Onesiphorus

May the Lord show special kindness to Onesiphorus and all his family because he often visited and encouraged me. He was never ashamed of me because I was in chains. When he came to Rome, he searched everywhere until he found me.
2 Timothy 1:16-17

I wanna be like this guy.  Onesiphorus was obliviously a man who was serious about taking care of people.  He searched the prisons in Rome to find Paul, who was in chains there.  Paul was in prison because he dared tell people that Jesus was the way to God.  Paul wrote:

“Christ Jesus, our Savior broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it...”
2 Timothy 1:10,12

So Paul would be in prison in Rome for the rest of his life and eventually be beheaded for his missionary work there.  Paul mentions that most Christians abandoned him and gave up on him and would not visit him.  They were probably afraid that if they visited Paul in prison Rome would arrest them because they too were Christ followers.  But not Onesiphorus.  This guy had the love of Christ for Paul to fuel his courage and he went to Rome looking for Paul.  Who knows how many holding cells he had to search for Paul.  But he did until he found Paul.

That “going-out-of-your-way” and willingness to risk your own reputation and your own life is the kind of love that Jesus had for us and once Onesiphorus had experienced that love he had the same love for his brother Paul—and risked it all to find him.  And that kind of love is what kept Paul going.   And here, immortalized in the words of scripture, we see the power of that kind of friendship.

LORD, give us that kind of love.  The love of Christ shown in the love of Onesiphorus.

‘Nuff Said.