January 31: For Love's Sake

Without your consent I wanted to do nightie, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary. - Philemon 1:14

In Roman times, a wealthy man named Philemon lived in the Colosseum region of Asia Minor. One day his slave Onesimus ran away after stealing some money. The fugitive trekked to Rome, where he met the apostle Paul and was converted to Christ. Paul sent him home with one of the shortest and most personal letters in our Bible-the epistle to Philemon. In it, the apostle exhorts Philemon to consider Onesimus "no longer as a slave but more than a slave - a beloved brother" (verse 16). Paul hints he would like to have Onesimus helping him in his ministry, but he stops short of using his authority to order Philemon to comply. "Though I might be very bold in Christ to command you....yet for love's sake I rather appeal to you" (versus 8:9).

The Lord longs for us to obey because we wan, not because we have to. Some religions codify what must be done to others, but true charity comes from the heart. Let's serve God faithfully because we long to please Him each day.

---

We must constantly examine our own lives to insure the proper actions are produced by proper motives. - James A. Borland