SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/8/2017
9:28 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Intro to
Philemon 8-18
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Phil. 8-18
Message of the
verses: I am not going to copy the
verses on this SD because as I stated in an earlier SD this introduction to
these verses will take a number of Spiritual Diaries to complete as we are
talking about forgiveness and John MacArthur senses that most believers do not
have the knowledge of what biblical forgiveness is all about and so he has
written in his commentary eight foundational elements of a biblical doctrine of
forgiveness, and we will look at number three through five in this SD.
“Third, Christians who fail to forgive others will not
enjoy forgiveness from God. Jesus said
in Matthew 6:14-15, ‘If you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you
do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.’ Failing to forgive others hinders our
fellowship with God and puts us in danger of His chastening. That is too high a price to pay for wickedly
enjoying a lack of forgiveness.”
“Fourth, believers who manifest an unforgiving spirit
will not enjoy the fellowship, communion, and love of other saints. In the parable of Matthew 18, it was the
unforgiving slave’s fellow slaves who reported him to his lord (Matt.
18:31). That is a picture of church
discipline. An unforgiving attitude will
destroy a believer’s relationships with his fellow believers. They will then, through church discipline,
ask God to bring chastening into his life.
Unforgiveness not only hinders our relationship with God, but also with
other Christians.”
“Fifth, by refusing to forgive others and seeking our own
revenge, we usurp the authority of God.”
As I think about this fifth element of biblical doctrine of forgiveness
I have to say that this is unlikely that many believers in our culture in the
21st century church ever think of this. It has been a few months since a particular Wednesday
evening prayer meeting when our Pastor was talking about the Apostle Paul, and
I asked a question that caused him to think for a moment. My question was how many people do you think
were praying for the salvation of Saul of Tarsus before he became a believer. Saul of Tarsus was a tyrant in the early
church killing some believers and putting others in prison. His answer to my question was another
question as to how many people were praying for him which I said that I had no
idea. He then quoted a verse from Jesus’
Sermon on the Mount about praying for one’s enemies. Paul would later write “bless those who
persecute you; bless and cruse not.
Never take you own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of
God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord
(Romans 12:14, 19).”
We absolutely know that God is so much more intelligent
than any of us and so He knows the best way to take care of those who have
wronged us. MacArthur writes “He is
impartial and just; we are partial to our own selfish interests. He is omniscient and eternal, seeing how
everything will turn out. We are
shortsighted and ignorant, seeing nothing beyond the moment. He is wise and good, and does everything for
righteous purposes. We are often blinded
by our anger, and our purposes may be evil.
We must, then leave vengeance to God.”
7/8/2017 9:50 PM
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