Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

Πεποιθὼς τῇ ὑπακοῇ σου ἔγραψά σοι, εἰδὼς ὅτι καὶ ὑπὲρ ἃ λέγω ποιήσεις.

Early Fathers

John Chrysostom (349-407)

Homilies on Philemon

Ver. 21. Having confidence in your obedience, I write unto you.

What stone would not these things have softened? What wild beast would not these things have rendered mild, and prepared to receive him heartily? After having borne witness to him by so many great testimonies of his goodness, he is not ashamed again to excuse himself. He says, Not barely requesting it, nor as commanding it, nor arbitrarily, but having confidence in your obedience I wrote to you. What he had said at the beginning, having confidence, that he also says here in the sealing up of his letter.

Knowing that you will also do more than I say.

At the same time in saying this he excited him. For he would have been ashamed, though for nothing else, if having such credit with him as this, that he would do more than he said — he should not do so much.

[For moral, see Phm 1:25]