God Thoughts February 3
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 1 Timothy 6:1,2
“Paul’s letter to Philemon serves as a model of Christian compassion. In many ways, it
parallels Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, which captures the gospel in a nutshell. The
letter speaks of failure, the need for intercession, returning, forgiveness, and
restoration. When we read it side by side with the letter to the Colossians, we learn that
getting relationships straight is just as important as getting doctrine straight. If we are
genuine disciples of Christ, we will relate to our fellow believers with grace, forgiveness,
and encouragement.
The atrocities committed by Hutus and Tutsis against one another in Rwanda and
neighboring countries during the last decade of the twentieth century are horrific and
difficult to fathom. A surprising statistic makes the holocaust even harder to
understand: “Ninety percent of Rwanda’s people are professed Christians.” John D. Roth
shares that an InterVarsity leader in the region explained that “missionaries preached a
gospel about having a right relationship with God but not necessarily right relationships
with one another. ‘This is why we can be 90 percent Christian yet kill in the name of
ethnicity,’ he says.”56 Philemon helps us put things in proper perspective with its
extraordinary emphasis on[…]”
Excerpt From: David E. Garland. “Colossians, Philemon.” iBooks. https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/colossians-philemon/id398992905?mt=11
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