In Phile 10-19 we see a great testimony of Onesimus’s salvation and Paul’s wonderful care for him.  Onesimus was the servant of Philemon, who evidently departed from him under adverse circumstances.  He left with a bad testimony as an unprofitable servant who was also indeted to his master.

Onesimus didn’t meet Paul in bonds because he was in a jail ministry.  He undoubtedly wound up in jail in Rome where Paul met him.  There is where Paul led him to the Lord and cared for him as he began to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord.

After he had grown, Onesimus made a trip to Colosse with Tychicus in Col 4.  That’s when this letter was delivered.

We learn from Onesimus’s salvation that:

Often a man has to leave a good place to find God.  Philemon was a good man and a Christian of good report, as well.  Onesimus didn’t leave because he had it bad.  If anything he was getting away from Philemon’s Christian influence.  He didn’t get saved at Philemon’s house.  He got saved at Paul’s jail.

Paul was used of the Lord in Onesimus’s life in a way that Philemon couldn’t reach him.  Paul wouldn’t have sent him back if Philemon was a bad master, Deut 23:15.  We have to be willing, like the prodigal’s father, to let them go.  And we have to wait until God fixes them before we can receive them back.

Often we learn things in our relationships that help others with their relationships.  Paul seeing this turn around between Onesimus and Philemon could see the turnaround in his relationship with John Mark, Acts 15:37-39; 2 Tim 4:11.  Or perhaps the turnaround with Mark assured Paul that it would work between Onesimus and Philemon.  In either case, both of these men had been unprofitable to the ones with whom they had been working and, by God’s grace, they had become profitable.  We have to go through things ourselves so we can show others how to go through them.

Often it takes someone who cares to help a saved bad man get better.  Certainly, Onesimus was regenerated and he had become a new creature, 2 Cor 5:17.  But Paul really loved this guy.  He called him his son, a brother beloved, specially to me.  Paul took him under wing and devoted time to help him become a good man.  And his profitability extended to both Paul and Philemon.  One preacher said, “No one should be expected to be a good servant until he is a good man”.

Often we have to stick our necks out for another to help them recover.  Paul said, “If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself”.  And Paul stood for his debts.  Salvation didn’t relieve him of his obligations to Philemon, but provided a way for a brother to make them good.  This is what Jesus did for us.

And Paul said, “in thy stead he might have ministered unto me”.  We get so cynical these days because many people who get saved just want to remain the way they are.  They will stand in line to get the kind of love Paul had for Onesimus, but they don’t mean to grow or change.

Conclusion: Philemon ultimately got the benefit.  “He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length”, Prov 29:21.  Don’t think that the Christian influences to young people, while they are under your care, are falling on deaf ears.  Michael Nuñez said to tell you that all those Bible clubs lessons that you taught him when he was a child came back to him to draw him to Christ.  He is actively serving the Lord in Colorado Springs today.