Philemon 1:7-18 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

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

8. Therefore, although I have great confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper,

9. instead I appeal to you because of love, since I am such a one as Paul, now an old man and also a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

10. I am appealing to you concerning my child whom I became the father of during my imprisonment, Onesimus.

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

12. whom I have sent back to you himself, that is, my heart,

13. whom I wanted to keep with me, in order that he might serve me on behalf of you during my imprisonment for the gospel.

14. But apart from your consent, I wanted to do nothing, in order that your good deed might be not as according to necessity, but according to your own free will.

15. For perhaps because of this, he was separated from you for a time, in order that you might have him back forever,

16. no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17. If therefore you consider me a partner, receive him as you would me.

18. But if in anything he has caused you loss or owes you anything, charge this to my account.

Philemon 1