Title: Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Philemon
Author: Richard Francis Weymouth
Release date: September 1, 2005 [eBook #8845]
Most recently updated: March 14, 2015
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Martin Ward
Produced by Martin Ward
Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech, Philemon
Third Edition 1913
R. F. Weymouth
001:001 Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother:
To Philemon our dearly-loved fellow labourer—
001:002 and to our sister Apphia and our comrade Archippus—
as well as to the Church in your house.
001:003 May grace be granted to you all, and peace, from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
001:004 I give continual thanks to my God while making mention of you,
my brother, in my prayers,
001:005 because I hear of your love and of the faith which you
have towards the Lord Jesus and which you manifest towards
all God's people;
001:006 praying as I do, that their participation in your faith may
result in others fully recognizing all the right affection
that is in us toward Christ.
001:007 For I have found great joy and comfort in your love,
because the hearts of God's people have been, and are,
refreshed through you, my brother.
001:008 Therefore, though I might with Christ's authority speak very freely and order you to do what is fitting,
001:009 it is for love's sake that—instead of that—although I am none other than Paul the aged, and am now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,
001:010 I entreat you on behalf of my own child whose father I have
become while in my chains—I mean Onesimus.
001:011 Formerly he was useless to you, but now—true to his name—
he is of great use to you and to me.
001:012 I am sending him back to you, though in so doing I send
part of myself.
001:013 It was my wish to keep him at my side for him to attend
to my wants, as your representative, during my imprisonment
for the Good News.
001:014 Only I wished to do nothing without your consent, so that
his kind action of yours might not be done under pressure,
but might be a voluntary one.
001:015 For perhaps it was for this reason he was parted from you for a time, that you might receive him back wholly and for ever yours;
001:016 no longer as a slave, but as something better than a slave— a brother peculiarly dear to me, and even dearer to you, both as a servant and as a fellow Christian.
001:017 If therefore you regard me as a comrade, receive him as if
he were I myself.
001:018 And if he was ever dishonest or is in your debt, debit me
with the amount.
001:019 I Paul write this with my own hand—I will pay you in full.
(I say nothing of the fact that you owe me even your own self.)
001:020 Yes, brother, do me this favour for the Lord's sake.
Refresh my heart in Christ.
001:021 I write to you in the full confidence that you will meet my wishes,
for I know you will do even more than I say.
001:022 And at the same time provide accommodation for me; for I hope
that through your prayers I shall be permitted to come to you.
001:023 Greetings to you, my brother, from Epaphras my fellow prisoner
for the sake of Christ Jesus;
001:024 and from Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
001:025 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with the spirit of every one of you.