Paul's Plea for Onesimus

⁸Accordingly, mthough I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do nwhat is required, ⁹yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now oa prisoner also for Christ Jesus— ¹⁰I appeal to you for pmy child, qOnesimus,2 rwhose father I became in my imprisonment. ¹¹(Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) ¹²I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. ¹³I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me son your behalf tduring my imprisonment for the gospel, ¹⁴but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be uby compulsion but of your own accord. ¹⁵For this perhaps is why vhe was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, ¹⁶wno longer as a bondservant3 but more than a bondservant, as xa beloved brother—especially to me, but how much more to you, yboth in the flesh and in the Lord.

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