Onesimus, (Beneficial) is a slave who, after robbing his master Philemon at Colosse, fled to Rome, where by GOD, he was converted through the apostle Paul, who then sends him back to his master with the epistle which bears his name. In it he pleads with Philemon to receive his slave as a "faithful and beloved brother." Paul offers to pay Philemon anything his slave had taken, and to bear the wrong
he had done him. He was accompanied on his return by Tychicus, the bearer of the Epistle to the Colossians. (Philemon 1:16, 18). The story of this fugitive Colossian slave is a remarkable evidence of the freedom of access to the prisoner which was granted to all, and a beautiful illustration both of the character of the apostle Paul and the transfiguring power and righteous principles of the gospel of Christ.