Onesimus: Journey to Kingdom Usefulness

¹¹ who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.
Philemon 1:11

Bible Study: Philemon 1 – end

‘great man‘, ‘honourable‘, ‘mighty man of valour‘ were distinguishing accolades deservedly used to describe Naaman. Yet in the final assessment, there was a ‘BUT’ in the report card that mattered……’But he was a leper‘!!

Every man’s status and accomplishments in life outside of the Lordship of Jesus is naught but dung!! Phil 3:4-9

There was a time i would be in church praying ‘Lord make me great so i can be useful to your kingdom‘ :-). Now i realise how naive that was. For even unbelievers receive the general grace for greatness and are often used of God in diverse ways YET in the eternal scheme of things they are regarded as USELESS and UNPROFITABLE! “May i not be regarded on earth and not be counted relevant in the eternal affairs of God!

How does Christ translate a man from useless into useful? Onesimus’s experience offers us a template..

Steps to Usefulness from the diary of Onesimus.

1. Staying under (Paul) the Prisoner of Christ Jesus | Season of Sequestering

1 "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer",

• Onesimus became discontented with life as it was and began to hunger and thirst for something more (a feeling triggered by divine purpose from above) and he ran like Moses from Egypt – an exile from His old life seeking for what can only be found in Christ.
• Your first step to profitability is learning to wait on God! in the place of your quiet time, & meditation with the Spirit. For your first Paul is the Holy Spirit and every profitable service to God comes from an overflow from your secret place with Him.
• Christ orchestrates your connection to the physical Paul; like Moses unto Jethro (because in the Kingdom, Christ does not raise any one in isolation).
• In Paul He found a prisoner to Christ. in the sense of a servant leader wholly conquered by God and devoid of selfish ambition (like empire building spirit).
• The wholly conquered man Christ brings you under is one in whom He has reserved a major portion of what you will require to transition from your useless state into a useful one.
  One mark of this Paul is that he will not withhold anything Christ has kept for you under His arm! Neither will he charge you for it as Elimelech did not charge David.
• If you select for yourself and bring yourself under a man who is not wholly captured by God (but on the surface appears to be everything desirable to become), you may ultimately find yourself a caricature of Christ’s perfect blueprint for your life.
• Under this Paul/David/Moses, whether in the prison/cave/wilderness, you will have seasons of isolation and seclusion where you learn accountability, service, diligence…. amongst other things.
• In coming out of uselessness you will come under the yoke of the Lord which will constrain/restrain you to His will and will many times feel like a prison until you learn how to be wholly surrendered to Him.

2. Becoming a begotten Son! | Embodying the Faith

10 'I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains", 

• “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name“. John 1:12
• Everyone is given power to become sons but not everyone grows into sonship.
• In bringing you under a Paul, Christs intent is that you graduate from believing to becoming a physical embodiment of the heavenly vision (not the denominational one) through the renewing of your mind. In simple terms the ‘The word becomes flesh’
• One unique benefit of a Paul is that he facilitates your transition to sonship by giving you the physical opportunity/platform to exercise all that you are being taught and observing him live out personally.
• Many disciples fall into the trap of trying to win the attestation/commendation of their mentor through eye-service, yet this translation into begotten sonship is a spiritual transaction superintended by the Holy Spirit who is not moved by such petty considerations.

3. Becoming a Sent One! | Putting Theory to Practice.

12 "I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart",

• “Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach” Mark 3:14
• There is no end to being with Him and knowing Him. Out of the overflow of this relationship comes a point where we go for Him as we come to care about the things He cares about.
• Ultimate kingdom usefulness pertains to the ministry of reconciliation!
• We are saved so that through us others can be saved.
  We are delivered so that through us others can be delivered.
  We are healed so that through us other can be healed.
  We are blessed so that through us others can be blessed.
• As you tenor with Paul you grow to become useful to your family, your Fathers house, your community, your kindred and your nation: For no lamp that is set is put under a bushel but set on a hill to give light!

Summation

Onesimus came into the fold of discipleship much as Davids men came to Him in the cave at adullam (distressed, discontented and in debt ^{1 sam 22:2}), He was by heavens account a useless man to His master but after His tenure with Paul, He transitioned from useless to 2x useful, from unprofitable to profitable! His transition is another template by which we can understand how our journey of discipleship is patterned in the kingdom of God.

What stage are you in your transitioning from unprofitable to profitable in the kingdom of God?

May Christ help us on our quests to usefulness in His kingdom
Amen.