I prefer to appeal to you in the name of love, simply as what I am??aul, no less an envoy of Christ Jesus, though now a prisoner for him

Once you found him useless, but now he has become useful to you and to me,

and now that I send him back to you, it is like sending my very heart.

I would have liked to keep him with me, to wait on me in your place while I am in prison for the good news,

For perhaps this is why you and he were parted for a while, that you might have him back forever,

So if you regard me as a comrade, welcome him as you would me.