Philemon 1

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

²and Apphia the beloved, and Archippus our fellow-soldier, and the assembly in thy house:

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

⁴I give thanks to my God, always making mention of thee in my prayers,

⁵hearing of thy love and faith that thou hast unto the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints,

⁶that the fellowship of thy faith may become working in the full knowledge of every good thing that [is] in you toward Christ Jesus;

⁷for we have much joy and comfort in thy love, because the bowels of the saints have been refreshed through thee, brother.

⁸Wherefore, having in Christ much boldness to command thee that which is fit —

⁹because of the love I rather entreat, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ;

¹⁰I entreat thee concerning my child — whom I did beget in my bonds — Onesimus,

¹¹who once was to thee unprofitable, and now is profitable to me and to thee,

¹²whom I did send again, and thou him (that is, my own bowels) receive,

¹³whom I did wish to retain to myself, that in thy behalf he might minister to me in the bonds of the good news,

¹⁴and apart from thy mind I willed to do nothing, that as of necessity thy good deed may not be, but of willingness,