HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 1475
Philemon
“ I ’ L L N E V E R F O R G I V E H I M for what he did to me.” “How can
I forgive her when she hurt me so much?” “I’ll forgive you, but I can’t
forget!” You have been hurt by another person—financially, spiritually,
personally, or one of many other ways. The wounds you bear
run deep.
The heartbeat of Paul’s wonderful letter to
What you will be
reading about
Philemon is simply this: Please forgive the person who has wronged you. In this case, Paul is
1:1- 3
Paul’s greeting
asking Philemon to forgive one of his slaves,
Onesimus. Paul challenges Philemon to for1:4 -7
give Onesimus so completely that he will no
Paul’s thanksgiving and
prayer
longer look at him as a slave but as an equal
brother in Christ. This kind of forgiveness was
1:8-22
Paul asks Philemon to
unheard of in the Roman society of that day.
forgive Onesimus
But in Christ, there was a new standard, a new
1:1- 25
expectation.
Paul’s final greetings
Philemon was a prominent member of the
church at Colosse. Onesimus may have stolen
from him and then had run away to Rome. There he met Paul by chance—
or more likely by divine appointment—and Paul led him to Christ. Onesimus
became a devoted helper for Paul, and Paul would have liked to keep him there
in Rome to help during his time of imprisonment. Instead, he sent Onesimus
back to his master with this letter. There was some unfinished, and unforgiven,
business to attend to.
Note that the burden of forgiveness was not merely on Philemon. Onesimus
had to choose to return to Philemon and risk death, risk Philemon’s wrath,
instead of forgiveness. He could simply have taken Paul’s letter, thrown it away,
and escaped to another city in the Roman Empire. But he didn’t—or we would
not have this letter today.
Forgiveness is often a wonderful chain reaction. Christ forgave Paul and
made him a new person. When Paul shared the gospel with Philemon, he
accepted Christ, and Christ forgave Philemon. The same happened to Onesimus. Paul forgave Onesimus’s behavior and accepted him as a brother. Now
Onesimus and Philemon, both forgiven by Christ and by Paul, had to forgive
each other.
Forgiveness is the very core of Christianity. As Christ has forgiven you of
all your sins, so also he expects you to forgive others of their sins against
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