Philemon 1:2 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Apphia was the Roman name of a woman; the naming of her before Archippus, a minister, makes it probable she was Philemon's wife. It appears this Archippus was a minister, from Colossians 4:17. He calleth him his fellow soldier, because he was engaged in some of those many dangers Paul encountered, but we are not told in Scripture which. And to the church in thy house; all those Christians that live in thy family: we have the like expression, Romans 16:5 1 Corinthians 16:19 Colossians 4:15. The apostle doth not always by the term church signify a body under ecclesiastical discipline, but sometimes calleth a company of Christians ordinarily conversing together by that name. Those who think the body of the church were wont constantly to meet in Philemon's house, seem not to consider how the dangers of those times made such a thing hardly practicable.