PAULINE FEELINGS

A.J.E.Welch

Acts 20: 25; Philippians 2: 19-22; 1 Timothy 6: 20, 21

The Pauline ministry is full of deep and holy feelings, richly expressive of the Spirit of Christ in the minister, but there are certain passages in the writings of Paul which are specially expressive of feeling, showing how deeply the beloved writer is engaged with Christ and the things of Christ. Specially deep are his feelings that stand related to the continuing in faithfulness and at its height of the testimony, so precious, in which he himself stood. I wanted from these scriptures, which engage us with particularly feeling times in Pauline service, to raise the question of continuing and how the testimony shall go on, and how any one of us - yea, every one of us - is to be occupied in it.

These dear brethren from Ephesus, called over to receive this remarkable address from Paul, must have known him, as was said in one of the readings, with peculiar intimacy. According to what he says, he had been in every house - "publicly and in every house". How well Paul would be known in Ephesus among believers! They had come under the appeal of what Paul was and what he presented to them. Now the time has come when he has to say that they would see his face no more, a feeling reference because he does not just say that they would not see him again; he says that they "shall see my face no more". How expressive the face of Paul would be! What feelings would be conveyed in the way in which Paul was among them, "publicly", as he says, "and in every house". They would have seen the remarkable measure of this beloved servant and been affected by it; but it would never happen thus again. So, what is the answer to be? Is the testimony in Ephesus to be laid down? Is the testimony in any place to be laid down? Is the testimony in London or Edinburgh to be laid down? Is it in any sense to be brought below the heavenly level which the Spirit has helped us to see to belong to this precious testimony of the Christ? That is the challenge in every place and for every one of us. One thinks of the Pauline labours and the manner of them. What Paul had in his heart - the glory of the Person who had spoken to him on the Damascus road and reached deep into his conscience and his affections, the Christ who had become so deeply precious to that beloved man. But then, as he was helped to see, there was the precious vessel that answers to Christ's heart, the assembly. He received by revelation an understanding of the mystery, involving the preciousness of the vessel, a creature vessel withal, but a vessel so precious to Christ and uniquely necessary for the satisfaction of His affections, according to the Father's thoughts for Him. It was a vessel in which the testimony would be set in its course down here until the Lord should come and take up the testimony in its glory as He appears. All this was in the heart of Paul, that in every place in which he served there would be something that answered to Christ in the assembly. Have we any lesser level of objective than that, beloved brethren? We rightly have Christ enshrined in our hearts in glory that is uniquely His own, being who He is and being what He is in the glory of manhood. We have that Person enshrined in our hearts and seek, as grace is given us, to serve in undividedness of purpose for Him; and there is what is within our immediate reach in our several local companies in which that service can find expression. That is how Paul would have gone into Ephesus; he would see that Christ had something there that answered to Himself, and he would seek to further that, to strengthen it, to bring to light the true glory of it, to see that no-one missed their way in relation to the characteristic point of this wonderful time of the Spirit, the assembly secured for Christ. How untiringly he laboured! As he says, "serving the Lord with all lowliness, and tears, and temptations" (v 19), serving "night and day" (v 31). What a standard! And yet these men would see his face no more. What would this mean to them? How would they continue from this point on? They had received a precious trust under the hand of Paul, the precious testimony into which God had called them, and they would stand and continue in it; that was the intention. But they would needfully go forward without Paul. How he must have felt it, as to those that were so well known to him and in whom, thank God, the truth had come into such rich and definite expression, that he would not see them again. That is why I speak of this as a most feeling moment in the course of the Pauline service. So that things change. I am seeking to bring out from this that we cannot expect just to go on relying upon others or relying upon support that has been proved in the past. You young men cannot expect to go on indefinitely just depending on those who are older. We thank God for the fathers. I trust you thank God for the fathers, from whom you learn so much in the grace of Christ in the expression of the truth; but the time will arrive, if the Lord does not first come, when you will be necessary for the testimony in the fullest and most definite sense, to bear responsibility. This is in mind in these men, these elders from Ephesus; they would stand in the bearing of responsibility in the assembly. Paul is committing a precious charge to them in view of his departure, and I believe the Lord would awaken us to the need of readiness to accept responsibility in interests so peculiarly precious. Let us each ask ourselves as we sit here to-day, Is the testimony in the locality to which I belong in any sense to fail? Is the level of it to be reduced? Is there to be any loss of the true lustre that belongs to a heavenly testimony, relating to a heavenly Christ and a vessel that is heavenly in origin and destiny? Is that to be weakened or reduced in level one bit? - that is the challenge. Hearts faithful to Christ would respond immediately. That is not to be. And, therefore, you young men and young women are needed, greatly needed, not as spectators of what is happening, for which others stand responsible, but as being yourselves responsible in respect of the divine interests in the place where God has set you. That is the appeal and the challenge of the moment. They would not see Paul again, and yet the testimony in Ephesus was to continue. Alas, we know that there was a failing, a falling from first love, but this does not in any way diminish the point of the Pauline service and feelings, and the answer that was intended to be secured from the Pauline labours. Those labours, in the spirit and character of them, have entered, thank God, into this time of revival in which we are, and as we enjoy so much together in Edinburgh in these present days, under God's loving hand, we owe a great deal to those who have gone on before us. But the time had to come when one by one those who have helped us in the course of the truth have gone to be with the Lord Jesus, and there have been those left upon whom the responsibility has devolved of maintaining the testimony of God until the Lord comes. Let none of us fail in this! It is an immediate challenge, not a deferred challenge but an immediate one, which I seek to bring out of this scripture to-day.

