Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my bowels in the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.
- BSB Yes, brother, let me have some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.
- NKJV Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord.
- NASB Yes, brother, let me benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.
- NLT Yes, my brother, please do me this favor for the Lord’s sake. Give me this encouragement in Christ.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul asks Philemon, as a brother, to give him joy and refresh his heart in the Lord. Granting the request would be a gift to Paul himself.
Overview
Echoing verse 7, where Philemon refreshed the saints, Paul now asks to be refreshed in the same way. There may be a further play on the name Onesimus ("let me benefit from you"). The whole appeal is grounded "in the Lord," so that welcoming Onesimus is not merely a favor to Paul but an act of Christian love offered to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Phlm 1:7For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
- 3 Jn 1:4I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
- Heb 13:17Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
- Phlm 1:12Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own bowels:
- 2 Cor 2:2For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
- 2 Cor 7:4–7Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
- Phil 4:1Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
- 2 Cor 7:13Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.
- Phil 2:1–2If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
- Phil 1:8For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Th 2:19–20For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
- 1 Jn 3:17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
- 1 Th 3:7–9Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
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Christ at the center
The plea to receive a runaway slave as a beloved brother, charging his debt to Paul's account, is a living picture of how Christ receives us and pays what we owe.
How Philemon 1:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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