8. Therefore, though I have plenty of boldness in Messiah to order you to do what’s right,
9. yet for love’s sake I appeal to you instead. I, Paul, am an old man and now also a prisoner belonging to Messiah Yeshua.
10. I beg you for my child Onesimus—for whom I became a spiritual father while in chains.
11. He once was useless to you, but now is useful both to you and me.
12. I sent him back to you—he is my very heart.
13. I really wanted to keep him with me, so that on your behalf he might serve me while I am in chains for the Good News.
14. But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness wouldn’t be by force but by free will.
15. For perhaps he was separated from you for a while in order that you might have him back forever,
16. no longer as a slave but more than a slave—as a beloved brother, especially to me but even more so to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.