SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2017
5:15 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Intro
to Philemon 8-18
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Philemon 8-18
Message of the
verses: “8 Therefore, though I have
enough confidence in Christ to order you to do what is proper, 9 yet for love’s
sake I rather appeal to you-since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now
also a prisoner of Christ Jesus- 10 I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whom
I have begotten in my imprisonment, 11 who formerly was useless to you, but now
is useful both to you and to me. 12 I have sent him back to you in person, that
is, sending my very heart, 13 whom I wished to keep with me, so that on your
behalf he might minister to me in my imprisonment for the gospel; 14 but
without your consent I did not want to do anything, so that your goodness would
not be, in effect, by compulsion but of your own free will. 15 For perhaps he was for this reason separated
from you for a while, that you would have him back forever, 16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave,
a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the
flesh and in the Lord. 17 If then you regard me a partner, accept him as you
would me. 18 But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge
that to my account;”
In today’s SD we will begin looking at the second of
eight foundational element of a biblical doctrine of forgiveness. The first one was looked at in our last SD on
Philemon.
“Second, whoever offends us
gives greater offense to God.” I have
not read ahead to find out what all of these elements are, but this one has to
be one that I am truly interested in and want to remember as it will help me
understand life a bit better. When David
committed adultery with Bathsheba, he sinned against her, her husband and
against God, and David knew that. “Against
You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You
are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge (Psalm 51:4).” MacArthur adds “Whatever his offense against
men, he gave a greater offense to God.
God has forgiven those who wrong us of the greater offense of sinning
against Him. Can we not forgive them of
the lesser one of offending us?” As you
think about that statement we can understand that if we don’t forgive others
who sin against us and against God we are actually putting ourselves above the just
and holy God.
Everyone reading this has probably been offended by someone
at one time in their lives, some more than others, but the truth is no matter
how much that person has offended us it does not compare with how we have
offended God, and yet God in His great mercy sent His only Son into the world
to take our place on the cross so that all of our offesenses against Him was
cared for. Now when we have been
forgiven so much, (everything) we need also to forgive others.
7/7/2017 5:41 PM
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