Philemon 1:4-16

⁴I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, ⁵hearing of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; ⁶that the fellowship of your faith may become effective, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in us, in Christ Jesus. ⁷For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

⁸Therefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, ⁹yet for love`s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now a prisoner also of Christ Jesus. ¹⁰I beg you for my child, whom I have fathered in my bonds, Onesimus, ¹¹who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me; ¹²I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, ¹³whom I wanted to keep with me, that in your behalf he might minister to me in the bonds of the gospel. ¹⁴But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will. ¹⁵For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while, that you would have him forever, ¹⁶no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, specially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.