First Reading: Philemon 7-20

⁷ For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.
⁸ Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required,
⁹ yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you — I, Paul, an ambassador and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus —
¹⁰ I appeal to you for my child, Ones’imus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment.
¹¹ (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.)
¹² I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.
¹³ I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel;
¹⁴ but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own free will.
¹⁵ Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever,
¹⁶ no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
¹⁷ So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me.
¹⁸ If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
¹⁹ I, Paul, write this with my own hand, I will repay it — to say nothing of your owing me even your own self.
²⁰ Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.