A Plea for Forgiveness - Philemon

Philemon 12-13 says, 

“I(Paul) am sending him back. You(Philemon) therefore receive him(Onesimus), that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.”

     So we started studying Philemon and it really touched my heart. I had heard the story before but not really dug into it. If I could post the whole chapter on here, I would, because its just so good. Anyways, I thought I'd choose these verses but I'm kind of going to expound on the whole thing.

     Okay so the story of the book is this: Philemon was a Christian friend of Paul who had a servant named Onesimus. Onesimus was not a Christian and he stole from Philemon and ran away to Rome. But, he heard Paul talking about God and became saved. So now, Paul is writing to his “beloved friend and fellow laborer” in Christ, Philemon. He makes a plea for Philemon to accept Onesimus back as his slave. The normal treatment of this type of situation would be for Onesimus to be put to death. But Paul is appealing to Philemon as a Christ follower to forgive his new brother in Christ and accept him back.

     Ok there are multiple points of this story that I love because of it's relatability(just made up a word). Lots of people come to Christ after making a mess of their lives which means they have baggage from the things that they have done. No one is too far from God. Sin is sin and no matter what situation you are in, God loves you and wants you to accept Him and His will into your life. It doesn't matter if you were a thief, a murderer, adulterer, liar, or anything else. Your life is redeemable. God has plans for you. But you have to repent, believe in Him, and completely cut ties with your sin. So this is what happened to Onesimus. He was a thief but he found Jesus and repented and wanted to turn his life around. There was just the issue of getting Philemon on board with the idea.

     Another point that I love: Paul comes to Philemon as one who has needed this type of grace given to him. He persecuted Christians and was responsible for the death of Stephen and many other Christ followers. But then, Jesus got a hold of him and started using him to do amazing things in God's name and for His glory. But there was a time when he had to go back to the people who knew him and his awful reputation and needed them to extend him grace and forgiveness. He needed people to see him as washed in the blood of Jesus and not as a murderer. “Philemon, brother, this man Onesimus is a sinner just like I am, but God loves him and has saved him just like He did for me. Will you please extend him grace and accept him back to you?” God will use our messy pasts and beautiful testimonies as ways to relate to others and bring them to Him.

     We don't know what Philemon's response to Paul's letter was but we know what our response needs to be.

Colossians 3:12-14 says,

 “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” 

     No matter what someone has done to us and no matter what society says is the accepted response of being wronged is, we are called to love and forgive, just as Christ has done for us. So in short, sin is sin, no is too far gone to be saved. Our job is to love and forgive others no matter what they have done, just as Christ has loved and forgiven us.

John 15:12 says, 

“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”  

     My application for this week is to pray that God would give me a forgiving heart and bring to my mind the immense grace he has given to me when I am in the place of needing to forgive others who have wronged me.