Reading I
Phlm 1:7-20
For I have had great joy and consolation in thy charity, because the bowels of the saints have been refreshed by thee, brother.
Wherefore, though I have much confidence in Christ Jesus to command thee that which is to the purpose:
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.
I beseech thee for my son, whom I have begotten in my bands, Onesimus,
Who hath been heretofore unprofitable to thee but now is profitable both to me and thee:
Whom I have sent back to thee. And do thou receive him as my own bowels.
Whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered to me in the bands of the gospel.
But without thy counsel I would do nothing: that thy good deed might not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary.
For perhaps he therefore departed for a season from thee that thou mightest receive him again for ever:
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?
If therefore thou count me a partner, receive him as myself.
And if he hath wronged thee in any thing or is in thy debt, put that to my account.
I Paul have written it with my own hand: I will repay it: not to say to thee that thou owest me thy own self also.
Yea, brother. May I enjoy thee in the Lord! Refresh my bowels in the Lord.