Paul’s Perspective

Returning your Bibles to Philemon, we’re going to begin reading in verse eight. Philemon verse eight. First, I just want to say I really appreciate the hard work of Micah getting this pulpit here. I don’t know, Thomas might have helped as well. I’m not sure how all that went down. But I really do appreciate it. It’s beautiful. You did a great job. And all the good work that’s done in changing everything up here. And the ladies who are involved in that and the men, I really appreciate your work in accomplishing that and then putting the effort into to making this look beautiful up here.

And so I really do appreciate the work that goes on behind the scenes in that way. Also, the Exodus has begun. People have started taking their children back to school. And so we have some who are already on the road heading back to college. The ones who are staying here, many of them have started school already. Again, this one’s a little different for me because this time we’re taking my daughter down to school. So it hits a little differently when it’s your own.

But I am genuinely excited for her. I remember being that age and greatly anticipating getting down there, being with all the friends I’d already made from camp and other places and just enjoying that time of life. And so for those of you who are going off to college, your parents have put in the hard work for you to get away from home and to start making paths on your own and making good decisions and acting wisely. And so I encourage you to do that wherever you’re heading, that you will maintain your faith, that you’ll see the importance of things like we’re doing this morning, worshiping God with brethren together.

And that you will find a place wherever you are and whatever college you go to to make that a priority in your life. And as your parents have raised you to do so, to carry that forward in your life. And so please do that. Make that a priority. It is more important than your education. We want you to get educated. We want you to learn. But we want you to love the Lord and to work on your heart and to continue shaping your heart as you grow. And that time of life is a time where there is a lot of new things and a lot of challenges.

And so the the recommendation and the commendation from me, and I know from the elders and from the people here, is that you maintain that in your life and that you continue to love the Lord in the things that you are doing. Begin reading with me in Philemon verse 8. We’re going to spend some time talking about Paul’s perspective this morning. He says, “Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake, I prefer to appeal to you.

I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus. I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent, in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion, but of your own accord.

For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever. No longer as a bondservant, but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So, if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, write this with my own hand, I will repay it, to say nothing of you owing me even your own self.

Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me that I am hoping that through your prayers, I will be graciously given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greeting to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

I wanted to make sure we’ve read at least through the entire letter as we’ve worked through this. I know Jonathan and I have pulled out specific verses here and there throughout the letter, uh but I wanted to make sure we read that last part because it’s pretty significant to where we want to go this morning talking about Paul’s perspective and really what Paul is doing here in this relationship between Onesimus and Philemon. Most conflicts involve two sides. One who has been wronged and another who has been wronged, or at least that’s the story.

Everybody feels like they’ve been wronged. We tend to spin things toward our favor imagining that whatever wrong has happened and has been more wronged on our part. And I can imagine with Onesimus and Philemon maybe the same factors are at play here. Sometimes it is more clear. Sometimes there is someone who has been the offender and there is someone who is the the one who’s been offended, and maybe it’s a little more clear here, but if we actually think about this practically, if we think about how things actually work, I’m sure Onesimus had some kind of complaint.

Why would he be running away otherwise? Philemon wasn’t nice to him. He was overbearing. Whatever that the reasons are, he seems to be and I think it’s most likely he is running to Paul. This is part of Roman law. It’s called amicus domini. You could run to a friend of your master. And you could seek some sort of help or aid from them. And it’s likely this is what Onesimus is doing. I don’t know what his complaints were about Philemon or if they were legitimate. Sometimes they’re not.

Anyone who’s ever dealt with conflicts, you know how this works. Sometimes complaints are real and legitimate, sometimes they’re not. They’re just someone’s perspective that is very off base, and maybe that’s the case with Onesimus. Maybe he just wasn’t living right, and he wasn’t doing the right things, and he didn’t like being held accountable, and that could very well be what’s going on, but also it could have been that he and Philemon were having a spat, and Philemon wasn’t actually treating him the right way.

In that moment, we really just don’t know. What we know is there’s a conflict here, and Paul now finds himself in the middle of this, I think by choice. Paul was neither the offender nor the offended. He was imprisoned hundreds of miles away, and had every reason to stay out of the situation. Yet, he willingly stepped into the middle because fellowship was too valuable to leave broken. I think he recognizes it affected more than just Philemon and Onesimus.

And so, Paul teaches us something important. God often preserves fellowship through faithful Christians who are willing to help reconcile others. Every congregation needs godly mediators who help resolve these kinds of conflicts. So, we’ve looked at things from Onesimus’s perspective. You know, the need to repent, the need to humble yourself, admit the wrongs, and to face the problems at hand. And we’ve seen this from Philemon’s perspective, the one who at least it seems was offended.

Again, we don’t know the whole story, and there could be things in both directions, but this is more the angle of forgiveness. That’s how Paul is pointing this letter toward Philemon being one who is willing to forgive, willing to look and receive Onesimus just as he would receive Paul himself. But, I want you to note something about what he says there in verse 17. He says, “If you consider me your partner,” the Greek term behind that word is koinonos.

That probably sounds familiar to you. The word koinonia is the word fellowship. If you consider me a fellow, if we really have a relationship, if we really are partners, like we would say in the Lord, then you should extend this to him just like you would extend it to me. Now, Paul has some other things to say about that and how that can all work, but it’s this concept and this paradigm that we’re kind of hinging a lot of this on that the importance of fellowship is part of what Paul’s doing here and why it’s so important for Onesimus to come and face Philemon and why it’s important for a Philemon to also face Onesimus and for these two people to be brought back together because fellowship is significant and it matters and it affects other people in the scenario as well.

And so I want us to understand that godly mediation requires courage to face conflict. So, we’re going to talk about mediation a little bit this morning because that’s what Paul is doing. And what we’re seeing here is that a mediator is willing to enter the conflict. One of the first questions we should ask when there is difficulty or conflict is when does someone else’s conflict become my responsibility? And I think most instinctively we think pretty much never.

Right? We assume that the wisest course of action is to stay out of other people’s problems. Paul does just the opposite. Now, we can talk about some reasons for that. He wasn’t responsible for creating the conflict, but he recognized he could be part of restoring it. A godly mediator refuses to remain a spectator when God’s family is divided. And so we will justify staying on the sidelines, right? This is between them, they’ll work it out, I don’t know the whole story, getting involved will just make things worse, it’s none of my business.

Become really good at staying on the sidelines and not involving ourselves when there are conflicts. And the reality is this isn’t always easy. Sometimes those are legitimate concerns, particularly if my involvement is going to create more problems or it’s going to do things in the wrong way, which we’ll talk more about here in just a moment. But they can also just become convenient excuses for avoiding hard conversations and needed confrontation.

Allowing things to just stand where they are awkwardly and not actually dealing with the problems. And so we’ll we’ll think about other things like there’s a proverb that says, you know, don’t get involved. Just don’t be a meddler. Now, the terminology here is really important in Proverbs 26:17, “Like one who grabs a dog by the ears is a passerby who meddles in a quarrel not his own.” There’s multiple parts of this verse that I think are important for making a distinction between what Paul is doing and what we shouldn’t be doing.

Right? A mediator has very different goals than the meddler that Paul that the Proverbs is talking about here. Paul is certainly not trying to incite people and get people upset. He he’s not trying to cause greater problems. He’s not trying to get people to take sides or anything like that. That’s what a meddler does. Right? That’s the idea. You’re you’re walking by and there’s a dog and you grab it by the ears and shake it up and of course the dog’s going to bark and be upset and be angry.

That’s the nature of a meddler. Someone who is actually the term itself So, the term meddler in Hebrew comes from a concept that involves arrogance and anger. This is about that person. It’s not about the situation itself. They’re really not working to make things better or bring people together. They have their own motivations, their own schemes, their own reasons why they’re doing what they’re doing. And so, that’s what Proverbs 26 is about. And so, certainly we should not enter someone else’s quarrel to do that.

We shouldn’t be jumping on somebody else’s bandwagon, prompt and prompting it along and encouraging that kind of behavior. That’s what a meddler does. A meddler jumps into conflicts when they shouldn’t. They just like the fight. They like to be involved. Uh a peacekeeper avoids conflicts they should enter and a peacemaker gets involved to help. And that’s what Paul’s doing here between Philemon and Onesimus. Uh by the way, there’s a a pretty decent book called The Peacemaker by a man named Ken Sand that I would encourage.

He goes a lot deeper into the dynamic of what a peacekeeper is, uh which is an avoider, someone who doesn’t want to deal with the problem, just wants it just to disappear, hopes it goes away, doesn’t actually confront anything. And a peacemaker, which is just the opposite. Peacemakers are active, which is what Paul’s doing. Peacekeepers are passive. They just want to stay to the side and just let things play out. Peacekeepers avoid conflict because it’s uncomfortable and people might get upset.

Let’s just all get along. Peacemakers confront brokenness to help forge reconciliation between people or between groups. And Jesus did not say, this is the point that Sand makes, Jesus did not say blessed are the peacekeepers, but blessed are the peacemakers in Matthew 5 and verse 9. So, I think the first thing I want us to understand here is we can come up with all kinds of reasons why we shouldn’t get involved. And there may be times that’s the case. There may legitimately be times where I don’t know enough information or that sort of thing. But if I see sin happening, if I recognize sin is taking place and it needs to be uh held in check, then as a a Christian, as a follower of Christ, it is my responsibility.

When I see sin and behavior that is affecting the body of Christ, then it becomes a conflict that is my responsibility to enter. Not just remain on the sides and pretend like nothing’s happening. Paul is not willing to sacrifice the fellowship not only of a congregation, but this is something that Jonathan pointed out to me as we were discussing this. It’s not even just the church in Philemon’s house. This goes broader. Paul’s not a part of that. This is extending to Rome, hundreds of miles away, and fellowship is so important between God’s people that people who are not even involved with any local church are part of solving this issue.

It extends beyond the walls of a single congregation at times. As Jonathan pointed out last week in his sermon. Uh let me just point out what peacekeeping looks like in this scenario, at least how I would envision it. And various places I’ve lived, I’ve seen this sort of thing play out multiple times. Philemon hears that Onesimus has been converted and tells his friends, “Paul doesn’t really know what Onesimus is like. He doesn’t really know who Onesimus really is.” His friends agree and they hold Onesimus in suspicion.

They question his sincerity. Of course, never go talk to him about it. Others tell Onesimus, “You know, Philemon, he should just forgive you now. If he doesn’t, he’s a hypocrite.” They begin to question Philemon’s character, which Paul doesn’t do, by the way. When it gets awkward, Philemon is rebuked. “You know, this conflict would be over if you just let it go, Philemon. Don’t you know how bad Onesimus feels? Probably not, cuz they haven’t talked. Christians shouldn’t hold grudges like that, Philemon. I would expect more of you.”

Well, what’s the problem here? Well, besides victim-blaming, which is what’s happening to Philemon in this scenario, since nothing has ever happened, there’s actually no been no real confrontation that’s taken place to fix the real issue, the two people who should be talking are the only ones who seem not to be talking in this scenario. Bad behavior, bitterness are fostered. Awkwardness grows. Conflict remains. Stories are spun. Assumptions are made.

People stay divided and are unsure where they stand with each other. In a word, it’s toxic. And it is enabled to be so. Paul wants none of that. He’s not interested in that kind of behavior. Actually, he puts it all on the table, at least in a sense. Onesimus and Philemon will now face their conflict openly before the church, so that every charge may be established. Do you notice We talked about this already that he doesn’t just address this letter to Philemon. It is addressed to Philemon, and it’s addressed to Apphia, and to Archippus, but also to the church in their house.

This letter is sent to and it is read by everyone. Everyone’s aware of what’s taking place here. He’s putting everything out there, so everyone’s aware of what the issue is. Openness brings bad attitudes, assumptions, misinformation, spin, bias to light. It can no longer hide in the shadows and grow like mold. When you put things on the table and people now have to face them and deal with the conflict, it doesn’t allow for those things to ferment.

And the importance of fellowship to Paul means that this conflict became his own. Scripture tells us that believers, those who are spiritual, are to restore those caught in sin, to bear one another’s burdens, to encourage the fainthearted, to seek those who wander. And what I see Paul doing is that very thing. This entire letter, he has spent time encouraging He is encouraging both Onesimus and Philemon by the way he’s interacting with them. Paul is interested in souls being saved, not making people comfortable, not making people happy.

He wants the souls of these people involved not only to be reconciled to each other, but for their relationship to be right with God. And let me just make a suggestion in this light, particularly based on what Paul does here, that when we have a conflict, whatever it may be, that we handle it face-to-face. Not in email, not through a text. Those are easy methods. You can go about it that way, but a lot of times there’s a lot of misunderstanding. We don’t hear the way somebody’s saying something. We may imagine they’re saying something in a way that they’re not.

Really even a phone call, although that’s better, probably isn’t ideal. Body language matters. Expression matters. And I’m fully convinced that face-to-face we will deal with people very differently than we will in an email or in a text or on the phone. Because there’s something about that that helps us realize the kind of person we ought to be when we stand and we face that person in a conversation. Paul sends Onesimus to face Philemon. He goes all the way from Rome to Colossae to make this happen.

To me that says it’s pretty important. That may be on multiple levels. There may be some things Onesimus needs to take care of. And he needs to go back to Colossae to do this. But part of this as well is Philemon and Onesimus facing each other and working out their differences. Paul sees the importance of this. Again, we don’t know everything that happened with Onesimus and Paul in Rome. A lot of it seems really good. He’s clearly converted, has a relationship with Paul.

He’s serving Paul. But at some point along the way Paul says, “You know, Onesimus, I think you need to go back to Colossae.” I would love to know how that conversation went. I can’t imagine that Onesimus was super excited about that. He’s like, “Oh, you’re right, Paul. Let’s go. I’m going to pack my bags. I’ll head out tomorrow.” Do you think there was any pushback there? You know, maybe I could just send a letter. I could do this a different way. I just from human nature and the things I’ve seen and probably the experiences you’ve had, that seems to be the way people They don’t They don’t really want to face this.

When you’ve had your own fault conflict, do you really want to face it? When I’ve had my own conflicts, do I really want to go face the person? Is that comfortable and easy? No. But I can tell you, almost without fail, it is good. When I’ve had some sort of conflict with someone or a misunderstanding, and I’ve sat down with that person or they’ve needed to sit down with me, whichever the the situation is, it is I can’t even think of a time that it ended poorly.

That we’re we we discussed whatever the conflict was that we have with each other, and it didn’t go well. There’s just something about getting together and facing this as two people working through something, particularly those who love the Lord and want what’s best for people. That at least Paul I think recognizes here and believes truly matters. I’ve already referenced this a little bit with how I mentioned that he talks about Philemon and Onesimus both, but a mediator, a godly mediator, represents both sides.

Now, let me tell you what that doesn’t mean and what it does mean. What it doesn’t mean is that they agree with everything both sides says. That that’s not what the idea here is of mediator. They’re trying to bring the situation together. And yes, maybe Philemon didn’t treat Onesimus right in some situations, and clearly Onesimus did some wrong, and Paul’s not trying to say, “Oh, both of those are fine. I agree with both of you.” That that makes no sense. That wouldn’t help anything. What he wants is what’s best for both people involved.

And he’s going to push them gently and persuasively to do the things that each of them need to do. What he’s not going to do is say, “You know, Onesimus, what really needs to happen is Philemon needs to forgive you. You know, he needs to be a forgiving person.” Why would he tell Philemon Onesimus this? Onesimus needs to take care of what Onesimus needs to take care of. He needs to go back and face his conflict. And and with Philemon, why would he say, “You know, Philemon, what you really need to know is Onesimus, he needs to be repentant.

I mean, I’m pretty sure he already understands that. What really needs to happen on Philemon’s side is he needs to be gracious and forgiving and merciful. And Paul is really addressing both sides of this and he does so actually from a a very positive way. One of the most remarkable things to me about Philemon, the letter, is Paul’s balance. He’s so balanced in how he handles both Onesimus and Philemon. He speaks fondly of both of them. In verses 4 through 7, he’s speaking fondly of Philemon and all the great things about him. We talked about that earlier about Philemon’s character a couple weeks ago. And then in 10 through 13, he speaks very fondly of Onesimus.

He’s like a child to him. He talks about the service that he’s rendering for He would He would rather Paul himself would have rather kept Onesimus there, but he saw it as so important for Onesimus to go back and he didn’t want to force Philemon into anything. He doesn’t want to make him do something by compulsion. He wants to appeal to Philemon and make sure he’s on board with whatever takes place. The mediator, as we’ll talk about here in a few minutes, is the one who’s willing to take the hit. He’s not going to assume something of the other two.

He wants to bring them together and here he’s speaking fondly of both and pointing out the good things about both of them. At the same time, he refuses to excuse sin. He openly acknowledges that Onesimus may have wronged Philemon and owes him a debt. He’s gentle again in how he does this. He’s not Though he makes this open and public to the entire church, it’s sort of on a need-to-know basis when it comes to details. He doesn’t need to air out every detail of what took place between Philemon and Onesimus. The big picture is enough.

There’s a conflict here that needs to be dealt with and Onesimus seems to have owed Philemon something, whatever that is exactly, we don’t know, and Paul doesn’t see fit to tell everybody all about it. But he does realize it needs to be handled, and he’s not going to minimize it. He’s not going to ignore that it happened. You know, he’s a brother now Philemon, and so it doesn’t matter what he did. No, that’s dismissive, it’s obtuse. Grace does not ignore reality.

Grace recognizes what’s taken place and leaves room for mercy, for forgiveness. Genuine reconciliation requires honesty about what actually is going on. And so a mediator refuses to excuse sin, but it also refuses to weaponize truth. He puts the responsibility, as I already mentioned, on each person. Although he addresses the wrongdoing, he’s going to speak clearly about it. He brings it up, he’s not trying to hide it. He doesn’t He’s not trying to humiliate Onesimus.

He’s not trying to manipulate Philemon. Now, I think he is very clever, and he’s very rhetorical uh in how he speaks to Philemon, but I don’t think he’s manipulative. I think he’s just trying to help Philemon see things from the right perspective, from a godly perspective, and he’s not trying to humiliate either one or guilt them or beat them into submission to him or make them do it a certain way. He deals fairly and gently with both. He’s not trying to coerce people.

Now, in fact, the language that’s used in the reading that we just did, he talks about how for love’s sake he’s doing this, right? He’s appealing to them. He’s seeking consent from Philemon. All of this is done in a way that’s giving them the ability to do the right thing without someone forcing them into it. He’s not going to let Onesimus the victim. To get Philemon in the cave. No, he’s going to get each one to recognize where they stand and what they need to do to help this scenario.

And so he appeals rather than commands. That’s how he starts. He said, “I’m bold enough in Christ to command you what is required, but for love’s sake, I’m going to appeal to you.” I could just tell you, “Here’s what you have to do.” No, instead he wants to persuade Philemon about the right actions. And so he expects repentance from Onesimus and forgiveness from Philemon. He expects it in the sense that that is each of their responsibility. He expects it in the sense that he’s confident that people of God, that saints should act in this way. Right?

That’s what he tells Philemon at the end after he’s kind of worked through all this in verse 21, he says, “Confident of your obedience, I write to you knowing that you will do even more than I say.” That’s a really positive way to say, “You really should do this.” But I’m leaving it in your court. You know, the ball’s in your court. But I’m confident because I know the kind of person you are. That you’re going to do the right thing here. And so Paul in all of this as a mediator, he refuses to lower God’s expectations.

And let either man hide from ungodly behavior. No, it’s all out there and he is working both sides of this, not as a meddler, but as someone who is trying to fix the problem here between these two people. And then the last thing I see here in this text, which is maybe a little different than how mediation sometimes works in the world, but there’s a reason for this, I believe. And that is that a mediator, a godly mediator, bears the cost. He’s willing to sacrifice or she’s willing to sacrifice.

Paul writes, “If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account.” This is a persuasive method maybe to get Philemon to see from a reasonable perspective how this should work. I I think it’s interesting and I think Paul is literally honest about this. I think he’s saying, “I will pay this. I will take care of whatever debt or whatever he owes you. You can put it on me.” But then he’s going to kind of lean on the relationship he has with Philemon as well and the things I’ve done for you, don’t forget the relationship that we have and that you even owe your own self to me. So, let’s put all this in perspective of the things that truly matter.

And what I take from this is he’s recognizing that that Philemon has true hurt. Uh there’s been true harm here. Again, this is a way to not be dismissive, not to pretend like nothing actually happened, it’s not a big deal, he should just let it go. But there’s actually been offense. And Paul doesn’t want to be dismissive to that and act like it doesn’t matter. He says, “If that’s the case, I will gladly take this upon myself because fellowship matters so much and your relationship matters so much.

We need to bring you two together and I’ll take the hit for that.” I I don’t know a worldly mediator. I don’t use the word worldly as bad, I just mean in the secular world, who’s going to take the hit for the people they’re trying to bring together. That would be kind of a strange scenario. You have two, you know, businesses trying to work something out. It’s like, “You know what? I’ll just I’ll just pay for it.” I mean, you know, maybe a real estate agent that wants to get the deal done and they’ll take a little hit so the deal will go through. Maybe that’s an example of this. But typically, that’s not the case. What they’re looking for is one or the other or some sort of compromise.

That’s not what godly mediation is about. It’s seeing the value in being Christ-like actually in the nature of how this works. And that’s what I want our minds to focus on here is the Christ-like attitude of Paul, the Christ-like action of Paul. A meddler grabs the dog by the ears and then blames the dog for barking. You know, they stir up the problem and then I can’t believe you barked. The peacemaker spreads the cost around blaming everyone but solving nothing.

But a mediator like Paul invests himself in reconciliation. He’s willing to absorb the cost if it means that fellowship can be restored. He’s willing to hold all to a godly standard no matter the personal cost. He wants to seek reason and rational thinking, not emotionally driven thinking and pursuit. And whatever the cost is for that, he’s willing to take it. Sometimes it’s financial, as Paul’s dealing with here. Sometimes it’s knowing that some people won’t accept it.

In a Christ-like manner, Paul is willing to put his relationship with Onesimus and Philemon on the line. We don’t think about this because I think the implication is that this went well. But what if this went poorly? You know, Philemon rejects Onesimus and is ugly to him. How does that play out? Paul, you may become all the way here to Colossae and all I got was Philemon rejecting me and telling me to get out of his sight. Can’t believe you made me do that. The mediator gets blamed.

Onesimus isn’t willing to admit he’s wrong. Philemon feels burdened again like I he’s being wronged all over. Paul, you really trusted this guy? You really thought he’d do the right thing? Come on, Paul, have some common sense. See reality. There’s risk in mediation. Paul reflects the heart of Christ. He steps into a conflict he did not create. He offers to bear a debt he did not owe. And he willingly sacrifices himself for the sake of reconciliation.

And I at least want to make this point because I think it’s important for us to understand. Jesus did this knowing that some would reject all of this. All the effort he put in, going to the cross, sacrificing himself, he knew what was in man. And he knew despite his best best efforts as a mediator, there would be some who would reject him, mock him, not turn to him, not do the right thing, and yet he still did it. Whether or not the parties are reconciled, the mediator’s job is still the same.

It’s to work for the best interest of everyone involved in a Christ-like manner. Willing to bear the cost, just as Jesus bore the cross. Wanting people to die to self, take up their cross, and follow him. Sadly, some just won’t do the right thing. It’s just the way it works sometimes. But either way, if I have the ability to help, I should. Every Christian will eventually find himself or herself in one of these three pairs of shoes that we’ve been talking about the past few weeks.

Sometimes we’re Philemon. We’ve been hurt. We’ve been offended, and God calls us to forgive someone who has hurt us, just like he’s willing to forgive us. Sometimes we’re Onesimus, and God calls us to repentance. Take responsibility for our actions. Admit the wrongs. Admit the hurt that we’ve brought on somebody and seek reconciliation and sometimes we’re Paul. When God calls us to step into someone else’s conflict not as a meddler, but as a mediator, as a peacemaker who helps them back toward a godly type of behavior in a spirit of reconciliation understanding how important it is to be one in the Lord.

And the question’s not whether conflict will come, it will. The question is this, when conflict comes what shoes will I find myself in? And how will I choose to behave when the moment arrives? This has everything to do with what we’ve been talking about in the idea of preserving fellowship, having some perspective about the conflicts that we find ourselves in from time to time or sometimes maybe we have to enter even though we don’t really want to.

And that the goal is to bring people together in the Lord to be united to become one again just as Paul wanted with the two women in Philippians 4. These women who had worked together in the Lord and now are at odds with each other and so the work is not happening. There’s dysfunction. There’s toxicity. And he needs someone to step in and help bring these two women back together. The greater purpose is the glory of the Lord and his kingdom. It’s not selfish glory or winning or anything like that.

It’s that God’s people are united in spirit and are of one mind. I I want you to think for a moment as we close about what Jesus did for you. If you are not in Christ, if you’ve not given yourself to him I want you to consider the cost. Jesus who is innocent, he did nothing wrong. He wasn’t part of this conflict. He’s not the one who sinned. I was the one who sinned. You were the one who sinned. He stepped in when he didn’t have to. He was in heaven. But he lowered himself and became a servant, came in the form of man.

And he was obedient, obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross, Paul says. All of that so that I and you can be reconciled. Will you reject someone who has worked so hard to bring you back into a relationship with the the Father? There’s only one way to the Father, it’s through Jesus Christ. And we can help you with that this morning. We are ready to baptize you into Christ to make you one again. And when you do that, God’s willing to forgive. He says, “You come to me and and I will remember your sins no more.

The things that you’ve done and the offenses that you’ve brought against me, you you give yourself over to me and I will remember that no more and now we can be in harmony again. Do you want that? Do you want harmony? Do you want peace? Accept the forgiveness of God brought to you through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Can we help you this morning? Won’t you come now as we stand and we sing.