PAUL A SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST

[nChrist]

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

GALATIANS.

Paul followed Titus to Corinth, and remained there a happy three months. But the joy of fellowship with the large and happy band of friends that gathered around him there must have been greatly blurred by tidings of the fickleness of the Galatians, who were removing "from him that had called them into the grace of Christ unto another gospel." Proselytisers had gone amongst his converts professing to represent the church at Jerusalem, and in the name of primitive Christianity had disparaged Paul's apostleship, questioned his authority, and insisted on the necessity of Gentiles being circumcised and submitting to the Levitical law.

It was a critical hour. If these views had prevailed, Christianity must have dwindled into a Jewish sect, and the river of Christian life and work which had gushed from the ground at Pentecost must have lost itself among the sands of Rabbinical speculation. Gentile Christianity was in the balance; the hope of the world at stake. Profoundly stirred in spirit, the Apostle's righteous indignation flames in almost every sentence, and with glowing passion he meets the arguments of those who were seducing the Galatians from the simplicity and freedom of Christ: "As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

Under the glow of his indignation there is not only clear and strong thinking, but there is indication of yet further regions of Christian knowledge which were being unfolded to Paul. Pressed by the exigencies of his position -- and how often the arising of new heresies has driven God's servants deeper into the fulness treasured in Christ for all needs and times -- he is led to realize that not Moses but Abraham, not Sinai but the tents of the patriarch, were the true origin of the Jewish people. Abraham was called when yet in uncircumcision; he believed, and was justified by faith thirty years before he received the distinctive Jewish rite. It was as great a revelation as the shores of the New World to Columbus; and from that moment Paul sprang up to an altogether new position, from which he was able successfully to meet the assaults of the Judaizer, and vindicate all believing Gentiles as 'children of believing Abraham, and heirs of the covenant of promise.
____________________________________________

[nChrist]

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

ROMANS.

As his stay at Corinth drew to a close, the Apostle's mind was attracted to the church in the world's metropolis, which he hoped very soon to visit; and by way of preparation for his coming he prepared a succinct and connected view of the truths which had been revealed to his profoundest thought by the Divine Spirit. Thus originated the greatest of his Epistles, that to the Romans.

In this, as in the former, there is not only a clear appreciation and presentation of the great doctrine of justification by faith, but an ever-enlarging view of our identification with Christ, and of his indwelling. He says we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, but we are saved by his life. He speaks of reigning in life through the abundance of grace treasured up in the one Man, Jesus Christ. His words glow with rapture as he speaks of being joined to Him that was raised from the dead, and of our freedom from the old bondage in which we were held. So entirely had Christ become one with him, and he one with Christ, that he felt the unutterable groans of His intercessions, and something of His travail for the souls of men. He had yielded his members as weapons in his mighty warfare against sin; had been crucified with Christ, and now no longer lived, but Christ lived in him. His life was one faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. The cross was the means, not of justification only, but of sanctification, and stood between him and his past; while by the Holy Spirit the Son of God had become resident and regnant within him.
_______________________________________

[nChrist]

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

PHILIPPIANS.

There is nothing polemical in this epistle. The former Epistles have met and silenced his detractors and enemies. The strife and divisions of the churches, if such there were, do not reach him through the prison doors, or traverse the distance to his Roman abode. The peace of God that passeth all understanding keeps his mind and heart, and out of that tranquil heart pours forth a tide of deep and tender love to his beloved friends at Philippi.

The hope of being alive at the coming of the Lord is still his heart's guiding-star. His citizenship was in heaven, whence he looked for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; but the possibility that perhaps the Lord might have to be magnified by his death had already presented itself to his mind. He saw, however, that the will of God was best, and learned from his Master the secret of self-sacrificing humility. Epaphroditus had brought gifts of love from Philippi, and by his hands this letter of love and gratitude was returned.


COLOSSIANS.

Among those who visited Paul in his hired house, towards the end of his detention in Rome, was Epaphras of Colossal, who also represented Laodicea and Hierapolis -- -cities of Asia Minor in the valley of the Lycus. He told the Apostle of a strange new heresy, which was developing with alarming rapidity in the churches that had been planted in those distant cities.

