The Man With a Sinful Past (Col. 4:9)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/13/2017 9:36 PM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  “The Man With a Sinful Past”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Colossians 4:9

            Message of the verse:  “and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of your number. They will inform you about the whole situation here.”

            We will meet Onesimus when we begin to study the book of Philemon as he was the runaway slave that Paul came in contact with while in prison in Rome, thus he is named by John MacArthur “The man with a Sinful past.”  Paul writes a letter to Philemon and explains to him that although Onesimus had run away from him, he is now a believer and asks Philemon to forgive him and make him a profitable part of the church that meets in Philemon’s house.  Onesimus would now be returning to Philemon’s house.

            John MacArthur writes the following paragraph on Onesimus:  “Although Onesimus was a runaway slave, Paul describes him as ‘our faithful and beloved brother.’  When a person comes to faith in Christ, the past is no longer an issue.  ‘Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold, new things have come’ (2 Cor. 5:17).  Onesimus was a testimony to the power of God to transform a life.  Paul tells the Colossians that the man who left Colossae as a runaway slave now returns as ‘one of your number.’  He was to be treated as a member of the church, because in Christ there was neither slave nor freeman (Gal. 3:28).  Paul shows his regard for him by having him, along with Tychicus, ‘inform,’ the Colossians ‘about’ Paul’s ‘whole situation.’

             It is nice to meet some people from the New Testament that although, they had not been in the limelight as people like Peter, Paul, John, or some of the other apostles, but have a wonderful roll for the cause of Christ.  The church of Jesus Christ as Paul describes is a body, and as there are different parts of our human bodies that seem to have lesser roles so there are different parts of the church that seem to have less elegant roles, yet without them the body would not function correctly.

            In our next SD we will look at Aristarchus who was in prison with Paul.

6/13/2017 9:53 PM