These selections from the Epistles are not in poetic form, but they are given here because they are, in a way, the culmination of the lofty and inspiring thought of the Bible. Not only do they treat of the great themes of life and death, but they treat of them in the most solemn and impressive manner. They are like organ music, not pleasing the ear by the delicacy of rhythm, not having the rhyme and melody of lyric verse, but moving with grandeur and sublimity of thought in the higher ranges of being. Thus they form the fitting climax for all the wealth of song and story which precedes them.
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AND SERVICE
PAUL'S EPISTLES
The letters of a man tell us more about him than any books he could write. Now Paul never wrote any books; but he wrote many letters. Some were to the churches he had founded; some to his fellow workers. Some of these letters were preserved and are in the Bible under the name of Epistles. Even in these letters others are mentioned which are not preserved. We have two letters to the Corinthian Church, but in them Paul mentions other letters which he wrote to that church. In the letter to the Colossian Church, he mentions a letter to the church at Laodicea, a city near to Colosse. It is fair to suppose that many other letters have also been lost. Probably the best and most important of his letters were preserved. These letters are the outcome of long thought. They were on subjects that Paul had considered for many years. The writing of the letters, however, was often the work of a short time, and their expression is not smooth and polished and carefully wrought. Sometimes, as in the case of Galatians, the letter was written because of a situation which he felt demanded immediate attention. Sometimes, as in the case of I Corinthians, he replied to letters of questions that had been sent to him from the churches. Sometimes, as in the case of Philippians, the letter was called out in thanks for the kindness of the church. The most important letter, Romans, was written to prepare the church, which he had never visited, for his expected coming to them. In every case--it is always true of letters--the occasion of the letter largely determines its style and tone, but in all cases the spontaneity of the letter-writer is seen. Paul dictated or wrote his letters hurriedly. He cared less for style than for thought. Vigor and force mark his writing. He did not try to imitate the graces of the rhetorician. He did not [{414}] always follow out a topic to the end. He sometimes began a sentence in one way and finished it in another. He sometimes began a sentence, and, going off to another topic, never finished it at all. He is not always easy reading. But these evidences of a free, spontaneous writing are only occasional. The greater part of the letters of Paul are very clear, simple, forceful statements of what he wishes to say.
Paul was not merely a Jew. He was a citizen of the great world of the Roman empire. He had been brought up in a city where Greek culture and civilization were very flourishing. His travels brought him into contact with all the varying forms of Greek life. He visited Athens. He made long stays in Corinth, where the commerce of the world crowded the docks, and sailors and merchants from all parts of the great empire were to be met in the streets. He lived for nearly three years in the great city of Ephesus, where the courtiers of the governor of the province, fresh from all the latest fashions of Rome, jostled the priests of the great temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Before the end of his life he was a prisoner in Rome itself, the one city into which all the world poured its representatives, where the fair-haired men from distant Britain in the North met the dusky Ethiopian from Africa, and the Spaniard from the Atlantic coast walked the street with the Scythian from the distant East. Paul the prisoner lived for two whole years in his own hired house, and had permission to receive all who came to him. During this time, and for two years of previous imprisonment, he was in daily contact with the Roman soldiery. This cosmopolitan man, with his wide experience of many phases of Roman and Greek life, has dropped here and there in his writings many pictures from the civilization with which he was in touch. He used it to illustrate the Christian life. The athlete in the theater gave him a picture of the earnest, eager strife of the Christian. The soldier with his clanging armor suggested to him the armor by which a Christian might meet his foes. The temples that studded every great town taught him how the Christian was himself the temple of the living God. Thus it happens that the most lasting memorial, the most widely read allusions, to the great civilization of Greece and Rome come from this wandering preacher of an obscure faith who at last [{415}] was a despised prisoner at Rome. How it would have astonished the crowds at Ephesus who shouted, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" to be told that their great temple and their goddess herself would be known to most people in the world only because of their connection with the life of this man Paul whom they wanted to put out of the way! It was a wonderful civilization in the midst of which Paul lived, and a very bustling, active, self-important world through which he moved, but the most permanent things in it were by no means the things that seemed to most people of the time to be the greatest.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting: he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that [{416}] which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honour preferring one another; in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing steadfastly in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality. Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits. Render to no man evil for evil. Take thought for things honourable in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as in you lieth, be at peace with all men. Avenge not yourselves, beloved, but give place unto wrath: for it is written, "Vengeance belongeth unto me; I will recompense," saith the Lord. But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
--Romans 12.
Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law. For this, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet," and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law.