1
Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer,
2
to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
3
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4
I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,
5
hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,
6
that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
7
For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.
8
Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting,
9
yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you--being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ--
10
I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains,
11
who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
12
I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
13
whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.
14
But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
15
For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever,