for we have much joy and comfort in thy love, because by thee, dear brother, the bowels of the saints are refreshed.

Wherefore though I have sufficient authority in Christ to enjoin thee what is meet,

I intreat thee then for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds,

who was formerly unprofitable to thee, but now profitable both to thee and to me; whom I have sent back to thee:

Whom I would gladly have kept with me, that he might have ministered unto me as thou wouldst have done, in the bonds of the gospel.

I Paul have written it with my own hand, I will pay it: not to say that thou indeed owest even thy own self to me.

Being fully persuaded of thy compliance, I have written to thee; knowing that thou wilt indeed do more than I ask.