SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/1/2017
10:18 PM
My Worship Time Focus: A Concern For People
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Philemon 5b
Message of the
verses: “because I hear of your love…toward
all the saints”
I have to say that these next few Spiritual Diaries from the
letter to Philemon are going to be very short.
John MacArthur writes “This verse exhibits a chiastic
construction in the Greek text. The
first part of the verse, ‘love,’ goes with the last phrase, ‘toward all the
saints.’
“Agape (‘love’)
is the love of will and choice, of self-sacrifice and humility. Love is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and
a manifestation of genuine saving faith (Gal. 5:6; 1 John 3:14). Believers should not need to be taught this
love (1 Thess. 4:9) because its source is already in them in the indwelling
Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).
“Because Philemon’s faith was real, it manifested itself
in true biblical love. That love
expressed itself in a concern for people.
Philemon’s concern for people gave him the ability to forgive.”
Forgiveness is the major theme of this letter that Paul
wrote to Philemon. It is a wonderful
thing, to me, how the Bible is put together, especially the New Testament as we
see in this letter to Philemon that his slave just happened to run away and end
up in the presence of the apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome. This was all God’s plan from eternity past
and sometimes we as believers don’t see things that God is doing in our lives
until we take the time to look back and take a good look at our lives. I am sure that Philemon and Onesimus took the
time to look back at their lives.
7/1/2017 10:29 PM
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