Philemon 1:1

Plain English Version

I am Paul, and this letter is from me. I work for Jesus Christ. The bosses didn’t like me doing that, so they put me in jail. Our friend Timothy is here too. He is helping me write this letter. We are writing to you, Philemon. You work for Jesus, just like we do, and you are our good friend.

Cross References

Acts 16:1

Then Paul and Silas went to the town called Derbi, and then to the town called Listra. A Christian man called Timothy lived in Listra. Timothy’s mother was a Jew, and she believed in Jesus too, but Timothy’s father was a Greek.

1 Corinthians 3:9

We are like 2 men that work for God in his garden, and you are like God’s garden. And I’ll use another picture story. This picture story shows that you are like God’s house that he is building for himself.

Galatians 3:26

It’s like this now. You all believe in Jesus Christ, so you are joined to him, and you are all God’s kids.

Ephesians 3:1

You mob know about me, Paul, that I am in jail now. You see, I told you mob the message about Jesus. But the bosses didn’t like me talking about Jesus to people that are not Jews. So they put me in jail.

Ephesians 4:1

So now, even though I’m in jail because I follow Jesus, I’m asking you strongly to live the right way. You see, God picked you to be his own people, so you have to live his way.

Ephesians 6:20

but now he has sent me to tell this good story to everybody. The bosses here didn’t like me telling that story, so they put me in jail. I want you to ask God to make me brave, so that I keep on telling his good story.

Philippians 1:1

I am Paul, and this letter is from me, and it is from Timothy too, because he is helping me write it. We work all the time for Jesus Christ. We are sending this letter to all God’s special people at Philippi, you people that belong to Jesus Christ. We are writing to you Christian leaders, and to you church helpers, and to all you Christians.

Philippians 2:25

Right now I’m sending Epafroditus back to you. You sent him to me a while ago when I needed help. He came here and looked after me. He has been a good Christian friend to me here. We work together. We are both like soldiers fighting for God. But now I reckon I have to send him back to you.

Philippians 4:3

And now I’m talking to my other good friend there. Listen, my friend, you worked hard with me, and you always tried to follow Jesus properly. Now I want you to help those 2 women to be friends with each other. They both worked hard to tell people the good news about Jesus. They worked with me and Clement and some other Christians. God wrote the names of all those Christians in his special book called the book of life, where he writes the name of every person that will live with him for ever.

Colossians 1:1

I’m Paul, and this letter is from me. And Timothy is helping me write it too. God made me Jesus Christ’s special worker.

Colossians 4:11

And there is another man here that says hello to you. His name is Jesus, but we call him Justus. He says hello to you too. Those men are the only Jews that are working with me here. They are helping me get more people to come into God’s family, and they make this job much more easy for me.

2 Thessalonians 1:1

I am Paul, and this letter is from me. Silas and Timothy are here with me, and they are helping me write this letter. We are sending this letter to you Christians that are in God’s church, in the town called Thessalonica. You belong to God our father and to Jesus Christ our leader.

2 Timothy 1:8

You have to tell people about our leader Jesus. Don’t feel shame about that. And don’t feel shame about me because I’m in jail. I’m here because I told people about Jesus. But don’t worry. Just go ahead anyway and tell people about our leader Jesus. And then maybe some people might make trouble for you, just like they made trouble for me. But God will make you strong, and you will not worry about that trouble.

Philemon 1:23

Do you remember Epafras? He belongs to Jesus Christ, so they put him in jail here with me. He says hello to you.

Philemon 1:24

And remember Mark, Aristarkus, Demas and Luke. They work with me here, and they say hello to you too.

Philemon 1:9

You see, I love you a lot. You know me, Paul, and you know that I’m an old man. I work for Jesus Christ, so the bosses here put me in jail.