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compelled to do so by the attack upon his office. There, in II Cor. 11:, we read of
stripes, prisons, deaths, beatings, stonings, shipwreck and perils beyond compute. As we
read this list we might be forgiven if we said, surely this man's measure is now full, but it
was not.
In Col. 1: 24, he makes it known that there were "sufferings of Christ" that were
"left over" which he had yet to endure. His Roman imprisonment was part of this tale of
sufferings. The attitude of those who, though preaching Christ, thought to add affliction
to his bonds (Phil. 1: 16), must have been more galling than any Roman chain, and at the
end, his course finished, the fight won, he could say:
"Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
For the which cause I also suffer these things" (II Tim. 1: 11, 12).
"My gospel, wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds:" (and then
comes that flash of spirit, that irrepressible spirit that no amount of bondage or sufferings
could crush, saying with a delightful play upon words: "but the Word of God is not
bound"). "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory" (II Tim. 2: 8-10).
"Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium,
at Lystra; what persecutions I endured" (II Tim. 3: 10, 11).
It is clear that the Apostle's ministry was a ministry of suffering, and the fact that, in
the person of His people, he had once persecuted the Lord, enabled him to say: "in my
turn", or as a kind of correspondency, I now endure in my flesh the sufferings of Christ,
"for His body's sake, which is the church". The other word "to fulfil" in Col. 1: 25
means rather "to complete". The word is so translated in Col. 2: 10, "ye are complete in
Him", and is the intention in the exhortation to Archippus, that he should "fulfil" or
"complete" his ministry (Col. 4: 17). The revelation of the mystery "completes the word
of God" and in the ministry of the Apostle it is "made manifest".
Our space has been occupied with but one aspect of the Apostle's ministry, but if it
enables us to appreciate more fully than before what underlies the title, "the prisoner of
Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles", we shall the more value that ministry, written in tears and
sealed with blood, even though our adherence to the "four prison epistles" should bring
with it a taste of that cup of which the Apostle drank so deeply.