PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XIX.  "MORE ABUNDANTLY THAN THEY ALL"
F. B. Meyer

In this enumeration let us not forget the eloquence of his tears. "Remember," he said to the elders of the Ephesian Church, "that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears" (Acts 20:31). Each word is significant! Not content with appealing to them by day, he must needs invade his nights; when worn by emotion, labour, and teaching, his tired body might surely claim repose. Nor was this a spasmodic devotion to be followed by spells of indolence and lethargy. He did not cease this ministry for three long years; but pursued it without relaxation, without interruption, without pause. Nor was this work prosecuted with the persistence of a zealot or the eagerness of a partisan; but with the tears of a soul lover.

"Do not complain," says the eloquent writer already quoted, "of his importunity! You, unthankful, he disturbs but once; his own repose is broken every night, if not for you, for others. Nay, more; whatever you are, he will not let you go until he has obtained -- what? Some favour, some kindness? Ah! the greatest favour, the greatest kindness you can manifest is to be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, or to serve Him with greater fidelity. You refuse him, you repulse him, notwithstanding his entreaties; but before you leave him, look at him -- he weeps. He weeps over the sins in which you continue; over the injury your example does to the Church; over the stumbling-block you set before the world; and, above all, for the future you are preparing for yourself. What do you say to this Apostle in tears before you -- I was going to say prostrate at your feet? The God whom he serves once summed up in a single sentence all that his Apostle ought to be: 'Behold, he prayeth.' You -- now in your turn, you to whom he preaches, may sum up all that he does for you in a single sentence -- behold, he weeps."

Why is it that this fount of tears seems denied us? We have tears for all things else than the infinite loss of those who have rejected the Gospel. For this, alas! no single drop trickles along the dry water-courses. We are smitten by a terrible drought, our heart a very Sahara: our water-springs frozen by remorseless cold or scorched by relentless heat. In losing the power of tears we have lost one great power of causing them. It is by broken hearts that hearts are broken; by wet eyes that eyes are made to brim over with the waters of repentant sorrow.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XIX.  "MORE ABUNDANTLY THAN THEY ALL"
F. B. Meyer

Lastly, let us not forget the Apostle's individual interest in his converts. "Warning every one of you night and day with tears," is one evidence of this; and for another we turn instinctively to Colossians 1:28 : "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." How he dwells on that phrase, "every man"! He had no sympathy with the reckless haste that shakes the boughs of the fruit-trees to obtain their precious harvest. He knew too well the peril of injuring the delicate bloom. All the fruit he gathered for God was hand-picked. He was more fond of the hand-net than the seine. Like his Master, he would go far out of his way if he might cast the demon out of one possessed spirit, or persuade an Agrippa to become a Christian. One soul, for whom Christ died, was in his sight of unspeakable worth.

But underlying all these, there was the fundamental conception that it was not he, but the grace of God that was with him, and the power of God which wrought through him. He energised according to the energy of a mightier than himself, who energised in him mightily. He wrought, yet not he, but Christ wrought in him. Anything save what Christ wrought in him was wood, hay, and stubble, of which he dared not take account. He did not work for Christ, but offered himself to Him without reserve, that Christ might penetrate and irradiate the inmost recesses of his being, and then, through its cleansed panes, go forth to illuminate the hearts of men. All his care was to purify himself, that he might at all times be meet for the Master's use. His one desire was to yield himself to God, and that his members might be used as weapons in the great conflict against the powers of hell.

This is, after all, the first and last lesson for the Christian worker. Be clean, pure of heart, and simple in motive. See to it that there be no friction between your will and Christ's. Be adjusted, in gear, well set and jointed. Subdue your own activities as much as your own natural lethargy. Stand still till God impels you. Wait till He works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. Exercise faith that God should accomplish in you the greatest results possible to the capacity of your nature. Let there be no thought of what you can do for God, but all thought of what God can do through you. Nothing will make you so intense and ceaseless in your activity as this.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XIX.  "MORE ABUNDANTLY THAN THEY ALL"
F. B. Meyer

There will be an end of cowardice and of pride: of cowardice, because you will find yourself borne along by an irresistible impulse; of pride, because you will have no occasion to boast. As soon might Milton's pen have been proud of writing the Paradise Lost, as you of what Christ may have done through you. "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?"

