Philemon 8-16

Authorized (King James) Version

⁸ Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ. ¹⁰ I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: ¹¹ which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me: ¹² whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels: ¹³ whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel: ¹⁴ but without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. ¹⁵ For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever; ¹⁶ not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh, and in the Lord?