Paul Daugs's Profile

that horrible
remnant of your old self, has gained control

third thing that unforgiveness does.
Unforgiveness gives Satan an open door. Unforgiveness
throws the welcome mat out and invites the demons in.

Ephesians
4:26 and 27 says, "In your anger do not sin, do
not let the sun go down while you're still angry and
do not give the devil a foothold."

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 there is
a very direct statement made by the Apostle Paul. In
chapter 2 verse 10 he says, "I forgive, I
forgive...in verse 11...in order that no advantage be
taken of us by Satan for we are not ignorant of his
schemes."

Jesus said if you forgive men when they sin
against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive
you. If you do not forgive men their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins.

Fourthly, unforgiveness hinders your fellowship
with God.

This morning we're looking
at verses 4 to 7, the second section in these four
sections, and this section deals with one of the
three main thrusts. Verses 4 to 7 give the spiritual character
of one who forgives. Verses 8 to 18, the spiritual action
of one who forgives. Verses 19 to 25, the spiritual motivation
of one who forgives. So we learn a lot about a
forgiver here. We learn how to be a forgiver. We
learn the principles of forgiveness and that is the
intention of the Holy Spirit in writing this
wonderful letter.

verses 4 to
7, the spiritual character of one who forgives

So they worked together. They loved each
other. I told you last week Paul had led Philemon to
Christ. He knew about the man. Furthermore, the
church at Colossae met in his house so a lot of
Christians knew about him. One of those Christians
was the leader of the church at Colossae, a man by
the name of Epaphras and Epaphras, according to verse
23 of Philemon, was with Paul in Rome. So whatever
Paul knew about him, Epaphras could have enhanced
because Epaphras was the leader of the church in
Philemon's house.

verse 5, "Because I
hear..." Literally, I continue to hear. The word
keeps coming to me, Philemon, about you that makes me
pray for you and in my prayers I just say thanks.
Paul is saying I pray and in my prayers you come up
and every time you come up I thank God for you
because every time I hear something it's positive.

Please note
the first thing is in verse 5. He says, "Because
I hear...follow me now...of the faith which you have
toward the Lord Jesus."

You are a true believer and a
true believer desires to do what is right and what
honors the Lord and so I can appeal to you to forgive
because you're concerned about the Lord.

By the way, that verb "you have",
present tense, you continue to have. An ongoing
continuous nature of concern toward the Lord.

Ephesians
4:32 and Colossians 3:13 that we are to forgive one
another because God for Christ's sake has forgiven
us. We are those, like the parable of Matthew 18, who
have been forgiven an unpayable debt and should go
out and forgive others.

the first
characteristic of a forgiver is he's a Christian.

The contrast for that is back in Romans 3. Just
very briefly I call your attention to Romans 3:10.

Then in verse 13 he talks about relationships.
"Their throat is an open grave." In other
words, when they open their mouth, out comes filth
and stench and rottenness. "Their tongues are
used to deceive. Their lips are filled with the
poison of asps. Their mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood."

Second, a forgiving person also has a concern for
people...a concern for people. Verse 5, Paul says,
"I hear also of your love which you have toward
all the saints."

First John 3:14, he simply says if
you're born again you love the brothers.

And so, he says to Philemon, I know you can be a
forgiver. Why? Your faith is real so you have a
concern for the Lord. Your love is real so you have a
concern for the people.

Thirdly, one who is a forgiver has a concern for
fellowship...a concern for fellowship. He says,
"I hear of your love and of the faith which you
have toward the Lord Jesus Christ and toward all the
saints that the fellowship of your faith may become
effective."

What we're talking about here is belonging,
that's the word that I like best, belonging. You
belong to somebody else and somebody else belongs to
you in a mutual partnership. So he says I know that
your faith is concerned with how important is this
mutual belonging.

And what's his implication here? Well, Onesimus is
coming back. You know now that Onesimus from reading
this letter is a Christian. And that makes him in the
fellowship and he belongs to you now not only as a
slave but as a brother in Christ and you belong to
him not only as a master but as a brother in Christ
and I know you care about the belonging. That's the
idea.

There's a fourth...a fourth concern and that is
this, he had a concern for knowledge. Paul wanted him
to be reminded of this so Paul says in verse 6,
"I pray that the fellowship of your faith may
become powerful through the knowledge of every good
thing which is in you,"

There's a fifth component, I think, in the
character of someone who forgives and that is a
concern for glory...a concern for glory. At the end
of verse 6 is this little phrase, "For Christ's
sake." Actually in the Greek it says, "Unto
Christ...unto Christ."

In other words, you're concerned
about the glory of Christ

There's one last note. The person who forgives is
characterized by a concern to be a blessing

And this
again is implied, verse 7, Paul says, "I have
come to have much joy and comfort in your love."

"I am a prisoner of Christ
Jesus."

pass the baton of spiritual leadership

Archippus, our fellow
soldier." Most likely this is their son

"from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ," the union of those two together would
be blasphemous if Jesus were a man or an angel...can
you understand that? This must be understood as an
affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ.

And by the
amazing providence of God, think of it, in a city of
somewhere around 870 thousand, or nearly a million
people, he ran in to the Apostle Paul.

In Colossians chapter 4, just a note, as to all my
affairs, he says, Tychicus, our beloved brother and
faithful servant and fellow bondservant in the Lord
will bring you information. And then verse 9,
"And with him, Onesimus." So he's sending
Tychicus with these two letters and with Onesimus.

You've got to treat this
slave the way Christ treated you. Same principle that
he put in Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, forgive as
you have been forgiven.

What's going to happen when he goes back? Well,
the rest of the book from verse 4 on splits into
three parts. I'll just mention there. It splits into
three parts. The first part, verses 4 to 7, basically
deals with the spiritual character of one who
forgives. That is just a thrilling message, and
that's what we're going to talk about next time. The
spiritual character of one who forgives, what kind of
person is a forgiving person? We're going to see that
in verses 4 to 7. Then the second part of the book is
the spiritual action of one who forgives. First we
look at the character of a forgiver and then we look
at the action of a forgiver, verses 8 to 18. And then
from verses 19 to 25 is the spiritual motivation of
one who forgives. Now by the time we're done with
this book, we're only going to need three messages
more to finish it, you're going to know what a
forgiving person is like in character, in action and
in motivation. And this is essential. We go right
back to where we started, beloved, when I began this
morning to say this, you are never more like God than
when you forgive. And you have been forgiven and
therefore because of the forgiveness of God in Christ
you ought to forgive one another and if you don't
forgive one another then God relationally is going to
keep His distance from you and put His hand of
chastening on you rather than His hand of blessing.

Again I say, because never is a believer more
like God, more like Christ than when He or she
forgives because that's the nature of God and the
nature of Christ which is most wonderfully applied to
us in salvation

The character of God's forgiveness is seen in the
parable of the prodigal son...eager, lavish, loving
forgiveness. And the severity of chastening for one
who doesn't forgive is seen in the parable of the
king and the servant. This is a central theme in all
of Scripture.