1:7. For I have had great joy and consolation in thy charity, because the bowels of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother.
1:8. Wherefore, though I have much confidence in Christ Jesus to command thee that which is to the purpose:
1:9. For charity sake I rather beseech, whereas thou art such a one, as Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also of Jesus Christ.
1:10. I beseech thee for my son, whom I have begotten in my bands, Onesimus,
1:11. Who hath been heretofore unprofitable to thee but now is profitable both to me and thee:
1:12. Whom I have sent back to thee. And do thou receive him as my own bowels.
1:13. Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bands of the gospel.
1:14. But without thy counsel I would do nothing: that thy good deed might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary.
1:15. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from thee that thou mightest receive him again for ever:
1:16. Not now as a servant, but instead of a servant, a most dear brother, especially to me. But how much more to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?