These words apply to us all, not less to those whom God has given the ministry of suffering and pain, the care of little children, the daily round of familiar duty. In these we minister to Him who judges, not by the character, but by the spirit of our work; not by its extent, but by its depth; not by results, but by the spirit that animates and inspires.

In all such there is the certainty of the gracious co-operation of the Holy Spirit. Whenever they stand up to speak, the Spirit of God bears witness to their words, so that they come with his demonstration to prepared hearts. Wherever they bear witness, whether by lip or life, the results that accrue testify to the presence and power of a mightier than they. And whenever they cross the threshold of some new soul, or home, or land, men become aware that the gospel has come unto them, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. Be it ours so to live, testify, and minister, that we may be workmen not needing to be ashamed, good stewards of God's manifold grace, co-workers with God, ambassadors through whom God Himself may beseech men to be reconciled.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

(Philippians 1:23)

"With the patriarch's joy
They call I follow to the Land unknown; I trust in
Thee, and know in whom I trust;
Or life or death is equal -- neither weighs!
All weight in this -- oh, let me live to Thee!"
YOUNG

THROUGH the providence of God, and probably by the kind intervention of the centurion -- who had conceived a sincere admiration for him during these months of travel together, and who, indeed, owed him his life -- Paul, on his arrival in Rome, was treated with great leniency. He was permitted to hire a house or apartment in the near neighbourhood of the great Pretorian barracks, and live by himself, the only sign of his captivity consisting in the chain that fastened his wrist to a Roman legionary, the soldiers relieving each other every four or six hours.

There were many advantages in this arrangement. It secured him from the hatred of his people, and gave him a marvellous opportunity of casting the seeds of the Gospel into the head of the rivers of population, that poured from the metropolis throughout the known world. At the same time, it must have been very irksome. Always to be in the presence of another, and that other filled with Gentile antipathy to Jewish habits and Pagan irresponsiveness to Christian fervour; to be able to make no movement without the clanking of his chain, and the consent of his custodian; to have to conduct his conferences, utter his prayers, and indite his epistles, beneath those stolid eyes, or amid brutal and blasphemous interruptions -- all this must have been excessively trying to a sensitive temperament like the Apostle's. That must have been a hard and long schooling, which had taught him to be content even with this, for the sake of the Gospel. But this, also, he could do through Christ that strengthened him. And it also turned out greatly to the furtherance of the cause he loved. Many of these brawny veterans became humble, earnest disciples. With a glow of holy joy, he informs the Philippians, that his bonds in Christ have become manifest throughout the whole Pretorian guard; and we know that this was the beginning of a movement destined within three centuries to spread throughout the entire army, and compel Constantine to adopt Christianity as the religion of the State. This was a blessed issue of that period of suffering which so often extorted the cry, "Remember my bonds."
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

Three days after his arrival in Rome, Paul summoned to his temporary lodging the leaders of the Jewish synagogues, of which there are said to have been seven, for the sixty thousand Jews who were the objects of the dislike and ridicule of the imperial city. At the first interview they cautiously occupied neutral ground, and expressed the wish to hear and judge for themselves, concerning the sect which was only known to them as the butt of universal execration. At the second interview, after listening to Paul's explanations and appeals for an entire day, there was the usual division of opinion. "Some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not." His testimony having thus been first offered, according to his invariable practice, to his own people, there was now no further obstacle to his addressing a wider audience. The message of salvation was sent to the Gentiles, and these would certainly hear (Acts 28:28 ). We are not, therefore, surprised to be told that for the next two years, whilst his accusers were preparing their case, or the emperor was permitting shameless indulgence to interfere with the discharge of public business, "He received all that went in unto him, preaching the Kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him."

