ONESIMUS

ONESIMUS

Colossians 4:7-9; Philemon; 2 Peter 1:5-8

Of all the accounts we have been considering and this is the last, in certain ways there is no more radiant revelation of the power of the great Physician than the one of Onesimus. His name only appears in a reference found in the letter to the Colossians, and the details given in the letter to Philemon. In passing we may say that in the King James' Version the name appears in two other places. It is found in the subscription to each of these two letters. At the close of the letter to the Colossians these words occur:

"Written from Rome to the Colossians by Tychicus and Onesimus."

At the close of the letter to Philemon we find:

"Written from Rome to Philemon by Onesimus a servant."

These are, to say the least, interesting references. The Revisers have omitted these subscriptions from all Paul's letters, because they form no part of the inspired Word. As a matter of fact they are ascribed to Euthalius, and are not to be found in MSS. earlier than those of the Fifth Century. In some cases examination shows that they contradict the contents of the epistle. In others they were evidently true to the facts, as I think they are in the Colossian and Philemon letters. The references, however, add nothing of value to our study of Onesimus.

Let it be remembered that this account of Onesimus has as its background the pagan world, with all its laws and its customs, into which Christ, as the great Physician, was moving out through His new mystical Body, the Church. As we read the letter we notice the scene shifts from Rome to Colosse. If that fact be examined, it will be discovered that the distance which Onesimus had to travel with that letter was close upon a thousand miles. That journey he took in the company of Tychicus. In itself it is a very revealing fact.

In order to an intelligent consideration of the account of Onesimus, it is necessary that we keep in mind the account that lies behind the letter. The certain fact is that he was a fugitive slave, the property of Philemon; he had left his master, and in all probability had robbed him. There is a reference to him, however, the interpretation of which may possibly be open to question. Let me say at once, however, that to me it is a fact that Onesimus was a brother of Philemon. Referring to him Paul said:

"No longer as a servant, but more than a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much rather to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord."

It is somewhat interesting to discover how all sorts of expositors seem to be in a difficulty in interpreting the meaning of that reference to him as a brother in the flesh to Philemon. The difficulty evidently consists in the fact that he was certainly a slave, and there seems to be doubt in the mind as to whether a brother could be a slave. Here it is quite necessary that we keep in mind that to which we have already referred, that here the background of everything is the pagan world. In that world slavery was prevalent. In all those cities there were found those who were born in slavery. There were also hundreds of slaves who became such as children, having been sold by their parents into slavery, that they might be freed from responsibility for them. There were also those who became slaves through poverty, and sold themselves. There were debtors who were made slaves. There were those who became slaves through capture in war. There were slaves from piracy and kidnapping. There were slaves as the result of offerings made to the temples. If we take the case of Athens, which then was at the zenith of its fame, Pausanias tells us that it had twenty-one thousand free citizens, ten thousand foreign residents, and four hundred thousand slaves. Now the fact is that blood relatives were sold into slavery. Here, I believe, then, we have a case of a brother who was a derelict, and who had robbed Philemon, and so had been doomed to slavery. From this he had fled, and had put a long distance between himself and Philemon, a thousand miles at least.

In Rome, somehow, he made contact with Paul. Seeing the relation that Paul bore to Colosse and Philemon, it may have been that he had known Paul, and so, perhaps in need, sought him out in Rome, where he was a prisoner. Of these things, of course, we have no definite statement. The one thing certain is that he did make that contact, and through it that he was led to Christ. As Paul says, "I have begotten him in my bonds."

It is also clearly evident that he had stayed with Paul, and had ministered to him in his imprisonment, making things easier for him. .Then there came a day when Tychicus was to take a letter from the apostle to the Church at Colosse. It was then that Paul decided that this man Onesimus must put to the practical test his relationship with Jesus Christ. He must go back to his master. To refer again to the subscription in the Authorized Version, if it is to be trusted, Onesimus wrote it himself at the dictation of Paul. Again we reach the point of certainty when we say that he travelled with Tychicus over the distances until he came to Philemon.

In this little letter we have two remarkable groups of portraits, and in addition, a central portrait. To see the groups we take first the names that we meet with at the beginning of the letter, and then those found at the close thereof. Seven are named as being in Rome: Paul, Timothy, Epaphras, Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke. Three of them are named as being in Colosse: Philemon, Apphia and Archippus; and these are surrounded by a larger and nameless group consisting of the household. At the center of everything is the portrait of Onesimus. The portrait is that of one man, and as a matter of fact, there are two portraits of him. The one is contained in the words, "Who was aforetime unprofitable to thee"; the second in the words, "Now is profitable to thee and to me."

We may omit all the words of those verses except two, which reveal the striking contrast. They are the words "unprofitable" and "profitable." In each case the word presents a picture. By the use of them it was quite evidently Paul's intention to create that very contrast, and to present it to the mind of Philemon.

Imaginatively we can look at the scene when Onesimus arrived, and Philemon saw him, received the parchment, and then read it. It must have been for Onesimus an hour of trial as he came back into the presence of one whom he had wronged. It was equally an hour of trial for Philemon as he looked at the man who had wronged him. Then as he read the letter, these two words must have arrested his attention, the one describing Onesimus as he had been, "unprofitable," and the other describing him as he then was in the view of Paul, "profitable."

Now here we are in the presence of a matter of arresting importance. In making his contrast between the past and the present in the case of Onesimus, he did not do so in the accidentals of material things or in the essentials of spiritual experience, but in the matter of his relationship to his fellow-men.

There can be no doubt that the contrast might have been made in many ways. It is conceivable, and almost inevitable that when, having run away, he reached Rome, he came shortly to the place of hunger and destitution. Now standing before Philemon he was neither hungry nor destitute.

It is equally true that in the old days he had been dead in trespasses and sins, and that now he was alive unto God. Paul, however, did not draw attention to these contrasts. The word "unprofitable" marks relationship to others. So also does the word "profitable." It is in that way that Paul directs the attention of Philemon to the change wrought in this man Onesimus.

This matter is so extreme in this account that we will take time to examine the two pictures before applying the principles. In passing we may note the fact that the man's name, Onesimus, means one who gave pleasure, or gave advantage, and so one who was profitable. However it does not suggest itself to me that when Paul made use of the word "profitable" he was in any sense referring to his name. Let us examine these two words in themselves. The word "unprofitable" is the word achrestos. The word "profitable" is the word euchrestos. In both words there is the root idea found in the word chrestos. In the one case the prefix is a, which is the negative. In the other the prefix is eu which is a superlative. The simple meaning of the root word chrestos is useful. When Paul says that in past days Onesimus was achrestos, the prefix cancels the value of the root idea, and simply means not useful, or of no use. We are further arrested by the fact that when Paul turned to describe his present position, he was not satisfied with dropping the negative, and using the word chrestos, he prefixed it with the eu, which marks completeness, so that now he declared this man was completely useful. It will be seen, therefore, how the words themselves constitute graphic painting, and reveal a striking contrast.

The root idea, then, is that of usefulness. That necessarily involves a sense of inter-relationship, the fact that no man liveth unto himself, an idea of the state in which every man gives and gets; the recognition of the fact that every man is either profitable or unprofitable to his fellow-men. The fact, therefore, that confronts us in the account is that a man's value is not that of his own personal perfection, but that of his usefulness to others.

Norman Macleod once wrote a little book called "Character Sketches." In that he has one entitled "T. T. Fitzroy, Esq." He pictures T. T. Fitzroy from his babyhood, through all his boyhood, surrounded with nurses and tutors and valets, all of them ministering to the needs of T T. Fitzroy! Norman Macleod then describes an old cobbler working as a shoemaker, who has taught a starling to speak. This starling talks as the people pass by and amazingly but definitely cheers the heart of those who hear him. Norman Macleod says that that cobbler making shoes for other men, and that starling, perhaps all unconsciously ministering some cheerfulness to the passer-by are worth more to God and man than T. T. Fitzroy, who has always received, but never given.

