Philemon 1:19

I Paul have written —write it (Revised Version)— with my own hand, I will repay it. Thus St. Paul took upon himself legally the repayment of the debt. " Prioribus verbis proprie cautio [a bail or security] continetur: his autem constituti obligatio. Hoc Latine dicitur pecuniam constituere: de quo titulus est in Digestis ἀναδέχεσθαι dicunt Graeci " (Scipio Gentilis). Albeit I do not say to thee, etc.; "though I do not remind thee [while so saying] that thou owest even thyself to me!" Philemon owed to the apostle that debt of which the obligation outweighed every other—the help by which he had been led out of spiritual darkness and brought to the knowledge of the truth. St. Paul was (as we must conclude from this allusion) the "spiritual father" of Philemon—a phrase he himself uses in 1 Corinthians 4:15 .