Forgive and Forget

As part of my daily Bible reading, I read the letter from the Apostle Paul to his friend Philemon today. This is a very short book, only 25 verses, but is has alot to say. If you have never read it, I suggest that you do. In this letter, Paul is pleading with Philemon to forgive the runaway slave, Onesimus. You see, Onesimus belonged to Philemon and had stolen some items fr...

om his master and ran away. Ending up in Rome, Onesimus later crossed paths with Paul who was also in Rome under house arrest. Onesimus, under the ministry of Paul, became another type of servant. He became a servant of Christ. Onesimus accepted Jesus and even began to help Paul spread the Good News. But Paul knew that he could not allow Onesimus to stay with him in Rome. The right thing to do was to send Onesimus back to Philemon. At that time under Roman law, when a slave ran away, the master had the right to beat or even kill the runaway servant. This is when Paul wrote this letter. He ask Philemon to forgive Onesimus and to take him back. Through this letter, Paul was teaching Philemon, and even us, the importance of forgiveness. When we are wronged, no matter how big or even how small, we must demonstrate God's love and forgive the offender. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must not hold unforgiveness in our hearts. We need to follow the example of Philemon in this matter. Not only did he take Onesimus back and forgave him but went the extra step and granted Onesimus his freedom. This extra step allowed Onesimus to bring many more souls into the Kingdom. Today, I am asking you to take that extra step. Do not just forgive those who wronged you, but invite them back into your life and sow the love of Christ into them. Your extra step may just start a chain of events to causes someone to come to know Jesus.