It might be said of the Apostle, as of his Lord, that they came to him from every quarter. Timothy, his son in the faith; Mark, now "profitable"; Luke, with his quick physician's eye and delicate sympathy; Aristarchus, who shared his imprisonment, that he might have an opportunity of ministering to his needs; Tychicus, from Ephesus, "the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord"; Epaphras, from Colossae, a "beloved fellow-servant, and faithful minister of Christ," on the behalf of the church there; Epaphroditus, from Philippi, who brought the liberal contributions of the beloved circle, that for so many years had never ceased to remember their friend and teacher; Demas, who had not yet allowed the present to turn him aside from the eternal and unseen  -- these, and others, are mentioned in the postscripts of his Epistles as being with him. Members of the Roman church would always be welcomed, and must have poured into his humble lodging in a perpetual stream; Epaenetus and Mary, Andronicus and Junia, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis the beloved, and Apelles the approved, must often have resorted to that apartment, which was irradiated with the perpetual presence of the Lord. They had come to meet him on his first arrival as far as the Appii Forum and the Three Taverns, and would not be likely to neglect him, now he was settled among them.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

Then what interest would be aroused by the episodes of those two years! The illness of Epaphroditus, who was sick unto death; the discovery and conversion of Onesimus, the runaway slave; the writing and despatch of the Epistles, which bear such evident traces of the prison cell. There could have been no lack of incident, amid the interest of which the two years must have sped by more swiftly than the other two years spent in confinement at Caesarea.

It is almost certain that Paul was acquitted at his first trial, and liberated, and permitted for two or three years at least to engage again in his beloved work. He was evidently expecting this, when, writing to the Philippians, he said: "I myself am confident in the Lord, that I myself, too, shall come speedily." In his letter to Philemon also, he goes so far as to ask that a lodging may be prepared for him, as he hopes to be granted to their prayers. Universal tradition affirms an interspace of liberty between his two imprisonments; and without this hypothesis, it is almost impossible to explain many of the incidental allusions of the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, which cannot refer, so far as we can see, to the period that falls within the compass of the Acts.

Whether his liberation were due to the renewed offices of the centurion, or to more explicit reports received from Caesarea, history does not record; but it was by the decree of a greater than Nero that the coupling-chain was struck off the Apostle's wrist, and he was free to go where he would. That he should abide in the flesh was, in the eye of the great Head of the Church, needful for the furtherance and joy of faith to the little communities that looked to him as their father; and their rejoicing was destined to be more abundant in Jesus Christ by his coming to them again.

Once more a free man, Paul would certainly fulfil his intention of visiting Philemon and the church of Colossal. Thence he would make his way to the church at Ephesus, to hold further converse with them on those sacred mysteries which in his Epistle he had commenced to unfold. It was probably during his residence there that Onesiphorus ministered to him with such tender thoughtfulness as to elicit a significant reference in the last Epistle (2 Timothy 1:18 ). Leaving Timothy behind him with the injunction to command some that they should preach no other Gospel than they had heard from his lips (1 Timothy 1:3), he travelled onward to Macedonia and Philippi. What a greeting must have been accorded to him there! They were his brethren, beloved and longed for, his joy and crown, whom he ever held in his heart, and who in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel had so deeply partaken with him. Lydia and Clement, Euodia and Syntyche, Epaphroditus and the gaoler, together with many other fellow-workers, whose names are in the Book of Life, must have gathered around to minister to that frail, worn body, to be inspired by that heroic soul.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

From Philippi he must have passed to other churches in Greece, and amongst the rest to Corinth. Finally he set sail with Titus for Crete, where he left him to set in order the things that were wanting, and to appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5). On his return to the mainland he wrote an epistle to Titus, from the closing messages in which we gather that he was about to winter at Nicopolis surrounded by several friends, such as Artemas, Zenas, Tychicus, and Apollos, who were inspired with his own spirit, and were gladly assisting him in strengthening the organization and purifying the teaching in these young churches, each of which had possibly to pass through some such phases of doctrinal and practical difficulty as are reflected in the mirror of the Epistles to Corinth (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).

This blessed liberty, however, was summarily cut short. One of the most terrible events in the history of the ancient world -- the burning of Rome -- took place in the year A.D. 64; and to divert from himself the suspicion which indicated him as its author, Nero accused the Christians of being the incendiaries. Immediately the fierce flames of the first general persecution broke out. Those who were resident in the metropolis, and who must have been well known and dear to the Apostle, were seized and subjected to horrible barbarities, whilst a strict search was made throughout the empire for their leaders, the Jews abetting the inquisitors. It was not likely that so eminent a Christian as the Apostle would escape. The storm that sweeps the forest will smite first and most destructively the loftiest trees.

He was staying for a time at Troas, in the house of Carpus, where he had arrived from Nicopolis. His arrest was so sudden that he had not time to gather up his precious books and parchments, which may have included copies of his Epistles, a Hebrew Bible, and some early copies of the sayings of our Lord; or to wrap around him the cloak which had been his companion in many a wintry storm. Thence he was hurried to Rome.

A little group of friends accompanied him, with faithful tenacity, in this last sad journey. Demas and Crescens, Titus and Tychicus, Luke and Erastus. But Erastus abode at Corinth, through which the little band may have passed; and Trophimus fell ill at Miletus, and had to be left there, as the Roman guard would brook no delay. So, for the second time, Paul reached Rome.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

But the circumstances of his second imprisonment differed widely from those of the first. Then he had his own hired house; now he was left in close confinement, and tradition points to the Mamertine prison as the scene of his last weeks or months. Then he was easily accessible; now Onesiphorus had to seek him out very diligently, and it took some courage not to be ashamed of his chain. Then he was the centre of a large circle of friends and sympathisers; now the winnowing fan of trouble had greatly thinned their ranks, whilst others had been despatched on distant missions. "Only Luke is with me," is the rather sad expression of the old man's loneliness. Then he cherished a bright hope of speedy liberation; now, though he had successfully met the first impeachment, which was probably one of incendiarism, and had been delivered out of the mouth of the lion, he had no hope of meeting the second, which would include the general charge of introducing new customs hostile to the stability of the imperial government. Its very vagueness made it so hard to combat, and it was inevitable that he should be caught within its meshes.

He was already being poured out as a libation, and the time had come for his loosing the anchor and setting sail. But it caused him no sorrow. In earlier days he had greatly set his heart on being clothed upon with the body that was from heaven, and on being suddenly caught up to be for ever with the Lord. It seemed unlikely now that such would be the method of his transition to that rest of which he had spoken so pathetically. Not by the triumphant path of the air, but by the darksome path of death and the grave, would he pass into the presence of the Lord. It was, however, a matter of small importance what would be the method of his home-going; he was only too thankful, on his review of his career, to say humbly and truthfully, "I have striven the good strife, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."

How characteristic it is to find him boasting of the great audience of Gentiles, to whom, at the first stage of his trial, he was able fully to proclaim the Gospel message. It is equally characteristic to hear him affirm that the ease and success of his witness-bearing was due, not to himself, but to the conscious nearness of his Lord, who stood by and strengthened him.

What were the following processes of that trial? How long was he kept in suspense? Did Timothy arrive in time to see him, and to be with him at the last supreme moment? What was the exact method of his martyrdom? To these questions there is no certain reply. Tradition points to a spot, about three miles from Rome, on the Ostian road, where, at the stroke of the headsman's axe, he was beheaded, and his spirit leaving its frail tenement, entered the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XX.  "IN A STRAIT, BETWIXT TWO"
F. B. Meyer

But how vast the contrast between that scene, which may have excited but little interest, save to the friends that mingled in the little group, and that other scene, in which an abundant entrance was ministered to this noble spirit, as it entered the presence of the Lord! If Christ arose to receive Stephen, may He not also have stood up to welcome Paul? Again he beheld the face that had looked down on him from the opened heavens at his conversion, and heard the voice that had called him by his name. His long-cherished wish of being "with Christ" was gratified, and he found it "far better" than he had ever thought.

