November 23

Philippians 1:17‑19
“If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as, myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides” — Philemon 17-1917If thou count me therefore a partner, receive him as myself. 18If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; 19I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides. (Philemon 17‑19).
WE have a lovely gospel medallion in this short letter to Philemon. A poor thieving runaway slave, Onesimus, who had been saved through contact with the Apostle Paul in prison, was going back to his master and this letter was to be his passport to favor, Paul undertook to stand surety for all the wrong done, even as Jesus has made Himself responsible for our sins and iniquities. Then Paul requested that Philemon receive Onesimus as if he were the apostle himself. He was to be accepted according to his master’s estimate of Paul. In this we see how all believers, though once lost sinners, have now been accepted in the Beloved and are treated by the Father according to His thoughts of His own Son.
“No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Hire, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach the eternal throne.
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.”