MAN ON THE RUN

“O” was a man on the run. He had robbed his boss, run away from his job, and was “on the lam”— running from the law. In many ways, O was like the postmodern generation that is now reshaping the cultural landscape of our world. They are not committed to much of anything—not to their jobs, and not to the sanctity of marriage. They are willing to jettison at a moment’s notice pretty much anything from the past that asks for commitment. Their word is not their bond and loyalty is not a concept they embrace tightly. They are a generation on the move, on the run. They are running away from themselves and from anything that smacks of responsibility. They are also a generation that is running and hiding from the law. Illegal drug use among postmodernists is at an all-time high, and cheating on work, cheating on loved ones, and cheating on marriage is pandemic.

O was such a man. Who was he? His name is Onesimus and in many ways he is the central character in one the shortest books in the Bible, Philemon. O was a servant in the employ of Philemon and he had robbed his employer, broken his word, and run away. What he did was illegal and that meant he was on the run from the law, from his employer and from his past.

Paul’s letter to Philemon is an appeal and a statement, written from one friend to another. Paul wrote to his friend to say that O was with him in Rome. Philemon lived several hundred miles away in Colosse and the Colossian church met in his house.

We really don’t know how O ended up in Rome and how he connected with Paul. So let me speculate. Paul had never been to Colosse, but it’s possible that Philemon had come to Ephesus and that Paul had led him to faith in Jesus Christ. Since the Colossian church met in Philemon’s home, I am certain that O had heard a lot of teaching on Jesus and the Christian life and most likely he had heard Paul’s name referred to again and again.

Is it possible that O was running away because he was trying to get to something that he found attractive and yet could not get there where he was? I think it is feasible that he found the message of Jesus compelling and was drawn to it, but for some reason was unable to respond while still in Colosse. So he ran away to get to the message of life!

There is a fascinating amount of wordplay in this short book. The name Onesimus means “useful.” When Paul refers to O in verse 11, he first describes him as “[he]who once was unprofitable” or useless. The verse goes on, “but now [is] profitable to you and to me.” The man whose name meant “useful” had never lived up to his name. Instead, he had been useless but now had become useful. What an incredible statement! What had taken place?

Again we are only given glimpses but they lead us to some conclusions. Either Paul or one of his team in Rome had led O to faith in Jesus and he had experienced the power of the gospel. His conversion was so strong and so complete that his “before” and “after” life stood in sharp contrast to each other. His absolutely useless life and behavior has been transformed by the power of God into a life that Paul describes as profitable, useful.

Perhaps we need to be reminded again of the power of God that is unleashed when we share the gospel with someone. Paul said it this way to the church at Rome, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). The word power in the Greek is dunamis, from which the word dynamite is derived.

The unleashing of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in O’s life had blasted him out of his old life and into the fullness of a new and profitable life in Christ. “The old is gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I do not fully embrace a lot of the theories and thinking kicking around in the church today. These theories analyze the culture and project it onto the presentation of the gospel. I do agree that a lot of the methodology of the past is no longer relevant and I fully understand that. What I do not agree with is the limp-wristed presentation of the message of the gospel that is prevalent in many churches. Is it any wonder that many in the church are confused and nearly 40 percent of evangelicals think that Jesus is not the only way to get to God? When the message is so watered down that there is no way for people to respond, that is just clearly wrong. Has the gospel lost its power? No, but some of the messengers have lost their way!

The testimony of Onesimus is that the gospel of Jesus Christ can change a life completely. A life that by all accounts was wasted and useless can be completely changed by the power of God. The useless life becomes a life of focus, meaning and usefulness.

Every time you share the gospel, the potential exists that the dynamite of God’s power will envelope that person. Go ahead, light the fuse!