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 you 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
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