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"Who gave Himself on behalf of all, to be testified in its own peculiar seasons,
whereunto I (`I' emphatic) am appointed herald (kerux), and apostle (I speak the truth
and lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth."
Here again it is manifest that the apostle means much more than that he was merely
"one of the twelve," &100: The last words, veiled in the A.V. by the rendering "faith and
verity," link this passage again with Titus 1: 1-3, for there we read of the apostle's
commission as being connected with the faith of God's elect, and the knowledge of the
truth. The opposition to Paul's threefold office of herald, apostle, and teacher of the
Gentiles, led to the denial of the truth of the mystery, as will be observed in the following
passages:--
"All they which are in Asia have turned away from ME" (II Tim. 1: 15).
"Some shall depart from the faith" (I Tim. 4: 1).
"Some have erred concerning the faith" (I Tim. 6: 21).
"Who concerning the truth have erred" (II Tim. 2: 18).
"They shall turn away their ears from the truth" (II Tim. 4: 4).
Among the means that satan employed to lead away from this faith and truth were the
"profane and vain babblings" of I Tim. 6: 20, 21; II Tim. 3: 16, 18, 23. In I Tim. 1: 4
we read:--
"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies (cf. Titus 1: 10, 14 `Jewish,' and
I Tim. 1: 7 `teachers of law') which minister arguings rather than (further) a dispensation
of God which is in (the sphere, not law, nor Jewish fables, but of) faith."
Those who err concerning the truth, overturn the faith (II Tim. 2: 18). Those who are
ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, these also are
disapproved concerning the faith (II Tim. 3: 7, 8). Paul urges upon Timothy to "fight the
good fight of the faith" (I Tim. 6: 12), and to "rightly divide the Word of truth"
(II Tim. 2: 15), and he could add, "I have contested the good contest. . . . I have kept
the faith" (II Tim. 4: 7). It is instructive to compare the opening verses of I and II
Timothy and Titus:--
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour, and Christ Jesus
our hope" (I Tim. 1:).
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, according to the promise of
life in Christ Jesus" (II Tim. 1:).
"Paul, a servant of God, but an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness; upon hope of
eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before age-times" (Titus 1:).
All these passages go to show the peculiarly exclusive character of Paul's
commission, and of this present dispensation. Herein lies the reason why the god of this
age keeps God's children busy with the sermon on the mount, the Acts of the Apostles,
the gospel of the kingdom even, rather than allow them to realize the truth, the faith, the
teacher, and the dispensation which concerns them so vitally.
We trust that the writer and those associated with him are ready to be misunderstood,
misrepresented, forsaken and despised even by the Lord's dear children, if they can only
be instrumental in leading others to see "what is the dispensation of the mystery," "what