His was now the inheritance of the saints in light, of which the Holy Spirit had been the earnest and first-fruits. He had passed the goal, and had attained to the prize of his high calling in Christ. He had been found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. No castaway was he! As he had kept Christ's deposit, so Christ had kept his. And as he gave in the account of his stewardship, who can doubt that the Lord greeted him with, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

What a festal welcome he must have received from thousands whom he had turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, and who were now to become his crown of rejoicing in the presence of the Lord! These from the highlands of Galatia, and those from the seaboard of Asia Minor. These from Judaistic prejudice, and those from the depths of Gentile depravity and sin. These from the degraded slave populations, and those from the ranks of the high-born and educated. Nor have such greetings ceased; but through all the centuries that have succeeded there are comparatively few that have passed along "the Way to the Celestial City" who have not had to acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to him who, of all others, was enabled to give a clearer apprehension of the Divine method of justifying and saving sinners.

What share the blessed ones within the vail may have in hastening the Second Advent we cannot tell But, surely, among those who eagerly anticipate that hour when the Bridegroom shall present the church to Himself, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, there is none more eager than he, who looked so constantly, even to the end, for the blessed hope, the appearance of the glorious Saviour, and who did so much to prepare the church for her Lord! And, among the stones of the foundations of the New Jerusalem, on which are written the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, will surely be found at last that of Saul, also called Paul, who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious but who obtained mercy and was counted faithful.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

(Galatians 6:11)

"All his glowing language issued forth
With God's deep stamp upon its current worth."
COWPER

IT HAS been supposed, with much show of reason, that at the close of the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle took the pen from the hand of his amanuensis and wrote somewhat more than his usual brief autograph. Generally he contented himself with such words as those with which the Epistle to the Colossians closes, "The salutation of me, Paul, with mine own hand. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you." But in the case of the Galatians, among whom his authority had been greatly impugned, it seemed incumbent to give rather more emphasis and importance to his words by a prolonged personal closing paragraph. He practically begs them excuse the clumsy shape and appearance of his handwriting, on account of his defective sight; to which he may also be alluding when he touchingly describes himself as branded with the marks of Jesus (Galatians 6:17).

We may take his words also in a metaphorical sense. How largely his letters bulk in the make-up of the New Testament! If we judge the question only by comparing their length with that of the New Testament, we shall find that they make a fourth part of the whole. And their importance must be measured not by length but by weight. Before you put them into the scale, consider the precious treasures you are handling. The sublime chapter on Love, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; the matchless argument on Justification in Romans 4, 5; the glorious exposition of the work of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8; the triumphant Resurrection Hope of 1 Corinthians 15; the tender unveiling of the Love between Jesus and his own in Ephesians 5; -- what priceless treasures are these which the Church owes first to the Holy Ghost, and next to the Apostle Paul, acting as his organ and instrument.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

How many of the most precious and helpful passages in Scripture bear the mark of the tender, eager, fervent, and devout spirit of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

The Epistles marvellously reflect his personality. It has been said of one of the great painters that he was wont to mix his colours with blood drawn from a secret wound; and of Paul it may be said that he dipped his pen in the blood of his heart. Whatever impression had last rested on his sensitive nature coloured the flow of his thoughts and expressions, whether it was Philippian love expressed by the coming of Epaphroditus, or the story of the Corinthian division told by the members of the house of Chloe. Probably it is for this very reason, because he wrote with all the freshness of speech, with the sparkle of conversation, as though he were talking naturally in a circle of friends, that he has so moved the heart of the world.

