Colossians 4:9

With Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you.

I. The person. Onesimus teaches us--

1. To despise no one for his former misdeeds after he has come to his right mind. This Onesimus was once contemptible, useless, and a runaway slave, but after his conversion he was thought worthy by the chiefest apostle of a mission of great honour. They therefore sin grievously who reproach the truly converted for their former evils, than to congratulate them on their new nature. God estimates men not by what they have put off, but by what they have put on (Ezekiel 18:22).

II. His commendation.

1. He is a faithful brother, i.e., not only a Christian, but a genuine one; for many who have assumed the name have denied the thing (Galatians 2:4; 2 Timothy 3:2). Hence we may observe--

(1) We should endeavour to answer to our name and profession; for to be called a Christian, faithful, etc., and not be so, is to be loaded with false titles and dishonourable (Revelation 3:1).

(2) They are to be loved by all the pious, and to be embraced with both arms who are faithful in their Christian profession and special vocation.

(3) Nothing is more dangerous than those perfidious brethren who feign religion while they despise it (2 Corinthians 11:26).

2. He was loved warmly by Paul, who was not accustomed to receive any into intimate friendship except they were worthy, Therefore the apostle wished them to infer that Onesimus deserved to be beloved by them.

(1) It is a sign of a good Christian to be dear to his pastor.

(2) It becomes a prudent minister to embrace the most pious with peculiar affection (Philippians 4:1).

(3) It ought to be the care of all believers to be beloved by their pastors.

3. He was one of themselves. Although this was not much in his praise, it made him acceptable, for what is our own is wont to be prized more than what is not.

(1) It is proper to treat, then, with peculiar affection those who are of the same blood, country, society, as ourselves.

(2) It is contemptible to neglect our own, and to extol the distant at the expense of the near (Mar 13:57).

III. His mission. To make known what was going on with the apostle and at Rome. Tychicus was also entrusted with the same, but in adding Onesimus he provided two witnesses that the thing might be established. (Bishop Davenant.)

Onesimus

was a native, or certainly an inhabitant, of Colossi, since Paul refers to him as “one of you.” This confirms the presumption which his name affords that he was a Gentile. Slaves were numerous in Phrygia, and the very name Phrygian was almost synonymous with that of slave. Hence it happened that in writing to the Colossians (Colossians 3:22; Colossians 4:1)

Paul had to instruct them concerning the duties of servants and masters towards each other. Onesimus was one of this unfortunate class of persons, who escaped from his master and fled to Rome, where in the midst of its vast population he could hope to be concealed, and to baffle the efforts which were so often made in such cases for retaking the fugitive. Whether he had any other motive for the flight than the natural love of liberty we have not the means of deciding. It has been generally supposed that he had committed some offence, as theft or embezzlement, and feared the punishment of his guilt (Philemon 1:18). Though it may be doubted whether Onesimus heard the gospel for the first time in Rome, it is beyond question that he was led to embrace the gospel there through the apostle’s instrumentality (Philemon 1:10). As there were believers in Phrygia when the apostle passed through the region on his third missionary journey (Acts 18:23), and as Onesimus belonged to a Christian household (Philemon 1:2), it is not improbable that he knew something of Christian doctrine before he went to Rome. How long a time elapsed between his escape and his conversion we cannot decide. After the latter event, however, the most happy and friendly relations sprang up between the teacher and the disciple. The situation of the apostle must have made him keenly alive to the sympathies of Christian friendship, and dependent upon others for various services. Onesimus appears to have supplied this want in an eminent degree. He won entirely the apostle’s heart, and made himself so useful that Paul wished to keep him, and yielded him up only in obedience to that sensitive regard for the feelings and rights of others of which his conduct on this occasion was a conspicuous example. The traditional notices of Onesimus are not of great value. Some of the later fathers assert that Onesimus was set free and became Bishop of Beroea, and that he made his way to Rome again and died a martyr under Nero. (H. B. Hackett, D. D.)

The excellence of faithfulness

A year ago last summer I visited Yellowstone Park. I had read a great deal of the geysers, and seen pictures of them, but now it was my privilege to see them rise grandly and proudly in dizzy heights, then fall in graceful spray. They had great names given them. Some were called “The Wonderful,” “The Monarch,” others “The Lion” and “The Lioness,” but you never can depend on their regularity of action. A traveller may visit them and wait around four or five days without witnessing a performance, getting only labour for his pains, though you cannot tell when they will play. When they do they are very beautiful. But there is one geyser, named the “Old Faithful,” that is not so large, and doesn’t make such a grand display, but you can always depend on it. It plays at certain times, and never fails. If you are there at 1 o’clock, or five minutes before, you will see the water shoot up at a height of 60 or 70 feet. At 1:55 it will play again, not rising at such height as the other geysers, nor making such a roaring noise, but you can depend on it. It always comes to time, and never fails in a performance. I at once respected that geyser. It was faithful in its performance and sure. That is the key to a successful life. (A. Little.)