1071. Onesimus Running Away

Onesimus Running Away

"For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him for ever" (Phm_1:15).

The details are lacking. Only the imagination can supply them. We suppose that Onesimus went off as most thieves go–by night and by stealth. He did not take the time to tell Philemon and Apphia and Archippus "good-by."

1. He ran away. He went as a villain goes. Is this not just what the sinner is doing? He is going away from God. He is leaving behind his back all that is worth the while. He is bidding farewell to home and Heaven and God.

The prodigal son took his father's goods and went into a far country. Are not all sinners in the far country? They are strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope, and without God in the world.

2. He ran away with his master's goods. He took with him that which was not his own. He went out a thief. In Php_1:18 Paul wrote: "If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account."

Can this same charge be laid at the feet of all the ungodly? Certainly. They too are wasting their Master's goods. Every good and perfect gift which they possess proceeds from the Father of lights.

What has any one that he did not receive? The gifts of mind and of body are from the Lord. The very power to make money is given from God. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof."

When a sinner runs away from God, he runs away a thief, a villain. He is robbing God of His goods.

3. He wasted his master's goods. How do we know? It is always thus. Onesimus did not take his master's goods that he might increase them and return them with interest. He took them that he might have his "fling." He took them that he might squander them upon himself. He had no consideration for Philemon whatsoever. Had he sought the good of Philemon, he would have remained at home.

What did the prodigal son do with his father's goods? He wasted them with riotous living. Or as the elder son put it: "He hath wasted thy substance (or, devoured thy living) with harlots."

What do twentieth century prodigals do? They cast their gifts to the winds. They scatter their blessings. They pollute their heritage.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR