Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Greetings

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Messiah Jesus, and Timothy our brother: to our beloved Philemon, our colleague and partner, ² to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our comrade-in-arms, and to God’s people who meet in their house. ³ May grace and peace be upon you, from God our father and Messiah Jesus the Lord.

⁴ I always thank my God when your name comes up in my prayers, ⁵ because I’ve heard of your love and faithful loyalty towards the Lord Jesus and to all God’s people. ⁶ My prayer is this: that the partnership which goes with your faith may have its powerful effect, in realizing every good thing that is at work in us to lead us into the Messiah. ⁷ You see, my dear brother, your love gives me so much joy and comfort! You have refreshed the hearts of God’s people.

Paul’s appeal

⁸ Because of all this I could be very bold in the Messiah, and order you to do the right thing. ⁹ But, because of love, I’d much rather appeal to you—yes, it’s me, Paul, speaking, an old man as I am and now a prisoner of Messiah Jesus! ¹⁰ I am appealing to you about my child, the one I have fathered here in prison: Onesimus, “Mr Useful.” ¹¹ There was a time when he was useless to you; but now he’s very useful, to you and to me.

¹² I’m sending him to you for your decision—yes, sending the man himself; and this means sending my own heart. ¹³ I would have liked to keep him here with me, so that he could have been your representative in serving me in the chains of the gospel. ¹⁴ But I didn’t want to do anything without you knowing about it. That way, when you did the splendid thing that the situation requires, it wouldn’t be under compulsion, but of your own free will.

Paul’s perspective

¹⁵ Look at it like this. Maybe this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you could have him back forever— ¹⁶ no longer as a slave, but much more than a slave, as a beloved brother, beloved especially to me, but how much more to you, both as part of your household and in the Lord. ¹⁷ So, anyway, if you reckon me a partner in your work, receive him as though he was me. ¹⁸ And if he’s wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, put that down on my account. ¹⁹ This is me, Paul, writing with my own hand: I’ll pay you back (and far be it from me to remind you that you owe me your own very self!). ²⁰ Yes, my brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in the Messiah.

²¹ As I write this I’m confident that you’ll do what I say. In fact, I know you’ll do more than I say.

The cost of discipleship

²⁵ A large crowd was gathering around him. Jesus turned to face them.

²⁶ “If any of you come to me,” he said to them, “and don’t hate your father and your mother, your wife and your children, your brothers and your sisters—yes, and even your own life!—you can’t be my disciple. ²⁷ If you don’t pick up your own cross and come after me, you can’t be my disciple.

²⁸ “Don’t you see? Supposing one of you wants to build a tower; what will you do? You will first of all sit down and work out how much it will cost, to see whether you have enough to finish it. ²⁹ Otherwise, when you’ve laid the foundation and then can’t finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to make fun of you. ³⁰ ‘Here’s a fellow,’ they’ll say, ‘who began to build but couldn’t finish!’

³¹ “Or think of a king, on the way to fight a war against another king. What will he do? He will first sit down and discuss with his advisers whether, with ten thousand troops, he is going to be a match for the other side who are coming with twenty thousand! ³² If they decide he isn’t, he will send a delegation, while the other one is still a long way away, and sue for peace.

³³ “In the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions.