The blessed expectation of our Lord’s return before the day of His indignation is the subject of these, Paul’s earliest epistles. It is the early opening wedge between those who received his ministry among the nations and those of the Circumcision, who looked for Messiah’s advent after the display of His indignation and the destruction…

This second letter to the Thessalonians is a sequel to the first. The Thessalonians are still unable to distinguish between the rage of man and the wrath of God. Their continued trial and persecution leads them to conclude that God is against them instead of for them. The kingdom of God, which was proclaimed among…

Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus are concerned with conduct in service. Not only are they given instructions for their own guidance, but rules are laid down for the selection and service of elders, or supervisors, and servants. These two classes were officially recognized and appointed and their functions defined. Besides this, there are exhortations…

Paul’s second epistle to Timothy is perhaps, the last letter from his pen. In all his other epistles he looks forward to further service. Now he tells Timothy that he had finished his career (4:7). The period of his dissolution was imminent (4:6). The whole epistle takes character from this fact. The first epistle was…

The only recorded visit of the apostle Paul to Crete was when his ship was detained there some time on his journey to Rome (Ac. 27:7-12). The writer of the Acts was with the apostle, and doubtless others, as Demas and Crescens, accompanied him, including, it would seem, Titus, as far as Crete. Paul’s direction…

This, the only private, personal letter from the pen of the apostle Paul, is a perfect specimen of its kind. Its powerful yet pathetic appeal is the ripe fruitage of that overwhelming grace which Paul dispensed from his Roman prison. Himself a prisoner, he captures the runaway slave and gives him the freedom of Christ,…

Hebrews resumes the subject of the book of Acts. Paul’s epistles are a parenthesis in God’s administrations. In Acts, the kingdom is proclaimed, and rejected by the nation of Israel as a whole. Yet there was a remnant who believed. Of these, the Hellenists followed the revelations given to Paul and found a new and…

At the notable conference in Jerusalem when Paul submitted his evangel to those of repute, they submitted nothing to him, but perceived that he had been entrusted with the evangel of the Uncircumcision as Peter had been with that of the Circumcision (Ga. 2:6-9). James, Cephas, and John gave him the right hand of fellowship.…

None of the Circumcision epistles so clearly indicates the class to whom it is written as the letter of James to the twelve tribes in the dispersion. Its conflict with Paul’s epistles is so pronounced that Luther rejected its authority, and endless attempts have been made to find a means of reconciliation, without coming to…

Colossians is the complement of the doctrinal section of Ephesians. Two mysteries dominate both. Ephesians elaborates the present Secret Economy, which concerns the members of the body of Christ: Colossians dwells upon the secret of Christ, Who is the Head of that body. Ephesians, however, teaches the truth, while Colossians corrects departure from it. The…