Part. 3
LAST week we thought about St. Paul living in his hired house in Rome. We could only visit that house in spirit, because though a house is pointed out to sightseers as the house Paul lived in, it is very unlikely to be the one.
“And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all who came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”
And now do you ask what happened at the end of those two years? How did Paul spend his last days?
I believe that by carefully searching his letters, we may find part of the answer to that question. We may also learn something from records handed down by the early Christians.
First, I want to tell you a story about Paul which is not in the Acts at all. Did you ever hear of Onesimus? He was a slave who belonged to a rich man who lived in or near a little town called Colosse in Asia Minor. His master, Philemon, was a Christian, but Onesimus knew very little about that. After awhile, the poor fellow became so impatient to be free that he decided to run away.
At last he succeeded in escaping, and in order not to be recognized and caught, he traveled hundreds of miles across sea and land to the great city of Rome. He was free now, but was he happy? No, he was lonely and miserable, and after a while he discovered that he was not really free, but the slave of a much worse master than Philemon; that is, of sin. Do you know anything about that master? Do you find that something forces you to do wrong even when you would like to do right? That is sin. We are all born slaves of sin, and we cannot escape from that master by running away from him. He has terrible wages too, for “The wages of sin is death.” There would be no hope for us at all, but that One who loved us paid the full price and redeemed us from our old master. Now we have nothing to do but accept with thankfulness the freedom which He offers.
Who would tell poor Onesimus this good news? Paul was there in his own house, but, prisoner as he was, it is certain that he could not go after Onesimus. But God, in His mercy, brought Onesimus to Paul, and the poor slave heard from the prisoner the story of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. This brought the greatest joy to them both, for the poor, lonely slave felt that he was redeemed and that he now belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ, who had loved him so much as to give up His life for him. Paul felt that Onesimus was like a son begotten in his bonds. He would liked to have kept him with him always, but Onesimus was a runaway slave, and now that he was a Christian, it was his duty to act honorably and go back to Philemon. It must have seemed a very hard thing to do to go back into slavery, and probably be severely punished.
But though Paul told Onesimus he must go back, he wrote a letter for him to carry to his master. It was the kindest, most gracious letter imaginable. Philemon, you remember, was a Christian, and Paul told him that, now that Onesimus had been converted, he was more than his servant, he was his brother in Christ. Then he begged him to receive him kindly, and said that if Onesimus had stolen anything, he himself would pay for it. Finally, he asked him to prepare a lodging for him, for he hoped soon to pay him a visit. He believed that God had heard the prayers of the Christians and that he was about to be set at liberty.
So Onesimus went home, carrying. the letter to Philemon, and another longer one to the Church at Colosse. I think that we need not doubt that Philemon received him kindly, and even made him free. The next time we hear of him he was back in Rome.
Paul, too, was set free and had the joy of visiting some of the assemblies of Christians who had been converted through his preaching in Greece and Asia Minor.
ML 05/20/1917