Historians love digging through boxes in the attic or diving into the bottom of old trunks. Why? Such excavation often results in finding a cache of old letters. Unlike “official” historical documents, personal correspondence reveals the actual thought and emotions of an individual, what they believed and felt and what they actually did rather than say they did. With the advent of e-mail and the accompanying demise of paper correspondence, one wonders how future historians will connect with that level of honest penetration.

In this week’s epistle text we read one of only two truly personal letters found in the New Testament: Paul’s letter to Philemon. The other? John 3’s letter to Gaius. Although in his opening salutation Paul includes his “brother” (“te adelphe”), Timothy, as a co-sender…