1. Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,To Philemon our beloved fellow worker
2. and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:
3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers,
5. because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints,
6. and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.
7. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
8. Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,
9. yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you—I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus—
10. I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.
11. (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)
12. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.