Philemon 8-14

Lexham English Bible

Paul’s Appeal for Onesimus

⁸ Therefore, although I^[a] have great confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, ⁹ instead I appeal to you because of love, since I^[b] am such a one as Paul, now an old man and also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. ¹⁰ I am appealing to you concerning my child whom I became the father of during my imprisonment, Onesimus. ¹¹ Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful to you^[c] and to me, ¹² whom I have sent back to you himself, that is, my heart, ¹³ whom I wanted to keep with me, in order that he might serve me on behalf of you during my imprisonment for the gospel. ¹⁴ But apart from your consent, I wanted to do nothing, in order that your good deed might be not as according to necessity, but according to your own free will.