This book examines the way the life of a believer changes after he or she is "born again" into eternal life and how that new life changed socila norms. Paul focused on how new life in Christ fundamentally transforms personal relationships with others and God. Paul passed on - to us - universal principles from God that must ultimately topple the foundations of injustice in any form when they are taken seriously. Onesimus had escaped from his owner, Philemon, and run away from Colossae to Rome, probably in the hope that he could disappear into that populous, urban environment. Once in Rome, Onesimus met Paul - who was restrained as a Roman prisoner in Rome, but his own rented house. Paul told the runaway slave the Good News and he gave his life to Jesus Christ. Paul had already been planning to send a letter to the Colossian church by the hand of Tychicus. So, in AD 60 or 61, Paul wrote a personal letter to Philemon and sent Onesimus the slave back to Colossae with the letter.