Philemon 4–21

⁴I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers, ⁵hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints, ⁶in such sort that thy participation in the faith should become operative in the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in us towards Christ Jesus. ⁷For we have great thankfulness and encouragement through thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.

⁸Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting, ⁹for love’s sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus, ¹¹once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me: ¹²whom I have sent back to thee: but do thou receive him, that is, my bowels: ¹³whom I was desirous of keeping with myself, that for thee he might minister to me in the bonds of the glad tidings; ¹⁴but I have wished to do nothing without thy mind, that thy good might not be as of necessity but of willingness: ¹⁵for perhaps for this reason he has been separated from thee for a time, that thou mightest possess him fully for ever; ¹⁶not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother, specially to me, and how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? ¹⁷If therefore thou holdest me to be a partner with thee, receive him as me; ¹⁸but if he have wronged thee anything or owe anything to thee, put this to my account. ¹⁹I Paul have written it with mine own hand; I will repay it: that I say not to thee that thou owest even thine own self also to me. ²⁰Yea, brother, I would have profit of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in Christ. ²¹Being confident of thine obedience, I have written to thee, knowing that thou wilt do even more than I say.