3. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. I give thanks to my God always, remembering you in my prayers,
5. as I hear of the love and the faith you have in the Lord Jesus and for all the holy ones,
6. so that your partnership in the faith may become effective in recognizing every good there is in us that leads to Christ.
7. For I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the holy ones have been refreshed by you, brother.
8. Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ to order you to do what is proper,
9. I rather urge you out of love, being as I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
10. I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
11. who was once useless to you but is now useful to [both] you and me.
12. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
13. I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel,