SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2017 9:47 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Restitution
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Philemon
17-18
Message of the verses: “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;”
Restitution needs to be taken care of as far as the Bible
teaches us: “6 “Speak to the sons of
Israel, ’When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting
unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty, 7 then he shall
confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his
wrong and add to it
one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged. 8 ’But if the
man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the
restitution which is made for the wrong must go to the LORD for the priest,
besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him (Numbers
5:6-8).” Now we really don’t know how
much Onesimus stole from Philemon, but it is pretty clear that he had to have
taken something in order to finance his trip, and Philemon may have even gone
out and purchased another slave to take Onesimus’ place, at any rate
restitution was in order. The problem is
that Onesimus could not have paid the funds back to Philemon and this is where
Paul steps in as seen in our verses this evening. Paul asks Philemon that he accept Onesimus as
he would have accepted himself. Not sure
if this truly goes along with this but when we sin as believers and Satan
accuses us before God, Jesus will stand up for us because He paid the price for
all of our sins.
John MacArthur writes “Never are we more like God than when we forgive. Never are we more like Christ than when we
pay someone else’s debt so that reconciliation can take place. Paul’s willingness to suffer the temporal
consequences of Onesimus’s sin mirrors Christ’s willingness to suffer the
eternal consequences of our sin.”
As mentioned we really don’t know what Philemon did, but
I think that it is pretty plain that he forgave Onesimus.
7/13/2017 10:00 PM
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