In the Acts we read the labors of an Evangelist; in the Epistles, the instructions of a Teacher, addressed to those who have already been brought in by the evangelist.
I say this, as being the characteristic difference of the two writings; and very suitably, therefore, the Acts of the Apostles comes before, or takes precedence of, the Epistles of the Apostles.
But then, again, the epistles have their own distinction, each one of them. And in a general way, it is easy to perceive this, and as far as Paul's epistles to different churches go, this I would now do, though very briefly.
In that to the Romans we get a full and orderly writing upon the gospel, that most precious mystery or counsel and way of God, by which He has provided for wretched, self-ruined sinners, displaying His own glory, securing holiness, and excluding boasting, while putting the sinner who believes in Jesus into the highest and dearest relationship to Himself. This is done in chap. i.-viii. Then, in chap. 9-11, we have a wondrous volume on prophetic or dispensational truths; and then, to the end, moral exhortations to the saints, addressing them personally and relatively very largely.
Very suitably does this first of the epistles thus fulfill the office of a teacher. To the quickened ones already brought in, the Spirit, by Paul in this epistle, teaches the way of God more perfectly. This is the Epistle to the Romans.
In the Epistles to the Corinthians, which follow, we are introduced to corruptions in the saints, and to the reproofs, rebukes, and corrections of the Spirit in the apostle.
The Corinthians were a scholastic, reasoning people, more Sadducean than Pharisaic (if I may thus speak of Gentiles in the language of the Jews) in the tendencies of their mind. They were tempted to take advantage of the gifts they enjoyed; by them to exalt themselves, rather than to minister to the edification of their brethren. They had got into a sad state of moral relaxation and speculative discussion of doctrines, rapidly tending to ruin; and had been beguiled by some one who had advantages in the flesh, in his worldly circumstances and conditions, and who withdrawing their regards away from Paul to himself.
This state of things may be discovered in the two epistles to them. And the meeting of this state of things, and the answering of certain questions which they had sent to him (in the curiosity, it would almost seem, of a Corinthian intellect), form the materials of these epistles.
But corruption works variously. The man of God has to look forth from many a watch tower, if he would know, as he ought to do, all the approaches of the enemy. Therefore, in Galatia we see a very different form of corruption from that which we have thus seen at Corinth. There was no Judaizing at Corinth—none of the leaven of the Pharisee, as I hinted, but much of that of the Sadducee; yea, and of Herod too, which is worldliness. But among the brethren in Galatia, on the other hand, it was the leaven of the Pharisee that was working, and working powerfully.
The religion of ordinances had been revived among them. The law, in some of its subtle forms, was returned to. A fair show in the flesh was sought. Having begun in the Spirit, they would now be made perfect in the flesh. They were observing days, and months, and times, and years—the rudiments of the world, the elements of the legal economy; and the apostle is afraid of them. He has to labor again for them, that Christ may afresh be everything to them, “formed in them;” and that they may escape from the fascinations and entanglements of a carnal, worldly sanctuary.
In the Epistle to the Ephesians, we have another condition of things, quite another. It is not a state of things of comparative ignorance which needed orderly instruction, as we got in the Romans; nor is it a state of moral relaxation, as is contemplated in the Epistles to the Corinthians; nor a state of doctrinal error approaching dereliction of Christ, as in Galatia. All is right and calm, and undistracted at Ephesus, as far as the epistle assumes: and, consequently, the apostle is free to unfold further and higher truths to the saints there. And this he does. He opens the prerogatives of our calling in Christ, unfolding the mystery of the Church, and addressing the saints as to their duties, and services, and virtue according to that calling, and their relationship one to another in it.
In this epistle, therefore, we rather see the prophet, the one who, under the Holy Ghost, discloses the deep things of God, and takes this place and measure amid the gifts; as we read, “And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” It was surely all inspiration, but it takes, in this epistle, the form of a prophet.
