Philemon 8–17

⁸Wherefore, though I have much confidence in Christ Jesus to command thee that which is to the purpose:

⁹For charity sake I rather beseech, whereas thou art such a one, as Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also of Jesus Christ.

¹⁰I beseech thee for my son, whom I have begotten in my bands, Onesimus,

¹¹Who hath been heretofore unprofitable to thee but now is profitable both to me and thee:

¹²Whom I have sent back to thee. And do thou receive him as my own bowels.

¹³Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bands of the gospel.

¹⁴But without thy counsel I would do nothing: that thy good deed might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary.

¹⁵For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from thee that thou mightest receive him again for ever:

¹⁶Not now as a servant, but instead of a servant, a most dear brother, especially to me. But how much more to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?

¹⁷If therefore thou count me a partner, receive him as myself.