9. I appeal to you, instead, on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus,
10. appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. I fathered him while I was in chains.
11. Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful both to you and to me.
12. I am sending him back to you as a part of myself.
13. I wanted to keep him with me, so that in my imprisonment for the gospel he might serve me in your place.
14. But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will.