In the Epistle to the Philippians we get the pastor in Paul. There was a very loving personal link between him and them. Personally, I believe, the. Philippians were the nearest to him of any, as John had been to the Lord. Above all others, they had communicated with him, from first to last, during his preaching abroad, and now in his bonds. His heart was very tenderly affected towards them. But he had reason to fear that some breaches had begun among them, some personal jealousies, and reserves, and distances (alas, too common to this day!) and he writes to them a pastoral letter with this apprehension on his heart. But, because of his intimacy with them, and the closeness of their fellowship; because of the love that he had to them, and the grace that was in them, he writes to them with marked tenderness and consideration. In no epistle is there such fervent expression of personal attachment:
And being pastoral rather than instructive, there is no order of doctrinal thought in this epistle. It is written after a freer method.
In the Colossians, who come next, we see a people who had been, like the Galatians (in measure, at least), ensnared by Judaizing principles. But with them this was not in so gross a form as with the Galatians. These principles had been withdrawing the saints in Galatia from that simple faith in the Lord Jesus, which as sinners we must have in Him; these same principles were withdrawing the saints at Colosse from using Christ, and going on with Christ in such ways as saints are to do. The apostle, therefore, very seasonably, instructs them in the fullness of Christ; warning them (as was needed), but likewise teaching them their perfection in Him, that they wanted nothing but what they could get in Him; and that, having begun with Him, they ought to go on with Him; being rooted in Him, so ought they to be built up in Him.
This is the pastor and the teacher together (under full inspiration of the Holy Ghost), both warning and instructing. What variety! Surely these epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Philippians, and the Colossians, let us learn how various the need of the saints may be, how deep the subtleties of their enemy, and how many the watch-towers the Spirit has graciously erected for our use, that we may mount them, and get on vantage ground in the face of the approaches of our adversary! And they further let us learn, that if the Spirit of God be as an evangelist in the Acts, He variously imparts Himself, or fills His vessels in the epistles, as a Prophet, a Teacher; or a Pastor, according to the necessities of the saints.
We have still, however, the Epistles to the Thessalonians to consider. They stand the last in the series or succession of these general epistles of Paul, or his epistles to churches, and they have their own character, like each of the others.
In the people to whom they are addressed, we see an eminent, distinguished faith—a faith which had been tested by sufferings for the truth's sake beyond any. Accordingly, they are very encouraging. The apostle, characteristically, is an exhorter, as I may call him, and in these epistles (as Rom. 12 speaks) “waits on exhortation.” He encourages the suffering Church of the Thessalonians by speaking very much to them of the coming of the Lord, which is the due, appropriate comfort of those who suffer with Him and for His sake in this evil, revolted world. There is, accordingly, no doctrinal method in these two epistles. They are written chiefly in the spirit of sympathy, according to the grace of one who was exhorting or encouraging a tried and suffering people. But they convey instruction on this great truth of the coming of the Lord beyond what the Thessalonians had already reached; instruction, too, most fitted to carry on the comforting, sympathizing ministry of an exhorter, such as the apostle is in these epistles.
He has, however, in the midst of all this to erect a new watch-tower. He has to warn, his honored Thessalonians against allowing “the blessed hope” (the coming of the Lord) to be corrupted or abused among them. For true it is, and no uncommon thing, that the very best things, as well as the very best people (I speak as a man), are still in danger. There were no companies of saints more fresh and promising, and abundant in blessedness, than those in Galatia. They would have plucked out their eyes for Paul. But when he wrote to them, he had to rebuke them sharply, and to tell them to their face that he stood in doubt of them. So, there is no truth more precious for the saint than that which the Thessalonians held, the prospect of the Lord's coming, and the soul's longing for it. But even that was in danger, lest the flesh should take advantage of it and corrupt it, and the saints who held it and loved it become idle, and careless as to present duty and honest, needed industry. So that here, again I say, we have another watch-tower erected; and another warning-voice raised in the midst of corruptions by the Shepherd of Israel, who never slumbers nor sleeps, but eyes His flock night and day.
I have thus taken upon me to look rather rapidly Paul's general epistles: I mean his epistles to congregations or churches of saints, and not to individuals, as Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. Each of them, I may say again upon this review of them, serves a distinct purpose: but the man of God wants them all, living, as he is to do, by every word that has proceeded out of the mouth of God.
The personality of the writer of these Epistles is apparent in each of them, the attitude of his soul, as I may speak, formed, no doubt, by the condition of the Church he was addressing. He is occupying the chair of a master, while writing to the Romans. He is the aggrieved spiritual father, as he addresses himself to the Corinthians. He is the heated, and zealous, and indignant reprover, as he writes to the Galatians, rescuing and defending a prized and precious treasure which he saw was in danger from them who should have kept and guarded it. He is on high, seated in a world of glories, gazing at it and thinking of the love that brought him there, while he writes to the Ephesians. He is the earnest-hearted lover of the Philippians, fearful of the least thing that threatened to soil or disturb so loved a people. He is the anxious watchman in the midst of the Colossians. And he is the deeply interested, sympathizing counselor and comforter, as he was writing his letters to the Thessalonians.
The style and spirit that would suit these different characters, or these different attitudes of soul, may be discovered in the apostle as he thus writes. And all this surely tells us that, through the Spirit, he was alive to his subject, as well as master of it—not a mere penman, but a living one. And this casts me upon the recollection of the words of another which I have greatly enjoyed before now. Speaking of the different scribes, from Moses to John, employed by the Spirit of God for the writing of the Scriptures, he says, “We are far from being unmindful of these human features throughout impressed on the sacred writings. It is with profound gratitude and ever-increasing admiration that we regard this living, actual, dramatic, philanthropic character which shines with so much power and beauty throughout the Book of God. We have the uncultivated and sublime simplicity of John—the affecting, elliptical, soul-stirring, and argumentative energy of Paul—the fervor and solemnity of Peter—the poetic grandeur of Isaiah—the lyre of David—the ingenuous and majestic narratives of Moses—the sententious and royal wisdom of Solomon. Yes, it is all this. It was Peter, Isaiah, Matthew, John, or Moses, but it was God. It is God who speaks to us; but, cast in earthly mold, it is also man. It is man, but it is God also. How greatly does this abounding humanity, and all this personality with which the divinity of Scripture is invested, charm us, reminding us that the Savior of our souls, whose touching voice they are, Himself bears a human heart on the throne of God, although seated on high where “angels serve and forever adore Him.” And he adds, “Such ought to be the word of God; like Emmanuel; full of grace and truth; at once in the bosom of God and in the heart of man; powerful and sympathizing; celestial and human exalted yet humble; imposing and familiar; God and man.”
I much enjoy this, I own. But I will now add only one other thing, at the close of this short word on Paul's epistles to the churches.
It is after the pattern of divine grace from the very beginning, to wait in patience upon man. These Epistles are a further witness of this. The Spirit of God is waiting on the churches found, as they were, in different forms of error and danger, and seeking to recover, correct, and restore them: just as the hand of God was doing in the earlier days of Israel, as we see in the Book of Judges, and again (with the house of David) in 2 Chronicles; and also, as the Lord Jesus Himself had been doing with His generation in the Gospel by St. Matthew, waiting in patient ministry on the worship of the Lord. And thus it is in these Epistles. Evil and error are in the churches; but the Spirit by the apostle admonishes, rebukes, instructs, if haply He may restore. The digging and the dunging again goes on. But there is measure, even in the patience of God. Righteousness demands this; and so, in the Second Epistle to Timothy we may see the house, the great house (in seine sense the house of God), a ruined and disowned thing. But “the counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” The vessel is marred on the wheel in the hand of the Potter; but the Potter, in His sovereign right over the clay, makes another vessel as it hath pleased Him.