THE APOSTLE OF THE RECONCILIATION

`For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness: nor

of men sought we glory, neither of (from) you, nor yet of (from) others, when we might have been burdensome,

as the apostles of Christ' (1 Thess. 2:5,6).

Following this second repudiation, the apostle uses two figures to describe his ministry:

`We were gentle among you, even as a nursing MOTHER cherisheth her own children ... and charged every one of

you as a FATHER doth his own children' (1 Thess. 2:7-11 Author's translation).

The apostle reveals the reason for all this untrue hatred and misrepresentation in 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 :

`... the Jews ... have persecuted us (margin, chased us out); and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

FORBIDDING US TO SPEAK TO THE GENTILES that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway'.

Here was the trouble; this Paul preached to the Gentiles! and to the day of his death he suffered for his glorious

commission (2 Tim. 1:11,12). In 2 Thessalonians we catch a glimpse of the protracted struggle; in chapter 3:1-7 :

`Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified ... and that we

may be delivered from unreasonable (margin, absurd) and wicked men ... For yourselves know how ye ought to

follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you'.

It was for the establishing for all time of the personal integrity and the absolute apostleship of Paul, the apostle to

the Gentiles, that the Acts of the Apostles was written: and in humbler form, and in faulty fashion, but with the same

end in view, this present volume is largely penned. To rehabilitate Paul as the minister of the risen and ascended

Christ to the Gentiles would of itself revolutionize Christianity today. We entertain no vain hopes, however. A little

company has always guarded the sacred deposit, and will do so until the dispensation closes, but the generality of

Christians care for none of these things.

We leave the question of the apostleship of Paul, and go over the ground already covered to observe the teaching

of the epistles regarding the peculiar objects of his apostleship: and first among them we will trace the teaching of

these epistles of the reconciliation regarding the status of the Gentile.

We have already noticed the stir that was made at the conversion of Cornelius. Peter, however, was not allowed

to do more than open the door; Paul it was who was commissioned to enter. We return to our first epistle -

Galatians. In the opening chapter the apostle links the Gentiles with his commission:

`But when it pleased God ... to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen (Gentiles) ... '

(Gal. 1:15,16).

Syria and Cilicia, not Judaea, were the spheres of his early ministry (Gal. 1:21,22). In course of time the apostle

went up to Jerusalem to communicate `that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles' (Gal. 2:2), Titus, a Greek, not

being compelled to be circumcised. The conference saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to

Paul, and gave the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gentiles.

So vital is the place of the Gentile, and so interwoven does it become with the theme of the epistle, that we shall

find the references in Galatians supply a key to the whole epistle. The references to Gentiles in Galatians are as

Gentiles in Galatians (Ethnos)

Paul separated to preach Christ among the Gentiles (1:16).

Paul communicates to the twelve that gospel he preached among the Gentiles (2:2).

The divine witness to Paul's apostleship among the Gentiles (2:8).