Philemon 8-14

World English Bible

⁸ Therefore though I have all boldness in Christ to command you that which is appropriate, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom I have become the father of in my chains,^{[a] 11} who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to me. ¹² I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, ¹³ whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News. ¹⁴ But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.