Introduction This article will begin a brief series of messages from the letter of Philemon. If you need some help finding Philemon, that may be because it is a short book. It is the shortest work from the Apostle Paul that we have in Scripture. Philemon is situated between Titus and Hebrews. It may be easiest for you to start in Revelation and begin turning back toward the middle. It is easy to flip past Philemon. There are no chapter divisions, and there are only twenty-five verses. Most of you could read the whole thing in just few minutes. There are some Greek names that are not so easy to pronounce, but otherwise this letter is rather simple and straight forward. This book of Philemon is a personal epistle. Philemon is a personal letter from the Apostle Paul. We must understand that this letter is addressing us through a specific, narrow appeal. If you have read Philemon, or heard messages from this letter, you may recall that it centers around a run away slave b...
Matthew 5:38-42 " Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." One thing should be abundantly clear to us by now. We need to be careful about acting on things or forming opinions because of what we have heard someone say. Regardless of what we have heard, we need to look to the Lord to guide us in our actions and reactions. If our behavior is contrary to God’s word, it does not matter who else may sanction our course. I remember years ago a situation arising that really upset a younger me. It made me incredibly angry at the time. My...