Neville Goddard on Philemon 1:10-16 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Philemon 1 in context

Scripture Focus

10I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

11Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:

12Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:

13Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel:

14But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

15For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever;

16Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?

Philemon 1:10-16

Biblical Context

Paul pleads with Philemon for Onesimus, once unprofitable, to be received back as profitable and as a beloved brother. He emphasizes voluntary reconciliation, not by compulsion, and suggests that Onesimus’ departure may have served to bring them into lasting unity in the Lord.

Neville's Inner Vision

Consider Onesimus as a state of consciousness that was outwardly unprofitable—perhaps ignorance, fear, separation consciousness. Paul’s statement that Onesimus is now profitable to Philemon and to Paul is a conversion of inner economics: a shift in the inner currency of value. The begging for Onesimus is not a person petitioning a master; it is your awareness petitioning itself to receive back a denied or estranged quality. The “bond” in which I am begotten indicates that trials or discipline in your life have acted as the womb of a new life in consciousness. When Paul sends Onesimus back and asks Philemon to receive him, not as a servant but as a brother beloved, this is your inner self inviting a once-distant aspect to live in the same field of awareness—in the flesh and in the Lord. Not by mind or force, but willingly, revealing that the new state arises freely when you choose to align with it. Perhaps the departure was conditioning necessary to reveal a deeper unity, which is now to be forever established through the Lord within you.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Assume the inner state already reconciled: you welcome the ‘Onesimus’ back as a brother. Feel it real by dwelling in that unity now, in the present moment, and notice the inner shift.