Chapter 1

¹Paul, a prisoner for Jesus Christ, and brother Timothy, to our dear fellow-worker Philemon, ²and our sister Apphia, and our fellow-soldier Archippus, and the church that meets in your house; ³God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

⁴I never mention you in my prayers without thanking my God ⁵for what I hear of the love and faith you have in the Lord Jesus and all his people, ⁶and I pray that through coming to know every good thing about us as Christians they may effectually share your faith. ⁷I have been greatly pleased and encouraged over your love, for the hearts of God’s people have been cheered, my brother, by you.

⁸So although as a Christian I feel quite free to order you to do what ought to be done, ⁹I prefer to appeal to you in the name of love, simply as what I am—Paul, no less an envoy of Christ Jesus, though now a prisoner for him ¹⁰I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I have become here in prison. ¹¹Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me, ¹²and now that I send him back to you, it is like sending my very heart. ¹³I would have liked to keep him with me, to wait on me in your place while I am in prison for the good news, ¹⁴but I do not wish to do anything without your consent, so that your kindness might be voluntary, and not have the appearance of compulsion. ¹⁵For perhaps this is why you and he were parted for a while, that you might have him back forever, ¹⁶not as a slave any longer but more than a slave, a dear brother—dear especially to me, but how much dearer to you, both as a man and as a Christian! ¹⁷So if you regard me as a comrade, welcome him as you would me. ¹⁸And if he has caused you any loss or owes you anything, charge it to my account. ¹⁹I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—not to mention the fact that you owe me your very self besides. ²⁰Come, brother, let me make something out of you, in a Christian sense! Cheer my heart as a Christian.

²¹I write you in full reliance upon your obedience; I know that you will do even more than I ask. ²²And get ready to entertain me too, for I hope that I shall be restored to you, in answer to your prayers.

²³Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner for Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you, ²⁴and so do my fellow-workers, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke.

²⁵The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.