We are, therefore, touching here the very central value of Christianity. It is that of being of service to others. I repeat, then, that the contrast created is sharp, decisive, and final. Unprofitable is the highest condemnation of a man. Fully profitable is the highest commendation of a man. The unprofitable man is the man whose motive is selfishness, whose method is robbery. The profitable man is the man whose motive is love, and whose method is service.

The claim for Christ, therefore, made inferentially in this two-fold description, is that He had found him unprofitable, and had made him profitable. He had transformed him from waste into wealth in the interest of the community.

When we ask, as necessarily we are bound to do, how this transformation had been wrought, we find the reply in the words of Paul, "Whom I have begotten in my bonds." It was a great claim, for it is always a great thing when one man can say this about another. Paul certainly considered it of great value, for once when writing to the Corinthians, he said:

"For though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begat you through the Gospel."

That tells the secret of the transformation. Christ, the great Physician, had met Onesimus and reconciled him through a member of His mystical Body, and Paul had been the means through whom the contact was made. The fact, however, is that he had been born anew, and in the miracle of that new birth he had been transformed. The evidences of the transformation are discovered in his recognition of responsibility, and his immediate surrender thereto, which things made him willing to travel with Tychicus over a thousand miles, to go back to the man whom he had wronged and robbed. We gather also from the Colossian letter that he was travelling in perfect fellowship with Tychicus, and with the band of Christians surrounding Paul, as Paul described him as "Onesimus the faithful and beloved brother."

Thus as we come to this final article in our series we ask what it really has to say to us. Necessarily it first of all brings us back face to face with the fact of humanity's need of Christ as the great Physician. Humanity as it is self-centered and depraved, is waste. Christ meeting man in that condition creates out of the waste one who becomes wealth in the sense of being a blessing to the community. The account finally reveals the method of Christ, that, namely, of the impartation of new life.

The appalling fact of waste is surely self-evident. The man who hates instead of loves, he who looks upon his brother in contempt, and calls him Raca, or with malicious intent and calls him fool, is waste. According to the teaching of our Lord there is only one fitting place for such a man, and that is Gehenna, the refuse heap consumed by fire. Equally men are waste who are liars, for the man who lives except upon the basis of simple truth is ever robbing the community. The man, too, who is a thief and that not according to our ordinary use of the word, but according to the New Testament. It was Paul who wrote:

"Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need."

An honest reading of that reveals the conception that any man who is not working is a thief. He is either contributing to the common wealth, or he is robbing the other man. Countries today with their many social programs cause grave and eternal harm to their citizenry.

It is from such attitudes of life that all false social conditions arise, carelessness and cruelty, slander and deceit, coercion and war; and, moreover, any attitude that consents to the victory of wrong on account of cowardice. That is waste.

But this account of Onesimus reveals in microcosmic manner the great and glorious fact that Christ is able to deal with that condition of waste, and to transmute it into that of profit; creating men to whom love is the inspiration of all action, truth the method thereof, and service its expression. In the fellowship of such men we have compassion and care, straightness and security, freedom and peace.

When we question as to how that transformation takes place we face once again the fact already declared, only now we will employ the very words of Christ, "Ye must be born from above." There is no way into new life, there is no way into true value or worth in the community but the way of the new birth, in which the spirit is changed, the mind is renewed, and the whole life, spent in the same circumstances, changes them. It is the old, old account of how the potter takes the marred vessel, and makes it again, so that it passes into the realm of beauty and utility.

Once again the account reveals the fact that our relationship to God creates our values to our fellow-men. The other side of that law is that our value to our fellow-men is the test of our relationship to God. If we are really right with God we shall be profitable men and women to our fellow-men. If, on the other hand, we affirm that we are right with God, and love not our brother, and fail to serve him, and be profitable to him, we lie, and the truth is not in us.

Necessarily the whole significance and beauty of the account of Onesimus is that which we have seen all the way in our study, namely the power of Christ to transmute waste to wealth. The great Physician saw in the waste of the world potential wealth. He still sees it, and is able to take that waste and transmute it into wealth.

It was Luther who said:

"We are all the Lord's Onesimi",

That is, we are all the Lord's profitable servants. Let us never forget that we were all unprofitable. It is the great Physician Who, taking hold upon us in our worthless condition, has made us of use to our fellow-men.