The phrase dear brother is a rendering of what in Greek is literally “brother” in a form of direct address, but in this context such a vocative expression suggests more than “brother” alone would, and therefore the addition of “dear” is justified in order to suggest the friendship which Paul is emphasizing. Dear brother may be rendered as “my dear fellow believer” or, as in some languages, “my dear friend.”

The key words are love (see verse 5), joy (see Col 1.11), and encouragement (Good News Translation) or “comfort” (Revised Standard Version); see the cognate verb parakaleō in Col 2.2, 4.8. Good News Translation has transformed the sentence from the passive (Revised Standard Version “I have derived … from your love”) to an active (your love … has brought me), as being more appropriate in English in this context.

Your love … has brought me great joy may be restructured as “because of your love, I have great joy,” or “… I rejoice very much,” or “… I am exceedingly happy.” It is important in this context to indicate clearly that your love refers to Philemon’s love for fellow believers and the way in which he obviously manifests that concern in helping them.

Has brought me … much encouragement may be expressed as “has caused me to take heart” or “… to have courage again.” This may be expressed metaphorically in some languages as “to cause my heart to be strong again.”

Some translations, like Revised Standard Version, join the two statements with “because,” taking the second one as the reason for the first one. Other translations, like Good News Translation, take the two as essentially separate statements.

Cheered the hearts represents the Greek “the hearts have been refreshed.” The verb anapauō (also verse 20) means “to revive, refresh.” Hearts represents the Greek “the bowels,” which is a biblical way of speaking of the emotions, the inner feelings (also verses 12, 20).

You have cheered the hearts of all of God’s people may be expressed as “you have caused all of God’s people to be happy” or, expressed metaphorically, “… have caused the hearts of all of God’s people to sing” or “… to dance.”

For God’s people see Col 1.2.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to Philemon. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1977. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .