We all love to receive an encouraging note from a friend.

And on one page of the New Testament, we find a very personal letter from Paul to Philemon.

This brief note to a friend is full of doctrinal truth and practical help for us all.

Open your Bible and your heart today as we come to the book of Philemon.

Let's join Scott Pauli now as we study God's Word together. We are never more like God than when we are forgiving.

I'm convinced of that because what's he always doing with humans?

He's forgiving us.

We don't deserve it, but yet he forgives. And so when we are

forgiving people, when we are seeking to reconcile, when we are being peacemakers, I noticed I didn't

say peacekeepers, there's no such thing. You can't keep it. You got to make it. You've got to be the

active, not the passive one. You've got to make it. You've got to be the active, not the

passive one. You've got to take the initiative. When we're doing that, we are doing the very

same type of work that the Lord Jesus Christ is always doing. So this story in the little book

of Philemon that we've been studying of forgiveness and reconciliation on a human level

between Philemon and Onesimus.

This story of love being shared and restoration being offered is really just a picture,

if you will, an object lesson, a microcosm of a greater love and forgiveness, and that is the divine love

and the divine forgiveness. And we've learned that so many things happened to radically change

Onesmus' life and situation. In verse 10, a slave became a son. In verse 11, an unprofitable man

became profitable. In verses 12 through 14, a runaway was received.

In verse 15, the one that was lost for a season is saved forever.

In verse 16, a servant became a brother.

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