The falsely-called Christian philosophy of the time was endeavouring to fill the gulf between sinful man and the holy God by a ladder of mythical existences, through which man's prayers might ascend to God and his blessing descend on man. The whole conception was entirely imaginary, and in its furthest reach must fail of its object; for between the loftiest archangel or spirit and the eternal God there is still the infinite chasm which sunders the creature from the Creator, and is impassable unless the Creator come across it.
__________________________________________

[nChrist]

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

The necessity of dealing with this absurd tissue of the imagination was used by the Spirit of God to unveil a wider, deeper view of the fulness that there is in Jesus; and a disclosure was made to the Apostle of the full meaning of the Lord's ascension to the right hand of power. He saw that all principalities and powers. all creature existences, all beings in heaven and earth, and under the earth, were beneath his feet. He was Lord and King. ruling all, filling all, maintaining all. "In Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things have been created through Him, and unto Him: and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist .... And ye are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colossians 1:16, R.V.; Colossians 2:10).

At the same time, his conviction of his union with the risen Lord was ever more definite, and his appreciation of his indwelling more full of hope and glory. What did it matter if he was called upon to fill up what was behind of the sufferings? Had it not been given him to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in the heart, the hope of glory? Tychicus bore this letter and that to the Ephesians.


PHILEMON.

Onesimus, the runaway slave, fugitive from his master Philemon, driven by want to the Apostle's house or discovered in some low haunt of crime by his companions in their errands of mercy, had been begotten to a new life, and was now not a slave only, but a brother beloved. Paul sent him back to his master, who was a friend of his, and with whom he seems to have had a business account (Philemon 1:18-19). This Epistle, which is a perfect model of Christian courtesy, was given him as an introduction to his owner.

The chief point to notice here is the perfect patience and certainty with which the Apostle awaits the ultimate triumph of divine love. He must have felt that in the sight of God, Onesimus had a perfect right to freedom; but it would have been highly impolitic for him to interfere between master and man. Let Philemon be taught to look at Onesimus as joined to him in the Gospel, it would not be long before he would himself propose his emancipation. But till he did, Paul would not precipitate matters, and Onesimus must return to serve. The principle of action in this single instance doubtless became the ultimate law for the solution of many other difficult problems, which were left to the gradual conquest of the spirit of love.
_______________________________________

[nChrist]

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

EPHESIANS.

This Epistle reiterates the great conceptions of the empire of the Lord Jesus. and of his ability to fill the whole gulf between God and man, which the former Epistle had foreshadowed. The doctrine of identification with Christ, in his death, resurrection, and ascension, is set forth with remarkable vividness and power. The conception of the church as the Body and Bride of Christ is elaborated with peculiar beauty of detail. But the commanding peculiarity of this Epistle is its allusion to the home life of husband and wife, parent and child, master and slave.

In earlier days, on account of the present distress, and without the distinct assurance of Inspiration, the Apostle had spoken as though the difficulties of married life preponderated over its sweets (1 Corinthians 7); but in these later Epistles he holds it up as the model of the love which subsists between the Heavenly Bridegroom and His own: and, contrary to the opinion of his time, he goes so far as to assert that the true bond of marriage is the self-sacrifice of the stronger for the weaker -- of the husband for the wife. Woman was no longed to be the slave or toy of man; but men were to be prepared to give themselves for their wives in loving acts of unselfishness, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.


1 TIMOTHY AND TITUS.

After his release, Paul visited the scenes of his former ministry around the shores of the Aegean; and it was during his journeys at this time that he indited these Epistles to direct the young evangelists in the right ordering of the churches under their care. They are of extreme interest because dealing with so many domestic and practical details. He is never weary of showing that the great principles of the Gospel are meant to elevate the commoner incidents and duties of life. "Godliness has promise of the life that now is." "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (1 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:11-12).
________________________________________

[nChrist]

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

2 TIMOTHY.

It was a mellow and softened old age. Lonely so far as dear companions were concerned; full of privations, without cloak, or books, or tendance; shivering in the prison; waiting to be offered, weigh anchor, and drop down the stream. He wanted once more to see his beloved son in the faith, and wrote to speed his steps. It is very pathetic, very beautiful, very human. But the ray of an indomitable courage and faith is flung across the heaving waters: he has kept his Lord's deposit, and knows that the deposit which he had made years before had been no less safely kept. And so the pen is taken in hand for the last time. A few tender messages are added as a postscript. And with large letters he appends the closing sentences, "The Lord be with thy spirit. Grace be with you."

The Epistles of Paul resemble stereotyped plates, from which innumerable copies are produced. Who but God can number the myriads of souls that have come in contact with his words, and have themselves become epistles, ministered by him, "written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God." And, till the Lord come, edition after edition of character, soul-life, and blessed victorious experience, shall be struck off from these blocks of holy thinking which we owe to the Apostle Paul.

THE END
____________________________________