Philemon 1–11

Philemon’s Love and Faith

^1aPaul, ^ba prisoner of ^cChrist Jesus, and ^dTimothy ¹our brother,

To Philemon our beloved brother and ^efellow worker,

²and to Apphia ^1aour sister, and to ^bArchippus our ^cfellow soldier, and to ^dthe church in your house:

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

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

⁵because I ^ahear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the ¹saints;

⁶and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective ¹through the ^afull knowledge of every good thing which is in you ²for the sake of Christ.

⁷For I have come to have much ^ajoy and comfort in your love, because the ¹hearts of the ²saints have been ^brefreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore, ^athough I have much boldness in Christ to command you to do what is ^bproper,

⁹yet for love’s sake I rather ^aplead with you—since I am such a person as Paul, ¹the ^baged, and now also ^ca prisoner of ^dChrist Jesus—

Plea for Onesimus

¹⁰I ^aplead with you for my ^bchild ^1cOnesimus, of whom I became a ²father in my chains,

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