I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds: Which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable to thee and to me [Philemon 1:10-11]

The background story of this passage was that of a slave called Onesimus. While he was yet in sin and had not met Jesus in a conversion experience, he ran away from his Master named Philemon, a respected brother in Christ. Paul met Onesimus afterwards, probably while he (Paul) was bound as a prisoner in Rome. He preached Jesus to him, and Onesimus responded positively to the gospel.

Paul then sent an official letter of recommendation on behalf of Onesimus to Philemon through the same Onesimus. The runaway slave had now become converted, and was a fellow heir of like precious faith with Paul and Philemon. Paul asked Philemon to receive Onesimus, no more as an unprofitable slave, but much more, as a brother in the Lord.

“which...was unprofitable...”

Checking other Bible versions, the terrible words that were used in describing Onesimus former life, services and works while he was serving Philemon as an unconverted slave were degrading words like “useless”, "unserviceable", “pretty useless" and "of no use". The King James Version used the word "unprofitable" to summarize his life. The question comes to mind “was Onesimus not useful and profitable to Philemon as a slave?” All those years perhaps, that he spent under Philemon, taking care of his properties, cleaning his house, working in his farm and running errands for him, were those not profitable works he did? Were those not useful services that he rendered? How could Bible just discredit all his numerous labours and not appreciate everything that he had done in serving his Master faithfully all these years? Is it just because he was not born again? Why would the Bible tag all his endless labours as unprofitable, useless and unserviceable?"
Well, the truth better be told, and the Bible is that book which tells the utmost truth. The Bible is trying to paint a picture that "Once a man is still a sinner, no matter what works he does, they are as good as useless and unprofitable” PERIOD.
Heaven does not attach any credence to any work done anywhere by any man who has not encountered The Lord, no matter how brilliant such works may appear.

Though Onesimus must have cleaned the house, he must have washed the car, cooked nice meals, beautified the surroundings of his Master and have done numerous services for him, he may even have at one time or the other saved Philemons household from robbery, evil invasion and terrible attacks by his energetic efforts. Yet, those works are unrewardable by heaven, they are efforts in futility. Earth may reckon with them but, they are as good as nothing. They are just spices for human existence which carry no weight before heaven. They will be forgotten forever once the earth winds up.

Imagine even if there were rewards from the Lord attached to each of those "seemingly good works" done by Onesimus, the fact remains that on the day of prize-giving and reward-sharing by the Lord, Onesimus (as a sinner) would not be present in heaven to receive the rewards for the labours he had done. His works would still be useless. Even if it was possible to pity him, and still carry all his rewards to go and give him in hell, as soon as those rewards touch the fire of hell, I am sure they would all be burnt of, without any char of remains. So, all efforts put in by an unbeliever to achieve even good, great things on earth, no matter how we may praise him, no matter how beneficial such works may be to the society or even to the church of Christ on earth, as far as heaven is concerned, what a pity!, they all are useless, unprofitable works in heavens sight.
It is not the kind, or the type of works you do that makes your works unprofitable and useless, no, it is the life that is doing the work. It is the life of the man behind the work that determines the value of the work, not the work in itself. No work is great because it looks great. The determinant factor instead, is the life from which the works proceeded. Of course there are some useless, evil works even in earths sight like stealing, killing, destroying lives and properties, loafing about, laziness and indolence, busybodies... all are useless works even on earth, so, we do not need explanations on such, everyone knows that rottenness always proceeds from rotten lives. But there are great works which we all praise here on earth, that heaven still counts as useless.

Many works that appear spiritual, they are done perhaps in church or on the mission field. Hours are spent doing them and they appear to be God-ward. Lives are spent in helps, administrations, assistances, givings, Energies are expended in religious activities. All these are great and mighty works that casual observers will easily tag "profitable" and "useful". But heaven does not see any work in the perspective or the angle of the work, instead, heaven looks at all works through the life of the person doing the works.

The life of a man is the one that gives colour and presentation to his work or his service. The life makes or mars the work. The life tarnishes or beautifies the service. Works are great because the lives doing them are great. No work is great in itself unless it proceeds from great men hence, every work gets its quality and appellation, not from its size, shape, bigness, durability or its beauty, but from the pedigree of the worker.

All that Onesimus did were simply useless and unprofitable, a bunch of garbage, not because he did questionable works, not because he was disobedient to his Master, or carted and stole priceless things away, but just because he himself, the worker, was useless and unprofitable. He was a man dwelling in sinfulness and worldliness, hence, his products will only take after him.

“...but now profitable to thee and to me.”

Now, I notice that Paul said "...now, he is profitable to thee and me". This is very strange too. My honest question is "Even though Onesimus is now born again, which work has he done for Philemon that makes him now to be labelled profitable?" Philemon has not even seen him after repentance, he (Onesimus) has not even carried out any single work at all for him, and yet, Bible already says "he is profitable", whereas, all the myriads of jobs he did before conversion, heaven did not recognise any of them, heaven simply said "he was useless and unprofitable". Is the Bible very unfair?

