8. Wherefore having much boldness in Christ to enjoin thee what is fitting,
9. for love's sake I rather exhort, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also prisoner of Jesus Christ.
10. I exhort thee for my child, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus,
11. once unserviceable to thee, but now serviceable to thee and to me:
12. whom I have sent back to thee: but do thou receive him, that is, my bowels:
13. whom I was desirous of keeping with myself, that for thee he might minister to me in the bonds of the glad tidings;
14. but I have wished to do nothing without thy mind, that thy good might not be as of necessity but of willingness:
15. for perhaps for this reason he has been separated from thee for a time, that thou mightest possess him fully for ever;
16. not any longer as a bondman, but above a bondman, a beloved brother, specially to me, and how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?
17. If therefore thou holdest me to be a partner with thee, receive him as me;
18. but if he have wronged thee anything or owe anything to thee, put this to my account.