WHAT WE BELIEVE: Forgiven Our Debt and Free to Forgive Others

“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 your owing me even your own self.” Philemon 18-19

An IOU is a document that acknowledges a debt. Here, Paul offers Philemon an IOU on Onesimus’ behalf. At the same time, he reminds Philemon of his own IOU, based on his debt of sin.

Paul wrote more about this IOU in his letter to the Colossians: “When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14)

The picture painted here is of an IOU that humanity has signed, acknowledging that we have not given to God what we owe him—which is everything (Romans 11:36). However, rather than demand we pay up, in Jesus, God has wiped our debt away.

When Paul writes that Philemon owes him his own self, he is referring to the fact that Philemon has had his personal IOU to God totally torn up as a result of Paul’s ministry: Paul had delivered to him the good news that in Jesus our debt is paid! He was forgiven everything!! So now he is being asked to forgive Onesimus.

As Christians, we believe we owe everything to our Creator-God and that we have failed to give him his due. But in Jesus, God made a way for our IOUs to be obliterated (Mark 10:45). And because of this, we have become empowered to forgive the debts others owe to us.