SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/10/2017
10:43 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 Intro
to Phil. 8-18
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Philemon
1-10
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,”
I may have mentioned that the word “therefore” in the New
American Standard 95 version of the Bible is found 907 times with 257 times in
the New Testament. The word therefore
has always been an interesting word to me as when you see it, it takes the
subject back to previous verses and that is the case found here as the
therefore links you back to the introduction of the main body of the
letter. We can be sure that Philemon
knew and understand what the doctrinal foundation of forgiveness Paul does not
go over it now. Paul had enough
confidence in his apostolic authority founded in Christ to order Philemon to do
that which is proper, he did not want to make Philemon forgive out of authority
of Paul, but do it because Philemon had been forgiven of everything because of
what Christ did in his life. Paul was
appealing for loves sake.
We know that from reading the first section of his letter
to Philemon that Paul loved him as Paul called him agapetos “beloved.”
In spite of Philemon’s spiritual maturity and his deep
love for Paul, Paul knew that it was going to be difficult for him to forgive
Onesimus. I don’t think that we, living
in the 21st century can understand what slavery was like during Paul’s
day, therefore it would be difficult for Philemon to forgive Onesimus.
John MacArthur writes that “Paul includes two statements
about himself. He thereby hopes to
persuade Philemon to grant his appeal for Onesimus. That appeal comes from ‘such a person as
Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.’” Perhaps Paul was similar in age to Philemon
but as I have heard many times when I was working at my job in a large foundry
when someone speaks of a person who seemed older than their years “he has been
run hard and put away wet to many times.”
This is true of Paul as he had a lot of miles on his body, sometimes
running for his life, and also he had pressure on himself to work for the cause
of Christ.
MacArthur concludes “If that were not enough to elicit
Philemon’s sympathy, Paul rattles his chains again. He reminds Philemon that he is a prisoner of
Christ Jesus. Philemon could not
possibly turn down a request for a man in such honorable suffering.
“Beginning in verse 10, Paul moves into the specifics of
his request. In verses 10-18 he
describes three actions that one who forgives must take. Forgiveness involves reception, restoration,
and restitution.” That is the outline we
will follow as we move through verses 10-18.
7/10/2017 11:06 PM
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