and to [your wife] Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier [in ministry], and to the church that meets in your house:

I pray that by their participation in your loyal faith they may have a vivid sense of how much good we Christians can attain.

For I have had great joy and comfort and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints (God’s people) have been refreshed through you, my brother.

So although as a Christian I feel quite free to order you to do what ought to be done,

no longer as a slave, but [as someone] more than a slave, as a brother [in Christ], especially dear to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh [as a servant] and in the Lord [as a fellow believer].

Come, brother, let me make something out of you, in a Christian sense! Cheer my heart as a Christian.