But it is not too much to say that, humanly speaking, the Gospel of Christ would never have taken such fast hold on the strong, practical, vigorous nations of the West, had it not been for these Epistles. The mind of the Apostle John is given to deep and spiritual insight, which sees, rather than argues, its way into the truths of the Gospel. The mind of the Apostle Peter, again, is specially Hebraic: he looks at everything from the standpoint of his early education and training, on which the teachings of his Master had been grafted. But with Paul, though he writes as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, employing methods of Scripture interpretation, which, being in the method of the Rabbis, are recondite and unfamiliar to our thought, yet his Epistles are characterized by a virility, a logical order, a style of argument, a definiteness of statement and phraseology, which are closely akin to our Western civilization. When he was born the Roman Empire was in the summer of its glory, and Greek culture so infused into the universal thought and speech, that even the exclusivism and bigotry of the Jewish ghettos were not wholly proof against it. The breath of the Western ocean is in these Epistles; the tides of the coming centuries were already rolling into the estuary, and causing the barges of long stationary tradition to move uneasily and rattle their mooring-chains. It is for this reason that Paul has been the contemporary of Western civilization through all the centuries. It was he who taught Augustine and inspired Luther. His thoughts and conceptions have been wrought into the texture, and woven into the woof of the foremost minds of the Christian centuries. The seeds he scattered have fruited in the harvests of modern education, jurisprudence, liberty, and civilization.
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

"Ah!" it has been eloquently said, "what does the world owe to this Apostle; what has it owed to him; what will it owe: of pious pastors, zealous missionaries, eminent Christians, useful books, benevolent endowments, examples of faith, charity, purity, holiness? Who can calculate it? The whole human race will arise and confess that amongst all the names of its benefactors whom it is pleased to enroll from age to age, there is no one whom it proclaims with so much harmony, gratitude and love, as the name of the Apostle Paul."

We have thirteen Letters bearing the inscription and signature of Paul. The evidence of their genuineness and authenticity is generally admitted; even the extreme school of destructive criticism has been compelled to admit that the Epistles to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans are undoubtedly his. They were written at different periods between the years 52 and 68 A.D; and under very different circumstances. These when hope was young and fresh in the first glad dawn; these amid the stress of strong antagonism; these with the shackles of the prison on the wrist; these when the sun was dyeing the horizon with its last intense glow. Each largely tinctured with the complexion of the worlds without and within, but all full of that devotion to the risen Lord which led him to subscribe himself so often as his devoted bond-servant. "Paul, the bond-servant of Jesus Christ."

Let us place these Epistles in the order of their composition, and see how they mark the successive stages of progress in the Apostle's conceptions of Christ. He was always full of Love and Loyalty and the Divine Spirit; but according to his own words he was perpetually leaving the things that were behind and pressing on to those before, that he might know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. It is not surprising, therefore, that each of the Epistles contains some pro-founder apprehension of the fulness and glory of the risen Lord. As Jesus is said to have increased in wisdom and age, so his Apostle was transformed into his image from glory to glory. All his life was a going from strength to strength. And as he climbed the craggy steeps of obedience and faith, of growing likeness to Jesus, of self-sacrifice and experience of the cross, his horizon of knowledge widened to tread the lengths and heights and depths of the knowledge of the love of Christ, which still passed his knowledge. We have only to compare the first Epistle to the Thessalonians with that of the Ephesians, to perceive at once how greatly this noble nature had filled out and ripened under the culture of the Divine husbandman.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

The best and most natural division of the Epistles, that I have met with, is the following:

The Eschatological Group: 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
The Anti-Judaic Group: 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Romans.
The Christological, or Anti-Gnostic Group: Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians.
The Pastoral Group: 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy.
Let us consider them in this order.

I and 2 THESSALONIANS.

