DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH

Me

Me. Self glorification is entirely foreign to the life of faith, and the Apostle's words in Galatians two 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 lire. 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 facto 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 epistIe to the Galatians in defence of his apostleship, so intimately are they linked together.

An Alphabetical Analysis