Remember that this is a promise to the man who considers the poor. Are you one of these? Then take home the text.

See how in the hour of sickness the God of the poor will bless the man who cares for the poor! The everlasting arms shall stay up his soul as friendly hands and downy pillows stay up the body of the sick. How tender and sympathizing is this image; how near it brings our God to our infirmities and sicknesses! Whoever heard this of the old heathen Jove, or of the gods of India or China! This is language peculiar to the God of Israel; He it is who deigns to become nurse and attendant upon good men. If He smites with one hand, He sustains with the other. Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the LORD's own bosom and is born thereon. Grace is the best of restoratives; divine love is the safest stimulant for the languishing patient; it makes the soul strong as a giant, even when the bones are breaking through the skin. No physician like the LORD, no tonic like His promise, no wine like His love.

The entire letter of Philemon was written from Paul to a minister named Philemon. The letter (as short as it is) turns out to be utmost important. Paul met a man named Onesimus in a Rome prison who was a runaway slave. The most glorious part is that this slave (Onesimus) was saved under Paul’s ministry in that Roman prison. However, Philemon was very upset with his slave and was determined to punish him upon his return. Onesimus was to return to his owner with two letters one to the church at Colossae and the other to Philemon a fellow minister of the Lord. Paul in his letter to Philemon had asked him not to punish Onesimus and if he still felt he had to then just "put that on mine account;" This was the closeness Paul felt to this slave. Paul had come to love this slave because the slave had come to know the Lord. Paul now considered this slave his "brother in Christ" and was now willing to suffer his punishment. I wonder where Paul got such an idea? Yes, it was from our Lord! The Lord Jesus told the Father in eternity past to allow me to suffer for their sins and in time He did just that, it was "put that on mine account" as Paul so well said. Every single sin of the elect of God was His punishment on that cross. Paul had a great love for this slave after the Lord had saved him and learned of this love from our Lord’s example on the cross. This is the same type of love Christians are to have one for another.

Folks, we need to be more like our Saviour and Paul, let’s not fail to let our love for other Christians shine from our "Saviour dwelling hearts". Those that need, we need to help. No one who knows the Lord Jesus as their Saviour is below us. Beauty comes from the inside and there dwells is the Lord Jesus. There is no brother or sister that we cannot love. No one is too ugly, no one is too fat, no one is too poor, no one is too old, and etc. Next time you see a Christian in need and fail to love them and help them (it help is needed) then you are not a good Christian. What sets us apart from the mega-churches is that we truly are the Lord’s and we need to act like His disciples and not like the world. Next time the opportunity arises in your life to help a poor or needy believer then please if in doubt "put that on mine account;" and think of it as helping me.

Take heed of an idle and slothful spirit. An idle life and a holy heart are far asunder. By doing nothing men learn to do evil things. It is easy slipping out of an idle life into an evil and wicked life; yes, an idle life is of itself evil, for man was made to be a active, not to be idle. Idleness is a mother-sin, a breeding-sin; it is the devil's cushion—on which he sits; and the devil's anvil—on which he frames very great and very many sins. Look! as toads and serpents breed most in standing waters, so sin thrives most in idle people. Idleness is that which provokes the Lord to forsake men's bodies, and the devil to possess their souls.

No man has less means to preserve his body, and more temptations to infect his soul, than an idle person. Oh shake off sloth! The sluggish Christian will be sleeping, or idling, or trifling; when he should be in his closet a-praying. Sloth is a fatal sickness of the soul; get it cured—or it will be your eternal bane. Of all devils, it is the 'idle' devil which keeps men most out of their closets. There is nothing that gives the devil so much advantage against us as idleness.

Idleness is the time of temptation. An idle person is the devil's tennis-ball, tossed by him at his pleasure.

The fowler bends his bow and spreads his net for birds when they are roosting, not when they are in flight.

So Satan shoots his most fiery darts at men, when they are most idle and slothful.

Slothful and idle people commonly lie so long a-bed, and spend so much precious time between the comb and the mirror, and in eating, drinking, sporting, and trifling; that they can find no time for private prayer.