The Necessity of Obedience (Philemon 21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/17/2017 10:58 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  The Necessity of Obedience

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Philemon 21

            Message of the verses:  “21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say.”

            As we have been looking at this letter I think that it is fair to say that Paul was confident that Philemon would forgive his runaway slave Onesimus.  In this verse Paul is writing about Philemon’s obedience to the Lord to forgive Onesimus.  Paul also knew that Philemon had good character and would do the right thing.

            As we have looked at the letter we have not seen the word forgiveness in it but have seen the principles of what forgiveness is, and it is certain after studying this letter that Philemon knew the principles of forgiveness as found in the Word of God.  This was the early part of the church age that we are talking about here and people who were believers knew a lot of what the Lord Jesus taught while on earth as that had not been that long ago when Jesus was preaching and teaching, teaching things about forgiveness as seen in Matt. 18:21-22; and Luke 17:3-4.

“21 Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

  

“3. "Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.’”

           

            We have also talked about slavery as we studied this letter and found out that slavery was a part of the culture during this time period, and there were millions of slaves in the Roman Empire.  Some were even doctors and teachers, nurses, and even lawyers.  So when we read that Paul states that he believes that Philemon will do even more that Paul asked of him, Paul is not talking about having Philemon free Onesimus.  Perhaps Philemon would allow Onesimus to minister along side of him, something according to Paul he could do.  Why would Philemon do this?  Well it would not be because of law, but because of Philemon’s grace, and love for Onesimus.

7/17/2017 11:14 PM