Ripe for Harvest

S ESSION 2: P REPARE • 165

The example of Paul and Onesimus:

Philem. 1.10-17 – I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. [11] (Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) [12] I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. [13] I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, [14] but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. [15] For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, [16] no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother – especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. [17] So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. We have no idea how old Paul’s Onesimus was when he wrote about him; but a young man in his later teens or early twenties at that time would be about seventy by the time of Ignatius’s martyrdom – not an incredible age for a bishop in those day. . . .The preservation of this private letter [Book of Philemon] must be explained. That Onesimus did become the bishop of Ephesus is not improbable. If so . . . Onesimus could scarcely fail to get to know about [the collecting of the Pauline corpus], and would make sure that his Pauline letter found a place in it. ~ F. F. Bruce. Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984. p. 202. Many scholars believe that this same Onesimus became a bishop in the early church!

Every poor person is to be treated based on the potential inherent in their calling.

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