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`Hid together with Christ'
`Appear together with Him'
`In God'.
`In glory'.
The two sets of statements being linked by the words `When ... then'.
Here, in Colossians 3:3,4 the blessed hope of the church of the Mystery is
made known. Some believers are to meet the Lord in the air, that will be `in
glory', but some are to be made manifest with Him in that glory which is
associated with the right hand of God. One star differs from another, `in
glory'. We must be acquainted with `the three spheres' of blessing, and the
reader should turn to the article, Three Spheres5, if at all uncertain of the
peculiar character of the hope set before us in Colossians 3. Other articles
that should be consulted are Appearing1; and Hope2.
Me. Self glorification is entirely foreign to the life of faith, and the
apostle's words in Galatians 2 give voice to the feeling of every true child
of God, `Not I, but Christ'. Yet the same apostle who could call himself
`less than the least' could say, `I magnify mine office'. The magnifying of
the office, the consciousness of stewardship, the need for faithfulness, the
necessity to defend his apostleship, justified the emphasis we find in
certain contexts of the pronoun `me' which would be entirely out of place if
used in the ordinary affairs of life. Those references which have a bearing
upon the special dispensation entrusted to Paul are the following:
`Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship (dispensation
R.V.) of the Mystery' (Eph. 3:8,9).
`And (pray) for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may
open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for
which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as
I ought to speak (literally "as it becomes me")' (Eph. 6:19,20).
`Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me' (2
Tim. 1:13).
`The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men' (2 Tim. 2:2).
`Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by
me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear'
(2 Tim. 4:17). Unto me, for me, as it becomes me, heard of me, by me. The
personal pronoun all the time, but all the time the reason for its prominence
is the great outstanding fact that Paul, as the prisoner of Christ Jesus, was
the appointed channel through whom the truth of the Mystery should be made
known.
`All they which are in Asia be turned away from me'; is balanced by the
word `they shall turn away their ears from the truth' (2 Tim. 1:15;
4:4),
and the sequel is a matter of fact. The first step in apostacy is often the
turning away from Paul as the Messenger; it is but a step after that to
repudiate his message. Paul would rather subscribe himself as the bond slave
of Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1) than emphasize his office, but for the truth's
sake and for the defence of the gospel, he was inspired to devote one and a
half chapters of the epistle to the Galatians in defence of his apostleship,
so intimately are they linked together.