Traitor or Loyalist?

[Onesiphorus] often refreshed me.
                     —2 Timothy 1:16

Disciples were abandoning Paul like rats on a sinking ship: “Everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me,” he wrote.

Two of those—possibly leaders of the deserters—are named: Phygelus and Hermogenes (2 Tm 1:15).

Their opposite was Onesiphorus: “He often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains,” Paul said (2 Tm 1:16).

Onesiphorus was loyal to the core. He went to Rome and searched for Paul until he found him—chained in a dungeon. Onesiphorus risked his life, exposing himself to brutal Nero as a friend of a prisoner on death row.

We know nothing about Phygelus and Hermogenes except their names and their desertion. We know nothing about Onesiphorus except his name and his loyalty.

If you were described in one sentence—as these three were—what would that sentence be?

Compose a one-sentence autobiography.

Scroll to Top