Greeting
1Paul, aa prisoner for Christ Jesus, and bTimothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2and Apphia our sister and cArchippus our dfellow soldier, and ethe church in your house:
3fGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philemon's Love and Faith
4gI thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hhear of your love and iof the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full jknowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.1 7For I have derived much joy and kcomfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints lhave been refreshed through you.
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.
17So if you consider me zyour partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19aI, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. bRefresh my heart in Christ.
21cConfident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. 22At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for dI am hoping that ethrough your prayers fI will be graciously given to you.
Final Greetings
23gEpaphras, my hfellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, 24and so do iMark, iAristarchus, jDemas, and jLuke, my fellow workers.
25kThe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Terms of Endearment (TFL Listener Weekend)
Philemon 1:1–7 Sermon • 37:35 • ID: 2588Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.