Untitled Sermon (3)

There is no better proof of friendship than to help our friends with their burdens.

Augustine of Hippo

Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.

Charles Spurgeon

Chains signified shame and humiliation,” and this shame may have caused them to seek to distance themselves from Paul. Paul’s incarceration was the Roman assessment of his social worth and status, and it reflected negatively on his credibility. He mentions his chains four times (vv. 7, 13–14, 17), surely aware of the stigma attached to them. Rapske, 428, clarifies that “prison was a place of dishonour because of its connections with dishonourable occupants.” Considerable pressure was exerted on those who knew the prisoner to treat him with revulsion or to abandon him entirely. This attitude toward those in chains was typical and sheds light on Paul’s commendation of Onesiphorus for not being “ashamed of my chains” (2 Ti 1:16) and on Ignatius’s commendation (Smyrn. 10:2) of the Smyrnaens for not treating his bonds with haughtiness or shame.

David E. Garland