to change entirely the nature of the relation which had subsisted between him and his bondman. (Compare Colossians 4:1.) The emancipation of slaves does not at all imply their separation from their masters. Emancipation is simply the substitution of wages for stripes, as the inducement to labor. We are not, therefore, to be surprised that Paul sent Onesimus back to his former home. If the slaves of a whole community were to escape from their thraldom, it would be the wisest philanthropy to send them all back to their wonted occupations again, with the injunction to their masters to receive them, not as slaves, but as fellow-men; provided that there was a reasonable ground to expect, as in this case, that the injunction would be obeyed.