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Philemon - ch 1 v 1 - 20
- Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timotheus the brother, to Philemon the beloved and our fellow-workman,
- and to the sister Apphia and to Archippus our fellow-soldier, and to the assembly which is in thine house.
- Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers,
- hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints,
- in such sort that thy participation in the faith should become operative in the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in us towards Christ Jesus.
- For we have great thankfulness and encouragement through thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
- Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting,
- for love's sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ.
- I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus,
- once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me:
- whom I have sent back to thee: but do thou receive him, that is, my bowels:
- whom I was desirous of keeping with myself, that for thee he might minister to me in the bonds of the glad tidings;
- but I have wished to do nothing without thy mind, that thy good might not be as of necessity but of willingness:
- for perhaps for this reason he has been separated from thee for a time, that thou mightest possess him fully for ever;
- not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother, specially to me, and how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?
- If therefore thou holdest me to be a partner with thee, receive him as me;
- but if he have wronged thee anything or owe anything to thee, put this to my account.
- I Paul have written it with mine own hand; I will repay it: that I say not to thee that thou owest even thine own self also to me.
- Yea, brother, I would have profit of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in Christ.
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