God Thoughts February 18
Memorize: I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. Philemon 4,5
Read Philemon As you read Philemon today focus on putting yourself in Onesimus, Philemon's and Paul's shoes. What issues needed forgiving? What was the Process? What is the key to forgiveness?
PAUL CONTINUES TO speak with reserve and leads into his actual request with a “perhaps.” The passive voice, “he was separated from you,” is a euphemism for Onesimus’s illegal flight. But the passive voice is also used in the New Testament to “denote God’s agency and further mitigates the seriousness of whatever Onesimus may have done by attributing it all to God’s purposes. Gnilka states what many commentators have concluded: “Behind the passive formulation is to be presumed the activity of God, who is involved in the case.”24 Paul would like Philemon to see the hand of God in what has happened by insinuating that Onesimus’s flight may have had some divine purpose.
This move is psychologically astute. The less malicious intent we attribute to the person who violates us in some way, the less anger we feel toward them. Couching Onesimus’s departure in the grammar of God’s purposes can only help Philemon ease his anger at his slave. The basic assumption is that God is the one who transformed Onesimus and that God “separated the slave from Philemon for a time—in order to effect the transformation.”25
If this is so, then Philemon should ponder what God’s will is for Onesimus. Why did the slave experience this transformation? Was it only to make him a good slave, or was he intended for something more as a slave of Christ? We can imagine that slaves who became sincere Christians “served their masters more industriously (see Col. 3:22–25). But Paul does not revel in the transformation of a useless slave into a useful one, as if conversion’s only purpose in such cases is to improve the service that slaves render their masters. God’s designs, then, will not be complete until Philemon receives him as a beloved brother and sets him free for service in the gospel—hence Paul’s use of “perhaps.”26”
Excerpt From: David E. Garland. “Colossians, Philemon.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/colossians-philemon/id398992905?mt=11
Prayer: God our Father,
you loved the world so much
you gave your only Son to free us
from the ancient power of sin and death.
Help us who wait for his coming,
and lead us to true liberty.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
Memorize: I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. Philemon 4,5
Read Philemon As you read Philemon today focus on putting yourself in Onesimus, Philemon's and Paul's shoes. What issues needed forgiving? What was the Process? What is the key to forgiveness?
PAUL CONTINUES TO speak with reserve and leads into his actual request with a “perhaps.” The passive voice, “he was separated from you,” is a euphemism for Onesimus’s illegal flight. But the passive voice is also used in the New Testament to “denote God’s agency and further mitigates the seriousness of whatever Onesimus may have done by attributing it all to God’s purposes. Gnilka states what many commentators have concluded: “Behind the passive formulation is to be presumed the activity of God, who is involved in the case.”24 Paul would like Philemon to see the hand of God in what has happened by insinuating that Onesimus’s flight may have had some divine purpose.
This move is psychologically astute. The less malicious intent we attribute to the person who violates us in some way, the less anger we feel toward them. Couching Onesimus’s departure in the grammar of God’s purposes can only help Philemon ease his anger at his slave. The basic assumption is that God is the one who transformed Onesimus and that God “separated the slave from Philemon for a time—in order to effect the transformation.”25
If this is so, then Philemon should ponder what God’s will is for Onesimus. Why did the slave experience this transformation? Was it only to make him a good slave, or was he intended for something more as a slave of Christ? We can imagine that slaves who became sincere Christians “served their masters more industriously (see Col. 3:22–25). But Paul does not revel in the transformation of a useless slave into a useful one, as if conversion’s only purpose in such cases is to improve the service that slaves render their masters. God’s designs, then, will not be complete until Philemon receives him as a beloved brother and sets him free for service in the gospel—hence Paul’s use of “perhaps.”26”
Excerpt From: David E. Garland. “Colossians, Philemon.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/colossians-philemon/id398992905?mt=11
Prayer: God our Father,
you loved the world so much
you gave your only Son to free us
from the ancient power of sin and death.
Help us who wait for his coming,
and lead us to true liberty.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. AMEN
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