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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, thank you for listening to your Daily

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Speaker 1: Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each day

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Speaker 1: to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Kirol mccragen, and after a short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, will dive into today's Bible Verse, Fileman

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Speaker 1: Won twenty four. Today's Bible Verse is Filemon one T. Four,

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Speaker 1: where Paul closes his letter by saying, and so do Mark,

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Speaker 1: Aristocus Damis and Luke, my fellow workers. Now. A few

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Speaker 1: years ago, I was standing behind someone in a coffee

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Speaker 1: shop when the cashier told the customer that their credit

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Speaker 1: card had been declined, and you can see the embarrassment immediately.

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Speaker 1: The customer looked through a wallet, tried another card, and

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Speaker 1: then another. Nothing worked, and the line behind them kept growing.

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Speaker 1: People were checking their watches. The customer was apologizing, and

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Speaker 1: it was one of those uncomfortable moments when everybody wants

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Speaker 1: to look somewhere else. Then the woman behind him stepped

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Speaker 1: forward and said, I've got it. The customer protested, but

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Speaker 1: she insisted. The cashier rang up the order and the

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Speaker 1: woman paid the bill for someone she had never met.

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Speaker 1: As I watched, I remember thinking how quickly the entire

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Speaker 1: atmosphere changed, the embarrassment disappeared, and the tension vanished. The

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Speaker 1: customer walked away, relieved because someone else had absorbed a

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Speaker 1: debt they couldn't pay. In that moment, you know, there's

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Speaker 1: simply powerful lot having a debt removed from your account

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Speaker 1: and placed into someone else's. And that's exactly the kind

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Speaker 1: of scene that we find them the Little New Testament

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Speaker 1: Book of Filima, a runaway servant owes a debt, a

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Speaker 1: friend offers to pay for it, a broken relationship has

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Speaker 1: a chance to be restored. And tucked into the closing

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Speaker 1: verses is another story of forgiveness, involving a man named Mark,

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Speaker 1: a reminder that God doesn't just forgive debts, he restores people. Now,

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Speaker 1: at first glance, our verse may not seem like a

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Speaker 1: verse worthy of very much attention. It's part of a

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Speaker 1: closing reading, one of those sections we often skim as

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Speaker 1: we hurry to end the end of a Bible book.

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Speaker 1: But tucked away in that simple list of names is

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Speaker 1: a remarkable story about forgiveness. Before we go any further,

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Speaker 1: let's make sure we know who's in the story. Paul

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Speaker 1: is the apostle writing the letter At this point, he's

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Speaker 1: under house, arrested for preaching the gospel. He's not writing

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Speaker 1: from a position of power or comfort, which he could,

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Speaker 1: but he's writing from confinement. Filehmon is a wealthy Christian

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Speaker 1: living in Colisse. A church actually meets in his home.

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Speaker 1: He's a respect acted, faithful and well known among believers.

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Speaker 1: Then there's Anissimus. His name means useful, which becomes important

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Speaker 1: later in a letter. On Isimus is an enslaved servant

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Speaker 1: in Filemon's household who is a run away. Now in

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Speaker 1: the process, he may have stolen money or property from Fileman,

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Speaker 1: creating a debt he cannot repate. Under Roman law. Running

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Speaker 1: away was a serious offense, and returning home would have

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Speaker 1: been very risky. Somewhere along the way, Anisimus encounters Paul.

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Speaker 1: We don't know all the details, but we know the result.

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Speaker 1: Anissimus becomes a follower of Jesus. The runaway servant experiences

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Speaker 1: genuine transformation. Now Paul finds himself in a difficult position.

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Speaker 1: He loves Anisimus, whom he describes as my son in

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Speaker 1: the faith. He also loves Fileieman, his fellow believer and

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Speaker 1: ministry partner. So Paul writes this deeply personal letter, hoping

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Speaker 1: to bring reconciliation between two men who have been separated

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Speaker 1: by hurt, loss and broken trust. And then, almost quietly,

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Speaker 1: another name appears near the end of the letter, Mark.

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Speaker 1: This is John Mark, the same Mark traditionally associated with

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Speaker 1: the Gospel of Mark. At first, it seems like just

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Speaker 1: another greeting, but Mark's presence tells us something important about forgiveness,

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Speaker 1: because Paul and Mark have their own story of conflict

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Speaker 1: and reconciliation. Imagine receiving a bill for someone else's debt,

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Speaker 1: not because you co signed for it, but because you've

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Speaker 1: caused it, not because you've benefited from it. You simply

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Speaker 1: choose to pay it. And that's essentially what Paul does

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Speaker 1: in this book of Fullynan and Isamus had run away

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Speaker 1: from Fullman. In the process, he may have stolen from

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Speaker 1: him or caused financial loss. While away, and Ismus met Paul,

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Speaker 1: became a follower of Christ and experienced at transform to life.

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Speaker 1: But now Paul's sending him home. That sounds simple enough

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Speaker 1: until you remember that going home meant facing the person

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Speaker 1: heed wronged. So Paul writes one of the most personal

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Speaker 1: letters in the New Testament, in verse eighteen, he tells Filemon,

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Speaker 1: if he has done you any wrong or owes you anything,

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Speaker 1: charge it to me. What an incredible statement. Paul is

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Speaker 1: willing to absorb the cost of reconciliation, and he's not

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Speaker 1: minimizing the offense. He's not pretending that no harm was done.

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Speaker 1: He's not saying that doesn't even matter. He's saying, put

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Speaker 1: it on my account. That's forgiveness with skin on it.

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Speaker 1: But Fileimon isn't only about the reconciliation between Anisimus and Filemon.

