REVISED STANDARD 2010 PHILEMON To Index |
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Philemon,
chapter 1
1: Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to
Philemon our beloved and fellow worker,2: and Ap'phia our sister and Archip'pus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: 3: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4: I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5: because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, 6: and I pray that the sharing of your faith may promote the knowledge of all the good that is ours in Christ. 7: For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. 8: Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9: yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you -- I, Paul, an ambassador and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus -- 10: I appeal to you for my child, Ones'imus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. 11: (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12: I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13: I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel;
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14:
but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your
goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will. 15: Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, 16: no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17:
So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
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