Chapter 1

   Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother: To Philemon our dearly-loved fellow labourer--  

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   and to our sister Apphia and our comrade Archippus--as well as to the Church in your house.  

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   May grace be granted to you all, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  

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   I give continual thanks to my God while making mention of you, my brother, in my prayers,  

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   because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus and which you manifest towards all God's people;  

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   praying as I do, that their participation in your faith may result in others fully recognizing all the right affection that is in us toward Christ.  

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   For I have found great joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of God's people have been, and are, refreshed through you, my brother.  

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   Therefore, though I might with Christ's authority speak very freely and order you to do what is fitting,  

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   it is for love's sake that--instead of that--although I am none other than Paul the aged, and am now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,  

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   I entreat you on behalf of my own child whose father I have become while in my chains--I mean Onesimus.  

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   Formerly he was useless to you, but now--true to his name--he is of great use to you and to me.  

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   I am sending him back to you, though in so doing I send part of myself.  

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   It was my wish to keep him at my side for him to attend to my wants, as your representative, during my imprisonment for the Good News.  

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   Only I wished to do nothing without your consent, so that his kind action of yours might not be done under pressure, but might be a voluntary one.  

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   For perhaps it was for this reason he was parted from you for a time, that you might receive him back wholly and for ever yours;  

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   no longer as a slave, but as something better than a slave--a brother peculiarly dear to me, and even dearer to you, both as a servant and as a fellow Christian.  

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   If therefore you regard me as a comrade, receive him as if he were I myself.  

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   And if he was ever dishonest or is in your debt, debit me with the amount.  

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   I Paul write this with my own hand--I will pay you in full. (I say nothing of the fact that you owe me even your own self.)  

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   Yes, brother, do me this favour for the Lord's sake. Refresh my heart in Christ.  

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   I write to you in the full confidence that you will meet my wishes, for I know you will do even more than I say.  

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   And at the same time provide accommodation for me; for I hope that through your prayers I shall be permitted to come to you.  

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   Greetings to you, my brother, from Epaphras my fellow prisoner for the sake of Christ Jesus;  

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   and from Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.  

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   May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with the spirit of every one of you.  

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