Refreshing the Saints

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.