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#11.
The Prison Ministry of Paul.
pp. 156, 157
The difference that is observable between the church as constituted during the Acts
period, and the church of the dispensation of the mystery, is reflected in the twofold
ministry of the apostle Paul, who was the human instrument empowered for the founding
of both. From the beginning Paul's authorship differed from that of Peter, for Paul was
chosen on the road to Damascus to bear the name of the Lord to the Gentiles, and, writing
later in the epistle to the Romans, and during the same period, he magnified his office as
the apostle to the Gentiles, while in Gal. 2:, he tells how he went up to Jerusalem to lay
before the leaders of the circumcision "that gospel which he preached among the
Gentiles".
Before the Apostle's liberty was cut short by imprisonment, he wrote six epistles to
the churches, namely Galatians, I and II Thessalonians, I and II Corinthians &
Romans and, about the time of his detention under Felix, he wrote the epistle to the
Hebrews, bringing the number of this group of Epistles up to seven. But after he reached
Rome and had spent that memorable day with the leaders of the Jews recorded in
Acts 28:, the Apostle, from his Roman prison, wrote Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians and Philemon. He was then released and wrote in that interval of freedom,
I Timothy and Titus. He was then retaken and imprisoned, and, with death in view,
wrote his last epistle, II Timothy. Acts 28:, therefore, divides the written ministry
of the Apostle into two groups, each consisting of seven epistles.
In Acts 20: 17-38, we learn that the first ministry of the Apostle was coming to a
close, and that a new ministry, closely associated with bonds and afflictions, awaited him.
From Acts 26: 16-18 we further learn that when the Lord commissioned the Apostle
on the road to Damascus, he told him of a future ministry that lay before him, and that at
some future date He would appear unto him once more to give him the subject and
content of this new, and as it proved, prison, ministry. Thus while the great basis of
justification by faith and redemption by the blood of Christ remained unaltered, an
entirely new superstructure was erected on it, having many unique features, and entirely
distinct from either the Abrahamic covenant or promise, or the new covenant made with
the house of Israel and of Judah. Truth is revealed in the prison ministry of Paul that no
human heart could have conceived, and no human ear had hitherto heard, and it is to
maintain, against all odds and all misrepresentations, that unique ministry that we have
laboured with voice and pen these thirty years, the glory of it making any "loss" sustained
of no importance whatever.
While we must remember, and use in their proper place, the seven epistles left to us by
the apostle of the mystery, the four great prison epistles that contain the complete
revelation of our high calling are Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and II Timothy.