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¹ Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother: To Philemon our dearly-loved fellow labourer--² and to our sister Apphia and our comrade Archippus--as well as to the Church in your house.³ May grace be granted to you all, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.⁴ I give continual thanks to my God while making mention of you, my brother, in my prayers,⁵ because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus and which you manifest towards all God's people;⁶ praying as I do, that their participation in your faith may result in others fully recognizing all the right affection that is in us toward Christ.⁷ For I have found great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of God's people have been, and are, refreshed through you, my brother.

⁸ Therefore, though I might with Christ's authority speak very freely and order you to do what is fitting,⁹ it is for love's sake that--instead of that--although I am none other than Paul the aged, and am now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,¹⁰ I entreat you on behalf of my own child whose father I have become while in my chains--I mean Onesimus.¹¹ Formerly he was useless to you, but now--true to his name--he is of great use to you and to me.¹² I am sending him back to you, though in so doing I send part of myself.¹³ It was my wish to keep him at my side for him to attend to my wants, as your representative, during my imprisonment for the Good News.¹⁴ Only I wished to do nothing without your consent, so that his kind action of yours might not be done under pressure, but might be a voluntary one.¹⁵ For perhaps it was for this reason he was parted from you for a time, that you might receive him back wholly and for ever yours;¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but as something better than a slave--a brother peculiarly dear to me, and even dearer to you, both as a servant and as a fellow Christian.¹⁷ If therefore you regard me as a comrade, receive him as if he were I myself.¹⁸ And if he was ever dishonest or is in your debt, debit me with the amount.¹⁹ I Paul write this with my own hand--I will pay you in full. (I say nothing of the fact that you owe me even your own self.)²⁰ Yes, brother, do me this favour for the Lord's sake. Refresh my heart in Christ.²¹ I write to you in the full confidence that you will meet my wishes, for I know you will do even more than I say.²² And at the same time provide accommodation for me; for I hope that through your prayers I shall be permitted to come to you.²³ Greetings to you, my brother, from Epaphras my fellow prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus;²⁴ and from Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.²⁵ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with the spirit of every one of you.