¹From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy the brother, to Philemon, our beloved and fellow worker, ²and to beloved Apphia and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church which is at your house, ³grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord, Jesus Christ. ⁴I thank my God, always making mention of you on the occasions of my prayers, ⁵when I hear of your love and faith which you have for the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, ⁶praying that the fellowship of your faith may be effective in acknowledgment of everything good among us in the cause of Christ Jesus. ⁷For we have much gratitude and encouragement at your love, because the inner hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother, ⁸which is why, although I have much frankness in Christ in instructing you about what is fit and proper, ⁹yet for love's sake, I exhort you – being such as I am, Paul the aged, and now also the prisoner of Jesus Christ – ¹⁰I exhort you concerning my own child, whom I begot in my bonds, Onesimus, ¹¹who was at one time useless to you, but is now really useful to you and me, whom I have sent back – ¹²now would you receive him, that is to say my own inner heart, ¹³whom I would have liked to hold on to for myself, in order that instead of you he might minister to me in the bonds of the gospel, ¹⁴but I did not want to do anything without your opinion, so that your good deed would not be as it were under compulsion, but of free will. ¹⁵For perhaps he absconded for a while for this reason: that you should receive him back permanently, ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but above a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, and how much more to you, with him both in the flesh and in the Lord. ¹⁷So if you consider me as a partner, receive him as you would me. ¹⁸And if he has wronged you in any matter or owes you anything, reckon that to me. ¹⁹I Paul have written with my own hand, “I will repay” – not to mention to you that you are for your part indebted to me for your own self. ²⁰Yes, brother, let me have the benefit of you being in the Lord: refresh my inner heart in the Lord. ²¹Trusting in your obedience, I have written to you knowing that you will even do more than what I say. ²²At the same time, also prepare me a guest-room, for I hope that through your prayers I will be granted release to you. ²³Epaphras my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, ²⁴Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers, greet you. ²⁵The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.