Philemon 1
1
Greeting
1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our* brother,
To Philemon, our* beloved brother* and fellow worker, 2 and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
3 Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pauline Prayer
4 I give thanks to my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. 6 I pray* that the sharing of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.* 7 For I have had much joy and comfort from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
Paul's Plea for Onesimus
8 Therefore, although I have great boldness in Christ to order you to do* what is proper, 9 yet on account of love, I rather appeal—since I am such a one as Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 10 I am appealing to you on behalf of my child, whom I became a father to in my* chains,* Onesimus, 11 who formerly was useless to you but now is useful both to you and to me. 12 I have sent him back to you in person, that is, sending* my very heart. 13 I would have wished to keep him with me, so that, on your behalf, he might serve me in my chains for the gospel. 14 But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your good would not be done* by compulsion but out of goodwill. 15 For it is possible that, for this reason, he was separated from you for a time, so that you might have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me; but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 If, therefore, you hold me as a partner, receive him as you would receive me.* 18 But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me. 19 I, Paul, have written this with my own hand: I will pay it back—not to mention to you that you are owing me even your own self. 20 Yes, brother, let me receive benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.
21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even beyond what I say. 22 At the same time also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.
Final Greetings
23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, extends his greetings to you, 24 as do* Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow workers.
25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.*
Notes
1 Greek the . Here, the Greek definite article functions pronominally, corresponding contextually to the English possessive our
2 The word brother is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
6 The independent clause I pray is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
6 Some ancient manuscripts insert the name Jesus at this point
8 The infinitive phrase to do is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
10 Greek the . Here, the Greek definite article functions pronominally, corresponding contextually to the English possessive my
10 Or imprisonment. So also v. 13
12 The participle sending is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
14 The word done is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
17 Greek receive him as me
24 The expression as do is supplied to the text on contextual considerations for the sake of clarity
25 Some ancient manuscripts insert Amen at this point
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Philemon 1: AFINTLIT
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
