The Profitable Servant

Nothing is quite ironic than being called excellent when you just failed your last exam, happy when your eyes are just sore from crying, good when you just kicked a cat, useful when you just ran away from your job. What could have Onesimus (which literally means useful, profitable) felt when someone named Paul called  Onesimus by his name and learned afterwards that he just abandoned his duty?

"If you don't have GIO Third Party Property Insurance, we suggest you don't hit this bus."

Onesimus was a runaway slave. He came into contact with Paul while Paul (who is innocent of any crime) was in chains. Talk about irony. Yet in this situation they met, and they both learned a deeper revelation of their purpose and calling.

Onesimus, through the ministry of Paul, accepted Christ, and he knew he had to go back and live by his name. He had to go back from being unprofitable to being profitable. He had to be what he has been called to be: a profitable servant.

Paul wrote to Onesimus' master Philemon, and in Phile. 10-11, it says, 

"I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, who once was unprofitable but now is profitable to you and to me,"

Onesimus learned what true liberty meant, that it is not being able to do what one wants to do, but being able to do what one is ought to do. His mindset was changed. He wanted to be free, and he learned that he cannot get it unless he stays true to his purpose. He may have done something wrong that caused him to run away, but he learned that coming back is the only right thing to do.

Coming back is the only right thing to do.

Many of us want to be free. We want to be the master of our own fate. Free to do what we want to do. Free to live without inhibitions. Free to choose our own purpose. Free to decide what is good for us. Basically, we want to be free from God.

But what we learn when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ is that it is by submitting under his authority and care that we are truly set free. We understand how it is to truly live according to our purpose. What is more freeing than to know that the end of the road is home? Onesimus felt the same way; he could have continued to run away without any sense of purpose and fulfillment, but he chose to walk the surest road: the way home.

From unprofitable to profitable. That is the kind of change that God wants in our lives. That is the amount of grace that God has made available for us. It is not about who we are, but about who we can be through Christ. There is no greater purpose in this earth than a purpose that transcends to eternity. We are not called only to be good people; we are called to be God's people.

Paul also knew that he was not chained by men; he was a prisoner in Christ Jesus. He knew that no man could ever hinder him from accomplishing his purpose. Even while imprisoned, he was able to minister to Onesimus. He was there because God wanted him to be there. 

Even in difficult times, we can still see God's hand working in us. What is being produced in us when we suffer for Christ's sake is the sweetness of humility, of partaking in the fellowship of His sufferings, of dying from our own selfish desires. When we suffer for Christ's sake, we experience a measure of what He did on the cross, and we start to know Him more, for it is only through common experiences that we can relate to and know one another.

We are crucified with Christ.

Whether we are running away from God or suffering for His name, we can be rest assured that God is able to meet our very need. His love is higher than the heavens; there is no sin too grave that he cannot forgive, and there is no wound too deep that He cannot heal. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus and run the race that is set before us.