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Speaker 1: There's another reconciliation quietly hiding in the letter. And his

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Speaker 1: name is Mark. And if you've been reading the New

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Speaker 1: Testament for a while, you may remember that Paul and

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Speaker 1: Mark have a history. Macinac's thirteen Mark accompanied Paul and

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Speaker 1: Barnabas on missionary journey, but part way through the trip,

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Speaker 1: Mark left and returned home. Scripture doesn't tell us exactly why.

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Speaker 1: Maybe he was homesick, and maybe he was frightened. Maybe

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Speaker 1: the hardships of ministry were more difficult than a young

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Speaker 1: guy expected. Whatever happened, Paul viewed at his failure. Later,

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Speaker 1: when Paul and Barnabas prepared for another missionary journey. Barnabas

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Speaker 1: wanted to bring Paul again, but Paul refused. Acts fifteen

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Speaker 1: thirty nine says their disagreement became so sharp they parted company.

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Speaker 1: Now think about that, two godly men who were two

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Speaker 1: mature believers and two leaders in the early church, and

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Speaker 1: they couldn't agree. The conflict was so significant that they

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Speaker 1: went separate directions for years. That appears to have been

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Speaker 1: the end of the story, but it wasn't. When we

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Speaker 1: reached Filehman, written years later during Paul's imprisonment, Something's changed Mark, isn't.

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Speaker 1: He's no longer a source of contention, if you will.

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Speaker 1: He's now listed among Paul's fellow workers. And that phrase

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Speaker 1: is important. The Greek noun translated fellow workers. It's pronounced

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Speaker 1: soon ear ghost. It refers to a co laborer, partner,

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Speaker 1: or teammate in God's work. So Paul isn't merely tolerating Mark.

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Speaker 1: He's not saying, well, I guess we're speaking again. He's

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Speaker 1: calling him a trusted ministry partner. The relationship has been restored.

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Speaker 1: We see further evidence of this and Colossians four ten,

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Speaker 1: where Paul specifically instructs the believers to welcome Mark if

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Speaker 1: he comes to them. Then, near the end of Paul's life,

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Speaker 1: he writes perhaps the most moving statement of all. In

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Speaker 1: Tewod Timothy four eleven, Paul tells Timothy can't Mark and

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Speaker 1: bring him with you, because he's helpful to me in

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Speaker 1: my ministry, helpful and youthful and valuable. The very man

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Speaker 1: Paul once considered unreliable had become indispensable. That doesn't happen

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Speaker 1: without forgiveness, and that brings us back to Filimon. The

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Speaker 1: little letter is saturated with the gospel. Paul offers to

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Speaker 1: pay Anysmus's debt. Filiehman is asked to receive Nissimus as

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Speaker 1: a brother. Anisimus returns instead of continuing to run and

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Speaker 1: standing quietly in the greeting section of Mark, living proof

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Speaker 1: that broken relationships don't have to stay broken. Sometimes when

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Speaker 1: we think about forgiveness, we imagine it is pretending nothing happened.

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Speaker 1: But the Bible never teaches that. Paul doesn't deny Animis's debt,

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Speaker 1: He acknowledges it. He doesn't rewrite history with Mark, the

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Speaker 1: disagreement and acts still happened. Biblical forgiveness doesn't require amnesia.

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Speaker 1: It requires surrendering our right to collect the debt ourselves.

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Speaker 1: And that's exactly what Christ did for us. The gospels

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Speaker 1: built on the reality that someone paid what someone else owed.

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Speaker 1: Jesus didn't declare our sin imaginary. He paid for the cross.

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Speaker 1: Wasn't God overlooking a debt. It was God's satisfying it.

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Speaker 1: And because we've been forgiven, we're called to become forgiving people.

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Speaker 1: And that doesn't mean every relationship is restored exactly what

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Speaker 1: it once was. Trust may take some time to rebuild,

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Speaker 1: boundaries may still be necessary, and wisdom still matters. But

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Speaker 1: forgiveness means releasing our grip on the offense and allowing

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Speaker 1: God to work. Maybe today you're more like Fileman. Somebody

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Speaker 1: owes you an apology, or maybe wounded you or disappointed you.

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Speaker 1: Or maybe you're more like Anisimus. You're carrying regret over

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Speaker 1: something you've done and wondering if reconciliation is possible. Or

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Speaker 1: maybe you're like Mark. You've failed, you let somebody down,

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Speaker 1: and you're afraid that's how you'll always be remembered. Fileman

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Speaker 1: reminds us that the Gospel has room for all three.

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Speaker 1: A debt can be paid, and a runaway can come home.

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Speaker 1: Failure can become a fellow worker in relationships that seem

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Speaker 1: permanently broken, and can become testimonies of God's grace. That's

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Speaker 1: why a simple greeting and filema matters so much, Because

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Speaker 1: every time Paul writes, mark my fellow worker, we're reminded

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Speaker 1: that forgiveness doesn't change the future. Sometimes it rewrites the

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Speaker 1: ending of story entirely. Will you pray with me, dear

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Speaker 1: Lord in Heaven, thank you that we have that small letter,

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Speaker 1: Paul's shortest work recorded in the Bible. We can easily

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Speaker 1: read it too fast. But Lord, sometimes you will slow

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Speaker 1: us down, and you will give us a jewel, like

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Speaker 1: a tiny little sentence that changes the ending of a story.

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Speaker 1: Reconciliation is possible for all, Lord, and you remind us

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Speaker 1: of that in that very letter. If we're like any

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Speaker 1: one of the three characters in the Book of Lihman,

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Speaker 1: a true story, help us to really feel the resonation

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Speaker 1: of that fact, and that this whole book is about forgiveness,

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Speaker 1: something that is shared with us. Also help us lean

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Speaker 1: into the Lord for it and realize that we're as

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Speaker 1: worthy of forgiveness as anyone else. In your precious name,

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Speaker 1: we pray Almuh