Philemon 1:14

but I did not want to do anything without first getting your consent, so that your goodness would not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

Philemon 1:14

But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.

Thy benefit

Bible References

Thy benefit

I know also, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness and integrity. In the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. So now with joy I have seen Your people who are present here, make their offerings willingly and freely to You.

Your people will offer themselves willingly [to participate in Your battle] in the day of Your power;
In the splendor of holiness, from the womb of the dawn,
Your young men are to You as the dew.

[Consider this:] Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?

For if the eagerness [to give] is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

That is why I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you [before I come] and make arrangements in advance for this generous, previously promised gift of yours, so that it would be ready, not as something extorted [or wrung out of you], but as a [voluntary and] generous gift.

shepherd and guide and protect the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not [motivated] for shameful gain, but with wholehearted enthusiasm;