Philemon 1

¹Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker,

²to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the assembly in your house:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,

⁵hearing of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,

⁶that the fellowship of your faith may become effective in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.

⁷For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate,

⁹yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have become the father of in my chains,

¹¹who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me.

¹²I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,

¹³whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.

¹⁴But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.