A Fan in Hot Weather

During the heat or sunny day, after one has walked and or do some tedious work one would be sweating profusely like a “Christmas goat” as one of my friends used to say. During this time one needs something to blow off the perspiration, to bring coolness unto one's body.

During strenuous exercise whether indoor or outdoor exercises, one would need something to cool his body.

On another occasion, when one is undergoing some psychological stresses one would discover that he is getting hot though the temperature of the environment may not be high, but the internal heat, the unseen scenes running through one's mind would stimulate the sympathetic systems which would result in the heat one is manifesting outside.

These scenarios call for something that would be used to blow the heat off the person's body bringing comfort to the person.

The reasons for apostle Paul to pray unto God that He gives mercy to the house of Onesiphorus in the “a” part of this verse is what I called “fan in the hot weather”.

I will want us to examine the text beneath.

Fan is anything that refreshes. In this context however the apostle is not talking about non-living things, he is talking about a person, a follower, a member of the church at Ephesus, Onesiphorus. Although some say he was one of the seventy disciples (Lk. 10:1) there is no substantial evidence supporting this.

How Onesiphorus becomes refreshing unto him and perhaps to many others were stated by apostle Paul in this verse.

The apostle says, Onesiphorus refreshes him.

Refresh in the Greek word is anapsookho which means cool off, relieve.

Relieve means make pain or distress or difficulty or suffering less serious or severe.

How He does this - these are some of the means of him doing this.

1) By Talking to the apostle - When some other believers see the apostle as someone who could not be approached, he didn't see him like that, he goes to him and discusses with him. Some brethren distanced themselves from the apostle when he was in trouble but he didn't do that, he got closer to him,

2) By Counseling Him - He did not consider it a crime offering his words of counsel to the apostle,

3) Visiting Him - he makes it his duty to visiting him especially during the moments of his trials,

4) Supplying Him Things - as a missionary even before his arrest and imprisonment he meet his needs in terms of foods clothing (raiment) and money,

5) Writing Letters to Him - I perceived he does write him letters especially when he was imprisoned,

The number of times that the man does this cannot be stated, therefore he says “he oft refreshed me”.

The Syriac version of 2 Timothy 1:16 added another layer to the last line by saying “with which I am bound”. It means apostle Paul at the moment of his writing the letter was still in chains. Even in his present condition, Onesiphorus was not ashamed of him.

We can imagine the comfort that would fill the man's heart seeing that someone believes in him, someone gets closer to him while others distanced themselves from him.

It is easy to associate with someone who is making progress and being honored in the society. But when someone is in problems it is not easy to associate with the person. At the initial stage, people out of sympathy would be visiting the person but when the problem the person is facing becomes protracted one, then people start withdrawing and they would start insinuating many things about the person.

If this person is a believer, a Christian, then different things would be alluded to by people not exempting other brethren who are finding things easy, as the reasons behind what the person is passing through. They would become ashamed of such believers and would distance themselves from him.

But in the case of Onesiphorus, he differs, and was not ashamed of him. When other brethren including those who have received healing and restoration through apostle Paul were ashamed of him, ashamed to be associated with him, he wasn't.

Onesiphorus stood out amongst the ancient believers, he recognized his leader, didn't distance himself from him when others distanced themselves from him, he continued to be his comfort during hot weather.