Such gifts as these, together with "prophecy" and the "laying on of hands" do not

properly belong to the Church of the Mystery. They are referred to in the Apostle's

prison ministry as something carried over from a previous dispensation and belonging to

a special order of men who had pioneer work to do. They are not repeated, neither is

there any reference to this supernatural enduement found in the epistles of the present

calling. Perhaps Luke was constrained to omit the prophecies and the laying on of hands,

and to concentrate attention upon discipleship, Bible training, and good report, so that we

might remember that the teacher should be "apt to teach" as well as "marked out by

prophecy".

The fact that Timothy was a child of mixed parentage, was another qualification. He

could sympathize with the Greek, and he could also understand the Jew.  In this

connection the large-mindedness of Paul again shines out. A smaller man, having won so

signal a triumph regarding circumcision as Paul had done at Jerusalem, would have

hesitated before circumcising Timothy. Not so the Apostle; to him circumcision and

uncircumcision were nothing, the glory of God was all. If Timothy could better serve the

Lord in the synagogue by being circumcised, then let the rite be performed at once.

Spiritual gifts, prophecies, laying on of hands and a Jewish rite, all combine to fit this

young servant for his high office.

And so these three set out on their journey, "delivering the decrees for to keep". As a

result, we read firstly that the "churches were established in the faith"--for the decrees

made the imposition of circumcision upon the Gentile null and void; and secondly, that

they "increased in number daily"--for the susceptibilities of the Jewish believers were

now recognized and the causes of stumbling removed by the voluntary abstinence on the

part of the Gentile believers from those things that caused offence. We are now on the

verge of the next great movement in the Acts, and to this we must address ourselves in

the next article.