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In Rom. 1: 5 he tells of his apostleship with a loving touch, "for His name." The
carnal believers at Corinth were loved, for they called upon "the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord"; and when the apostle would beseech them to be "perfectly joined together," he
knows no term more powerful than, "by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 1: 10).
How he must have rejoiced as he wrote the words of Eph. 1: 21, that Christ was raised
above "every name that is named." How he must have looked forward to that day when,
"in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" (Phil. 2: 10). Or, turning to the practical
side, he could enter with all his heart into the exhortation of Col. 3: 17, "Whatsoever ye
do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus."
His last recorded use of the word emphasizes the fact that that name has lost none of
its power or its sweetness. "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from
iniquity." The use of the word "name" in the epistles of the mystery which have
reference to Christ is instructive.
A | Eph. 1: 21. Every name that is named. Resurrection (noun and verb).
B | Eph. 5: 20. Giving thanks. . . . in the name. Thanksgiving.
C | Phil. 2: 9. The name above every name. Exaltation.
C | Phil. 2: 10. In the name of Jesus. . . . bow. . . . confess. Exaltation.
B | Col. 3: 17. Do all in the name. . . . giving thanks. Thanksgiving.
A | II Tim. 2: 19. Nameth the name. Resurrection (noun and verb).
In this last reference Paul seems to look back to Acts 9: 15, and the connection
between the "vessel" and the "name" (II Tim. 2: 19-21) is suggestive.
Ananias was told that Saul was to bear the name of the Lord Jesus before the Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel. The word "Gentile" is used in a bad sense in the two
occurrences in Acts prior to chapter 9: "Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles"
(Acts 4: 27). "The Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers"
(Acts 7: 45). The Jew is prominent in the early chapters of the Acts, and it is not until
the stoning of Stephen that the first step Gentileward is definitely taken.
The persecution in Jerusalem sent the believers into Judea and Samaria, where they
preached the Word, but this did not in any sense indicate that the scattered believers
preached to the Gentiles, such a thing was undreamed of by them. Should any reader
object to this statement of fact, he has only to read Acts 11: 19:--
"Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about
Stephen, travelled as far as Phenice and Cyprus., and Antioch, preaching the Word to
none but unto the Jews only" (The "Grecians" of 6: 1, 9: 29, and 11: 20 refer to
Greek-speaking Jews, Hellenists. They used the Septuagint instead of the original
Hebrew).
Peter and his associates were "astonished" to find that the holy spirit was poured out
upon Cornelius and his household; the ministry of Peter was strictly to the circumcision
(Gal. 2: 7, 8), the case of Cornelius, being exceptional and for a special purpose.
Cornelius, however, was not a Gentiles in the sense of the word as applied to Paul's