The Self-Drawn Portrait of the Apostle Paul. (1)
Posted by Marvin Pagkanlungan on Sunday, May 25, 2014
by Charles H. Welch
#1. The Portrait as a Whole.
Most students of Scripture have at some time or other used Conybeare and Howson’s “Life and Epistles of St. Paul”. In the introduction to Vol. I there occurs one of the longest sentences to be met with in ordinary literature—a sentence containing more than 500 words.
The introduction opens as follows:
“The purpose of this work is to give a living picture of St. Paul himself, and of the circumstances by which he was surrounded.”
Later on in the Introduction we read:
“We must listen to his words, if we would learn to know him . . . . . In his case it is not too much to say that his letters are himself—a portrait painted by his own hand, of which every feature may be ‘known and read of all men’.”
Every reader of The Berean Expositor will feel that the better we know the apostle Paul, the better we shall know his Lord, for he is given as an example for us to follow. We propose, therefore, in a series of short and simple studies, to take the long sentence already mentioned and use its separate clauses, point by point, as a means of appreciating the many-sided character of the earthen vessel, to whom, under God, we owe so much.
As many of our readers may not possess a copy of Conybeare and Howson, we give below the sentence that will supply us with our clues, and then in subsequent studies we will take feature by feature, so that we may obtain a full-length portrait. Such a study will not lead to any foolish adulation of the man. We shall realize that he was indeed of like infirmity with ourselves; but we shall also see what grace can do—perhaps be the more inclined to look away from ourselves and our limitations, and give a larger place to the glory and grace that made Paul what he was, and can make us more than those who know us would believe possible.
“Here we see that fearless independence with which he ‘withstood Peter to the face’;—that impetuosity which breaks out in his apostrophe to the ‘foolish Galatians’;—that earnest indignation which bids his converts ‘beware of dogs, beware of the concision’, and pours itself forth in the emphatic ‘God forbid’, which meets every Antinomian suggestion;—that fervid patriotism which makes him ‘wish that he were himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites’;—that generosity which looked for no other reward than ‘to preach the Glad Tidings of Christ without charge’, and made him feel that he would rather ‘die than that any man should make this glorying void’;—that dread of officious interference which led him to shrink from ‘building on another man’s foundation’;—that delicacy which shows itself in his appeal to Philemon, whom he might have commanded, ‘yet for love’s sake rather beseeching him, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ’, and which is even more striking in some of his farewell greetings, as (for instance) when he bids the Romans salute Rufus, and ‘his mother, who is also mine’;—that scrupulous fear of evil appearance which ‘would not eat any man’s bread for nought, but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that he might not be chargeable to any of them’;—that refined courtesy which cannot bring itself to blame till it has first praised, and which makes him deem it needful almost to apologize for the freedom of giving advice to those who were not personally known to him;—that self-denying love which ‘will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest he make his brother to offend’;—that impatience of exclusive formalism with which he overwhelms the Judaizers of Galatia, joined with a forbearance so gentle for the innocent weakness of scrupulous consciences;—that grief for the sins of others, which moved him to tears when he spoke of the enemies of the cross of Christ, ‘of whom I tell you even weeping’;—that noble freedom from jealousy with which he speaks of those who, out of rivalry to himself, preach Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds: ‘What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice’;—that tender friendship which watches over the health of Timothy, even with a mother’s care;—that intense sympathy in the joys and sorrows of his converts, which could say, even to the rebellious Corinthians, ‘ye are in our hearts, to die and live with you’;—that longing desire for the intercourse of affection, and that sense of loneliness when it was withheld, which perhaps is the most touching feature of all, because it approaches most nearly to a weakness, ‘When I had come to Troas to preach the Glad Tidings of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother; but I parted from them, and came from thence into Macedonia’. And ‘when I was come into Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. But God, Who comforts them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus’. ‘Do thy utmost to come to me speedily; for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; only Luke is with me’.”