It is clear from this little passage that profitability in the sight of heaven is not measured by what you have done, it is not measured by the nature of your activities, instead, it is determined by WHO you are inside..." Heaven knows that whatever proceeds from the pure is pure, and whatever proceeds from the froward is unclean.

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.”[Job 14:4]

It is not what you do that makes your action clean or unclean, it is who you are. Now that Onesimus was clean, holy and beautiful inside, heaven was sure that whatever would proceed from him would also be useful and profitable, hence, heaven called him "profitable" without him having done anything.

Do other Scriptures corroborate this thought? Let us look at the case of Jesus Christ Himself. There was a testimony about Jesus from God the Father...

“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, IN WHOM I am well pleased.” [Matthew 3:16-17] .

This was right at the baptism of John, the very beginning of Jesus ministry. Jesus had not gone to the cross, He had not done any miracles, He had not preached plenty messages or revealed the Father unto men, very few people knew Him at this time. Even His mission on earth was still unfulfilled and futuristic, He was still at the beginning of whatever He had come to fulfil on earth, YET, the Father was already testifying of Jesus, and how He is well pleased in Him, and very happy with Him. The Father spoke so confidently and boasted of Jesus to one and all, as if Jesus had completed His ministry. My question is “why was God so sure Jesus would do well?”

Checking what the Father said about Jesus, I noticed that the Fathers pleasure was not first in Jesus works, it was IN JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF. The pleasure of the Father was in the personality of Jesus, NOT His works. The Bible says"...In WHOM I am well pleased..", not "...In His works, I am well pleased...".

It was not what Jesus did that pleased the Father (by now, He had not even done much, He had not become obedient unto the cross and died. The Cross was yet a mystery). It was not His works, it was THE LIFE in Him (Jesus), "IN HIM I AM WELL PLEASED". The Father knew that all works that will proceed from any life that would be pleasing unto Him (The Father) will automatically be PROFITABLE, USEFUL WORKS. Once a life is beautiful, the Father knows that only beautiful things will proceed therefrom. But once a life is terrible, the Father knows that ONLY terrible things will proceed therefrom regardless of how beautiful the works may appear before men.

The first thing the Father will be looking for, beyond and before all your activities and actions, is your life. Once your life is rotten, friend, whatever it is that comes out of you even if it looks godly and heavenly is already polluted. Heaven sees it as mere hypocrisy and a drama action. It is not real, therefore, it is unprofitable and useless as far as heaven is concerned. Evangelism is great, Preaching the gospel, singing in the church, counselling and setting up ministries all are wonderful. Helping the helpless, giving to the poor, building structures for God, organising and directing outreaches for the gospel, visiting and assisting the weak…, they all sound glorious. But heaven first of all checks the lives from which these proceed. If such lives are not right in the sight of God, then all the works that proceeded from there are simply garbage, unacceptable.

“Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.” (Job 14:4 GNT) .

All works of the flesh are odious to God. Not just because they are naturally sinful and evil, but because they are simply of the flesh, and the flesh is the enemy of God. The flesh may sing for God, it may preach, it may give bountifully without grudging, it may even fast and pray, but as far as heaven is concerned, these works are not different from lying, fighting, adultery and drunkenness, which all are works of the flesh because they all proceed from the same source the flesh. That something is good or bad is not the issue with God, His question is "what is the source?"

Once your life is correct, once you are saved, once Jesus has come in, and your life is beautiful, you are sure that your output is fully acceptable to God, because your works in Christ, will be of the Spirit.

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift”[Matthew 5:23-24] .

Jesus enjoins that whatever gift (sacrifices, services, works, talent, money, skills...) you want to offer to God must be from a clean vessel. Your life comes before your gift no matter how expensive the gift is. If a quarrel exists between you and either your wife, your friend, your colleague or anybody for that matter, such quarrel is enough to make null any service you may want to render before God. Your polluted life (through such quarrel), already contaminates whatever service may come out of you. There are some religious leaders, who love your gift and are greedy for your offerings, they would not want you to go back with your gift that has been polluted by your life. They would want you to give in that state, and will quote Matthew 23:19 [“Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?”] to justify themselves. They will tell you that even though your gift is bad, give it anyway because the altar sanctifies the gift. They will say that once you drop your gift at the altar in the church, it is automatically sanctified. What a deception!!! A closer look at scriptures reveals that the altar that sanctifies any gift, is not the physical altar of any church building, rather, it is the altar of your heart from which your gift proceeds.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of Gods love for me], then I have become only A NOISY GONG or a clanging cymbal [just AN ANNOYING DISTRACTION] And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I AM NOTHING. If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.” [1 Corinthians 13:1-3 AMP]

Your life must first be acceptable to God before your services and works can make meaning to heaven. All your works and services and givings are noise making to the Lord, a distraction and a heap of useless garbage once the life of God is missing in your heart.