Colossians 1:1

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother." (Colossians 1:1 .)

How was it that Paul wrote so many more letters to the churches than any other man? Does not Paul occupy quite an exaggerated position in the annals of early Christianity? Was he officious, meddlesome, papal, retaining enough of the Pharisee to give him delight in personal supremacy and dignity? I prefer to account for Paul's primacy rather by the shepherdliness of his heart than by his personal ambition. If there were any ambition in so great a man as the Apostle Paul, it was surely subjected to the severest trials by all the cruel processes through which he passed. Ambition never made a greater mistake than when it incarnated itself for the purpose of being stoned, hungered, beaten, reviled, and martyred. No: we must look for higher motives; nor need we look far, for they seem to discover themselves in every word and act of this heroic and devoted soul. "Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." Paul never speaks in his own name. Had he written any Epistle in his own name, and by his own authority, he would have discovered a base motive. Whenever Paul writes he writes as an amanuensis rather than as an original author; he has news to tell; he has doctrines to expound; he has consolations to offer; and all these he traces directly and vitally to his Master and Lord, the Son of God. There is infinite meaning in the title "an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God." All that is merely human, ecclesiastical, or official is purged away from the providence of God, and the Divinity alone is left in all its dignity and radiance. Paul lived, and moved, and had his being, in God. Paul did not accept his life as an accident, or something which he himself had made and controlled; everywhere he saw in it the shining of the Divine presence, and the directing of the Divine hand. The Apostle regarded himself in his Apostolic aspects rather as an incarnation than as a manufacture. Notice how beautifully he introduces the words, "and Timotheus our brother." Though no official dignity or eminence is claimed for Timotheus, yet the whole is involved in the fact that he is described as a "brother." The term here is more than merely natural or physical; here is what may be called consanguinity of soul, brotherhood of love, identity of purpose; here, indeed, are all the higher elements which constitute not only present, but unchangeable and immortal fellowship. It is the glory of Christianity, not that it dissolves society, but that it constitutes a brotherhood all over the world.