The first of these was probably written towards the close of the year 52, and certainly from Corinth. Timothy had been left in Macedonia to complete the work from which the Apostle had been so summarily torn. After doing all he could to comfort and help the infant churches, he came with Silas to Paul, and the three held solemn and prayerful conferences on the best way of directing and assisting the disciples amid the great storm of opposition through which they were passing. It was impossible for any of them to go to their relief, and so this first Epistle was despatched. And the second from the same city, a few months afterwards, when the Apostle heard that the first had been interpreted to mean that the Lord's coming was near enough to justify the expectation of the speedy dissolution of existing society.

In each of these Epistles, the Apostle dwells more largely than in any of the others on the Second Advent. Its light was illuminating his whole being with its glow. The motive for every duty, the incitement to every Christian disposition, the ground for purity, hopefulness, comfort, and practical virtue, are found in the coming of the Son of God. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up."
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PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

The motive for Christian living is less in the sense of the indwelling Christ and more in the expectation of the coming Christ: there is less of the cross, and more of the glory; less of the invisible headship over all things in heaven and earth, which comes out so prominently in later Epistles, and more of the parousia, the personal presence of Jesus. To the end the Apostle bade the church stand at her oriel window, looking for the coming of the glory of her great God and Saviour; but the ground covered by his later Epistles is much wider than that of his earliest.


1 CORINTHIANS.

Towards the end of Paul's three years' residence in Ephesus, tidings came, partly through Apollos and partly through members of the house of Chloe, of the very unfavourable condition of affairs at Corinth. Amid the strongly sensuous influences of that voluptuous city the little band of converts seemed on the point of yielding to the strong current setting against them, and relapsing into the vices of their contemporaries. Shortly after this a letter arrived from the church itself, brought to Ephesus by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, asking advice on a number of practical difficulties. It was a terrible revelation of quarrels, disputings, inconsistencies, and grosser evils, and was enough to daunt any man. How could he hope to remedy such a state of things without going in person? And if he went, how would he be received? At that time he was pressed with the terrible conflict which was being waged at Ephesus, and he must stay at his post. There was nothing for it but to write as the Holy Spirit might direct; and the result is the marvellous Epistle, which more than any other has supplied practical direction to the church in the following centuries, showing her how to apply the principles of the Gospel to the most complicated moral and social problems. It was carried to Corinth by Titus. In this Epistle there is still the pulse-throb of the Second Advent; but there is, in addition, the sublime conception of the Second Adam, and the revelation by the Holy Spirit now and here, to spiritual minds, of things which eye had not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.
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[nChrist]

PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST
XXI.  "HOW LARGE LETTERS"
F. B. Meyer

2 CORINTHIANS

When the riot broke out in Ephesus, the Apostle was eagerly looking for the coming of Titus with tidings of the reception of his Epistle. On his expulsion from the city he went to Troas, making sure that he would meet him there; but failing to do so, he became feverish]y anxious, and hastened on to Macedonia to seek him. He was afflicted on every side: "without were fightings, within were fears," till he was finally comforted by the coming of Titus, who brought good news as he told of their longing, their mourning, their zeal for him. Thereupon he wrote his second Epistle, and sent it to the church by the hands of Titus and another.

This is the most personal of all his Epistles. He lays bare his heart; he permits us to see its yearning tenderness, its sensitiveness to love or hate, its eager devotion to the best interests of his converts. "All things are for your sakes . . . for which cause we faint not." The deep spiritual aspects of the Christian life, which are so characteristic of the later Epistles, are specially unfolded. He writes as though, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he were enjoying increasing measures of the life hid with Christ in God. Though he was always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, the life of Jesus, which was in him, was manifesting itself in his mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11). He now knew Christ, not after the flesh, but in the spirit; the constraint of his love was perpetually leading to the denial of self, and the putting on of that new creation which was the gift of the risen Lord (2 Corinthians 5:14-17). Whatever the difficulties and privations of his lot, he was amply compensated from the eternal and spiritual sphere in which he lived (2 Corinthians 6:4-10). What though the stake in the flesh cost him continual anguish, the grace of Jesus made him glory in it, as positively a source of strength (2 Corinthians 12:10).
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