Filemom 1

These are the things you should say. Encourage and refute with full authority. Do not let anyone look down on you.

¹ From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker,

² to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.

³ May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be yours!

⁴ I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers,

⁵ because I keep hearing about your love and the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints.

⁶ I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective as you fully acknowledge every blessing that is ours in Christ.

⁷ For I have received considerable joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed, brother, through you.

⁸ For this reason, although in Christ I have complete freedom to order you to do what is proper,

⁹ I prefer to make my appeal on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an old man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus,

¹⁰ appeal to you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.

¹¹ Once he was useless to you, but now he is very useful both to you and to me.

¹² I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

¹³ I wanted to keep him with me so that he could serve me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel.

¹⁴ Yet I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be something forced, but voluntary.

¹⁵ Perhaps this is why he was separated from you for a while, so that you could have him back forever,

¹⁶ no longer as a slave but better than a slave—as a dear brother, especially to me, but even more so to you, both as a person and as a believer.

¹⁷ So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

¹⁸ If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to my account.

¹⁹ I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. (I will not mention to you that you owe me your very life.)

²⁰ Yes, brother, I desire this favor from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ!

²¹ Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you because I know that you will do even more than I ask.

²² Meanwhile, prepare a guest room for me, too, for I am hoping through your prayers to be returned to you.

²³ Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings,

²⁴ as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

²⁵ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit! Amen.