FORGIVENESS A STUDY IN PHILEMON by PASTOR T. R. KELLEY
READ: PROVERBS 19:11
IMPORTANT: Whether the offense is big or small, forgiveness is a process that only God can accomplish in us.
Forgiveness is beyond us it is the work of God in us.
Overlooking a transgression is to look beyond the transgression.
As we forgive, we bring glory to God, for we are never more like God than when we forgive.
I. THE PRINCIPLE PART OF FORGIVENESS
Our Daily Bread illustration of forgiveness - Bruce Goodrich was being initiated into the cadet corps at Texas A & M University. One night, Bruce was forced to run until he dropped -- but he never got up. Bruce Goodrich died before he even entered college.
Enmity is a feeling of hostility, antagonism, animosity or ill will between two parties.
Amity describes a cooperative and supportive relationship between parties.
INTRODUCTION - Forgive is a verb which the 1828 Webster's Dictionary defines as follows:
To pardon; to remit, as an offense or debt; to overlook an offense, and treat the offender as not guilty. The original and proper phrase is to forgive the offense, to send it away, to reject it, that is, not to impute it, [put it to] the offender. But by an easy transition, we also use the phrase, to forgive the person offending.
