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charge it to my account: This wording was commonly used to agree to repay a debt, as proved by other documents from the first century C.E. On the basis of this verse, some commentators suggest that before fleeing, Onesimus might have stolen from his master, perhaps reasoning that he could not survive long without some means to purchase food or to buy passage on a ship. Paul’s desire to reconcile these two Christians was so strong that he was even willing to do so at his own expense.