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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 31, page 152).
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#1. The Portrait as a Whole.
Most students of Scripture have at some time or other used Conybeare and Howson’s “Life and Epistles of St. Paul”. In the introduction to Vol. I there occurs one of the longest sentences to be met with in ordinary literature—a sentence containing more than 500 words.
The introduction opens as follows:
“The purpose of this work is to give a living picture of St. Paul himself, and of the circumstances by which he was surrounded.”
Later on in the Introduction we read:
“We must listen to his words, if we would learn to know him . . . . . In his case it is not too much to say that his letters are himself—a portrait painted by his own hand, of which every feature may be ‘known and read of all men’.”
Every reader of The Berean Expositor will feel that the better we know the apostle Paul, the better we shall know his Lord, for he is given as an example for us to follow. We propose, therefore, in a series of short and simple studies, to take the long sentence already mentioned and use its separate clauses, point by point, as a means of appreciating the many-sided character of the earthen vessel, to whom, under God, we owe so much.
As many of our readers may not possess a copy of Conybeare and Howson, we give below the sentence that will supply us with our clues, and then in subsequent studies we will take feature by feature, so that we may obtain a full-length portrait. Such a study will not lead to any foolish adulation of the man. We shall realize that he was indeed of like infirmity with ourselves; but we shall also see what grace can do—perhaps be the more inclined to look away from ourselves and our limitations, and give a larger place to the glory and grace that made Paul what he was, and can make us more than those who know us would believe possible.
“Here we see that fearless independence with which he ‘withstood Peter to the face’;—that impetuosity which breaks out in his apostrophe to the ‘foolish Galatians’;—that earnest indignation which bids his converts ‘beware of dogs, beware of the concision’, and pours itself forth in the emphatic ‘God forbid’, which meets every Antinomian suggestion;—that fervid patriotism which makes him ‘wish that he were himself accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites’;—that generosity which looked for no other reward than ‘to preach the Glad Tidings of Christ without charge’, and made him feel that he would rather ‘die than that any man should make this glorying void’;—that dread of officious interference which led him to shrink from ‘building on another man’s foundation’;—that delicacy which shows itself in his appeal to Philemon, whom he might have commanded, ‘yet for love’s sake rather beseeching him, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ’, and which is even more striking in some of his farewell greetings, as (for instance) when he bids the Romans salute Rufus, and ‘his mother, who is also mine’;—that scrupulous fear of evil appearance which ‘would not eat any man’s bread for nought, but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that he might not be chargeable to any of them’;—that refined courtesy which cannot bring itself to blame till it has first praised, and which makes him deem it needful almost to apologize for the freedom of giving advice to those who were not personally known to him;—that self-denying love which ‘will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest he make his brother to offend’;—that impatience of exclusive formalism with which he overwhelms the Judaizers of Galatia, joined with a forbearance so gentle for the innocent weakness of scrupulous consciences;—that grief for the sins of others, which moved him to tears when he spoke of the enemies of the cross of Christ, ‘of whom I tell you even weeping’;—that noble freedom from jealousy with which he speaks of those who, out of rivalry to himself, preach Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add affliction to his bonds: ‘What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice’;—that tender friendship which watches over the health of Timothy, even with a mother’s care;—that intense sympathy in the joys and sorrows of his converts, which could say, even to the rebellious Corinthians, ‘ye are in our hearts, to die and live with you’;—that longing desire for the intercourse of affection, and that sense of loneliness when it was withheld, which perhaps is the most touching feature of all, because it approaches most nearly to a weakness, ‘When I had come to Troas to preach the Glad Tidings of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother; but I parted from them, and came from thence into Macedonia’. And ‘when I was come into Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. But God, Who comforts them that are cast down, comforted me by the coming of Titus’. ‘Do thy utmost to come to me speedily; for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed to Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia; only Luke is with me’.”
---------------------------
(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 31, page 152).
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