Grace and peace to you my brothers and
sisters in Christ. I was put upon my heart this morning (as
I was listening to Pastor Alistair Begg’s radio show Truth
for Life which i heartily recommend
truthforlife.org) that there is a missing part of
forgiveness, that we often over look. And that is to
have the forgivers heart. All of us have been wronged
by someone at sometime or another, some of us serverely, and
we find it difficult to be a forgiver. God understands this,
and where we are weak, he gives us grace. But in God’s
perfect will, the forgiver and the forgiven must meet in the
middle.
Let me state now, and empathically that
God is not asking you to expose yourself to being hurt
again. God does not ALWAYS seek restoration of relationship.
Especially in cases where abuse, or misuse has caused a life
long scar in our hearts. The purpose of forgiveness is to
empty ourselves of bitterness and hard heartedness and to
put that person into the hands of God, and out of our hands
forever. The perfect scenario of forgiveness, is that BOTH
sides would listen to God and Both sides would find away to
restore the relationship, but as we often know, often one
side simply doesn’t not care about God…..and so we have to
let them go. And to do that we need a heart of the
forgiver.
Below is an entire bible book that
discusses just this. It is the book of Philemon (don’t
worry it’s only one chapter long (25 verses) And is speaking
about a servant of Philemon, Onesimus, who fled from him and
in the process of time ended up with Paul who was imprisoned
in Rome. In his process of salvation is is assumed
that Paul asked him to make his past right, including
returning to Philemon. This letter was a re-introduction of
Onesimus to Philemmon with a request/insistence for Philemon
to accept back, Onesimus in the grace of God.
Philemon 1
1 Paul, a prisoner
of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,
To Philemon our beloved friend
and fellow laborer, 2 to the beloved[a] Apphia, Archippus
our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:
3 Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 I thank my God,
making mention of you always in my prayers, 5 hearing of
your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and
toward all the saints, 6 that the sharing of your faith may
become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing
which is in you[b] in Christ Jesus. 7 For we have[c] great
joy[d] and consolation in your love, because the hearts of
the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.
8
Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command
you what is fitting, 9 yet for love’s sake I rather appeal
to you—being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a
prisoner of Jesus Christ— 10 I appeal to you for my son
Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, 11 who
once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you
and to me.
12 I am sending him
back.[e] You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
13 whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he
might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. 14 But
without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good
deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.
15 For perhaps he
departed for a while for this purpose, that you might
receive him forever, 16 no longer as a slave but more than a
slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more
to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.
17 If then you count
me as a partner, receive him as you would me. 18 But if he
has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. 19
I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay—not to
mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides.
20 Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord;
refresh my heart in the Lord.
21 Having confidence
in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do
even more than I say. 22 But, meanwhile, also prepare a
guest room for me, for I trust that through your prayers I
shall be granted to you.
23 Epaphras, my
fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, 24 as do Mark,
Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow laborers.
25 The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
There are many lessons to glean from this
message. But Pauls imperative for Philemon to be accepting
of Onesimus, regardless of his offense, because Onesimus had
changed his heart. We too have to have the same heart as
this, that we are WILLING to accept our offenders back into
fellowship IF (and only if) they truly are repented and have
changed their life to serve God. Only if we are willing to
go the full measure, can we be truly free in our hearts.
This is the heart of God, that while we were yet still
sinners, He sent his Son to die for us. If we who have
greatly offended God in our sins, can be accepted back into
full fellowship, with no condemnation…..we must be willing
to do the same for those who have hurt us.
Peace to you
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