Study Desk

Therefore, though I have enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper,

Wherefore, though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient,

yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus—

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.

I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I fathered in my imprisonment,

I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds:

who previously was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and to me.

Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me:

I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending my very heart,

Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:

whom I wanted to keep with me, so that in your behalf he might be at my service in my imprisonment for the gospel;

Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel:

but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion, but of your own free will.

But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.