which opens the practical section (chapters 4 to 6) he calls himself 'The

prisoner of the Lord'.

The Lordship of Christ is particularly stressed

where service and obedience is implied or necessitated:

'Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am' (John

'For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might

be Lord both of the dead and living' (Rom. 14:9).

At the close of the epistle to the Galatians, the apostle wrote:

'I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus' (Gal. 6:17).

The 'marks' here translate the Greek stigmata, and these could be

either a symbol that the one thus branded was a slave, a criminal, or one

under the protection of the deity he served.  Here at the end of Galatians

the apostle is glad to leave the emphasis upon his apostleship which occupies

the bulk of chapters 1 and 2 and subscribe himself the slave of Christ.  This

he gladly does at the very opening of the parallel epistle to the Romans,

where the question of his independent apostleship was not to the fore.

'Paulos doulos' 'Paul a bond slave' (Rom. 1:1).

In Philippians, writing from prison and experiencing some of the

effects of envy and strife, the apostle sweeps aside all lesser feelings, all

resentment at the unchristian attitude of some who even preached Christ,

supposing to add affliction to his bonds, by the uplifting reply:

'What then? notwithstanding, every way ... Christ Is Preached ... I

rejoice' (Phil. 1:18).

This selfless devotion is more fully expressed in verse 21

'For to me to live is Christ'.

The apostle not only had this high ideal before him, he also kept well

before his own mind and the minds of his readers that as stewards we are all

accountable, and however devoted and simple our service may be, we cannot

accurately judge ourselves.  Let us hear him as he contemplates this issue:

'Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ' (1 Cor.

The word here translated 'minister' is huperetes, literally 'an under -

rower', a position of degraded and soul destroying bondage.  The word was

also used of any inferior type of service, and the adoption of this term here

indicates the true humility and unquestioning ministry of the apostle.  It is

this same word which the Lord Himself used of Paul when He made him 'a

minister and a witness' (Acts 26:16).  Paul continues 'ministers of Christ,

and stewards of the mysteries of God'.

The word 'steward' is found first in

Luke 12:42, and again in Luke 16, where it speaks of the 'unjust steward',

the Greek word being oikonomos.  His 'stewardship' (Luke 16:3) being

oikonomia, the word translated 'dispensation' in Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians