But amongst these, thus ministering unto him, was one in whom he felt a peculiar interest. This was a slave, named Onesimus, who had run away from his master Philemon[1156], a Christian[1157] of Colossæ, and had fled to Rome, where, amidst the vast population of the metropolis, he probably hoped to escape the notice of his pursuers. Through circumstances which have not been recorded, the fugitive slave became acquainted with the imprisoned Apostle, and was converted to the faith of Christ. There appears to have been something peculiarly attractive in his character, and so useful did he prove in various private ways, that St Paul would have kept him at Rome and employed him in the service of the Gospel (Philem. 13), but, with his habitual regard for the rights of others, he decided that he must first return and be reconciled to his master; and to make this duty less painful, he sent with him a letter[1158] to Philemon, in which he requested his master to forgive him, and offered to reimburse any loss he might have sustained by his running away (Philem. 19), and at the same time expressed his thankfulness to God for the account which he had heard of Philemon’s faith and love (Philem. 4–7). But Onesimus was not to return to the East alone. Tychicus was on the point of setting out thither also, and it was the Apostle’s wish that he should be the bearer of a letter to the church of Colossæ[1159]. Of the condition of this church he had heard through Epaphras, now present in Rome, and who is regarded by some as its probable founder[1160] (Col. i. 7), and the news was such as to give him serious concern. Through the coming of some teacher, probably from Alexandria, the Colossians had become imbued with a spirit of a half-Jewish and half-Oriental philosophy, tending to corrupt the simplicity of their faith, and to obscure the dignity of Christ by a spurious union of Jewish observances with a worshipping of angels, and an extravagant asceticism. These growing evils St Paul deemed his duty to counteract, and in the Epistle, of which Epaphras was the bearer, set forth with special prominence the eternal glory and inherent dignity of Christ (Col. i. 15–23), and after cautioning the Colossians against false philosophy, legal observances, angel-worship, and asceticism (Col. ii.), exhorted them to various Christian virtues (Col. iii.‒iv. 6), referred them to Tychicus and Onesimus for information respecting his condition (Col. iv. 7–9), and requested them to forward the Epistle to Laodicea, and to read that from the same place (Col. iv. 16).