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COLOSSIANS IS A PRISON EPISTLE.
"The mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds" (Col. 4:3).
2 TIMOTHY IS A PRISON EPISTLE.
"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner" (2 Tim. 1:8).
PHILEMON IS A PRISON EPISTLE.
"Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ" (Philemon 9).
While Philemon is a precious little epistle, it is not written with any intention of manifesting the distinctive truth
of the mystery, and consequently we usually speak of "the four prison epistles", which should cause no
misunderstanding to any believer.
We now devote the remainder of our space to setting forth the distinctive teaching of these four epistles. First of
all it is interesting to perceive that they are in two pairs. One pair teaches basic truths, the other pair exhorts the
believer to faithful continuance. This can be visualised if we set them out as follows:
EPHESIANS. - The revelation of the Mystery.
PHILIPPIANS. - The running for the Prize.
COLOSSIANS. - The revelation of the Mystery.
2 TIMOTHY. - The fight and the Crown.
Before we come to the question "What is the Mystery?" let us look at one or two distinctive items of these
epistles.
"HEAVENLY PLACES" (Eph. 1:3). - The sphere of blessing for this church is not in the earth, nor in the heavenly
Jerusalem, but in the "heavenly places". These are at the right hand of God, far above all principality and power, far
above all heavens (Eph. 1:3,20,21; 4:10). This church is said to be seated together in these very heavenlies (Eph.
2:6). No higher sphere of blessing can be conceived or is revealed in Scripture. There is nothing like it in any
epistle written by Paul prior to his imprisonment during the Acts, or by any other apostle at any time.
"BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD" (Eph. 1:4). - Strictly speaking, the word here translated "foundation"
should be translated "overthrow", as it refers to Genesis 1:2, but we cannot deal with that question here. It will
suffice for our purpose if we realise that this is the only place in the Word of God where any company of believers is
associated with a period before the foundation of the world, all other companies being connected with a period from
or since the foundation of the world (see Matt. 25:34). Here then are two peculiar features found nowhere else in the
Scriptures:
(1) A SPHERE OF BLESSING "IN HEAVENLY PLACES FAR ABOVE ALL".
(2) A PERIOD OF CHOICE "BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD".
Now Paul, as the prisoner of Jesus Christ, claimed that to him had been given a "dispensation", and that to him
had been revealed "The mystery". We must be clear as to the meaning of the words before we can go further.
The word "dispensation" is translated "stewardship" in Luke 16:2, and has no connection with the word "age" or
a period of time. A steward was once spelt in Old English, Sty-ward, the Ward of the Farm. Paul therefore claimed
to have been appointed by God over some special section of His great Vineyard.
The word "mystery" means "a secret", and especially a secret purpose which is not divulged because of an
enemy. God had planned the ages, but because of the great enemy of truth He purposely did not reveal every part of
that plan at one time. The bulk of the Scriptures deal with that phase of God"s purpose which is connected with
Israel. When Israel failed to repent, it certainly did look as though the evil one had brought the purpose of the ages