` Let them implead one another' (Acts 19:38).

` We are in danger to be called in question' (Acts 19:40).

` The cause wherefore they accused him' (Acts 23:28,29; 26:2,7).

The one reference to the Court of Heaven is the glorious one `Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's

elect?' (Rom. 8:33).

The word engkaleo occurs in only three passages in the LXX. Ignoring the Authorised Version and translating

direct from the LXX itself, we read :

` According to every injury alleged, both concerning a calf and an ass, and a sheep, and a garment, and every

alleged loss, whatsoever in fact it may be - the judgment of both shall proceed from God, and he that is

convicted shall repay to his neighbour double' (Exod. 22:9).

The word here is `alleged'. What a wonderful position is ours as `accepted in the Beloved'. We who were verily

guilty of trespass and sin, who had not the wherewithal to repay the original debt, let alone double, are now so fully

and completely redeemed, that none can lay anything to our charge. The other two passages in the LXX are found

in Proverbs and Zechariah :

` He that accuses unjustly shall not escape' (Prov. 19:5).

` Whom the prophets before charged' (Zech. 1:4).

The negative anengkletos does not occur in the LXX, and we therefore turn to the New Testament to note its

occurrences there and their contexts :

` Who shall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 1:8).

` Holy and unblameable and unreproveable' (Col. 1:22).

` Let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless' (1 Tim. 3:10).

` If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop

must be blameless, as the steward of God: not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given

to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding fast the

faithful Word' (Tit. 1:6-9).

It is very evident as we read these words and note the context, that in Colossians 1:22 we have the thought of a

blameless life - a life that we have never actually lived, but one that we should seek to live, when once we have

found ourselves `accepted in the Beloved', growing up unto Him in all the gracious and glorious things that He has

first of all made our own, unconditionally, in Himself.

We hope that many of our readers have been wondering why we did not include 1 Timothy 3:2, `A bishop then

must be blameless', in the list of occurrences given above. The word `blameless' is certainly used in the Authorised

Version here, and the list of qualifications is obviously parallel with that already quoted from Titus. The reason for

the omission is that a different Greek word is used in 1 Timothy 3:2, but this is all to the good, for as it is used

synonymously with anengkletos, it will afford a further explanation. The new word is anepileptos, a combination

of a the negative and epileptos, from epilambanomai, `to be caught'. The term is borrowed from ancient wrestling

bouts, and refers to the wrestler, who was so defended in all parts of his body that he could not be caught anywhere

by his antagonist. The passage suggests that a bishop must be one in whose character there is nothing for the

accuser `to take hold of'. This particular word for `blameless' is confined to three references in the New Testament,

all in 1 Timothy :

` A bishop then must be blameless' (3:2).

` These things give in charge that they may be blameless' (5:7).

` Keep this commandment, without spot, unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ'. (6:14).

Those who are accepted in the Beloved have been chosen that they should be holy and, like the sacrifices of the

Old Testament, without blemish. With such a calling, our lives should be so lived that they cannot be `called in

question' or give the adversary `anything to lay hold on'. We shall indeed need grace if we are to `walk worthy' of

this marvellous calling, but it is to be found in full sufficiency `in the Beloved'.