9. yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ—
10. I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains,
11. who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
12. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
13. whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel.
14. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
15. For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him 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 then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me.
18. But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account.