As he wrote to the Philippians, Paul was pained in heart. He well knew the saints in Philippi. Not only had he laboured amongst them, but God had used his labours to set up the company in Philippi, and he is free to unburden his heart to these dear Philippian brethren. One would covet to be amongst those to whom Paul would unburden his heart, those to whom Paul could entrust something of his own feelings; but he has to say at this point, "I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on". What an affecting reference: "I have no one likeminded". Think of all those that Paul had companied with; yet it seems that at this time, whatever the circumstances were in which he wrote, he was painfully conscious that, save for Timothy, he had no-one like-minded. Is Paul to be without anyone likeminded in any local company represented here? Is any one of us going to allow to pass such a reference as this? Am I not like-minded with Paul? Do I cherish objectives less than Paul cherished? Do I not know the same Christ, the same glorious Person on high? Have I not some appreciation of the same assembly that Paul so loved to serve? Are we like-minded with Paul? This is something in which the sisters have a very rich part, because it was a sister who was largely instrumental at first in making Paul welcome at Philippi. You can understand how Lydia would be like-minded with Paul characteristically. I do not know where Lydia was at the time in which he wrote this letter to the Philippian saints, but I have little doubt that Paul would think of Lydia and the reception he had gained there and the way that the Lord had opened her heart to attend to the things that he spoke. Is there any locality in which Paul would have to say that he has no one like-minded? Love for Christ, faithfulness to the Lord and to the truth would say, I must be like-minded with Paul; I am not content to let this Pauline course of things in the truth be diminished in the vigour and devotedness in which it shall be maintained. It is open to every one of us to come out in the proof of being like-minded with Paul; I believe that is a crucial matter in every place at the present time, brothers and sisters who are like-minded with Paul. How he felt the situation, feeling man as Paul was, a faithful labourer who had laboured long and hard to secure that which would richly answer to the heart of Christ. He has to say, "I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on". Notice the emphasis on genuine feeling. The saints are to be in our affections and held in our affections at the proper level of a heavenly people, and we are to labour at whatever may be necessary in that connection. He says, "For all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ". What a feeling comment! It should affect every heart here. One feels the need of the full effect of such a verse being found in one's own soul: "all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ". Are there any things which we are seeking outside of things that are Christ's? It is a very challenging word, for there are many things which we might seek, things that have a certain legitimacy about them, and yet they stand in the way of the things of Jesus Christ. Dear brethren, how precious are the things of Jesus Christ! I believe these days together would help us to have some fresh and right estimate of their preciousness. But Paul has a Timothy: "But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings. Him therefore I hope to send immediately". He has a Timothy. Is there a Timothy here to afford comfort to a Pauline heart? Is there a Timothy in every locality represented here who is concerned for the continuance of what is precious to Christ, ready to learn as a child with a father and to carry forward what has been carried already as a precious trust? Timothy was ready: "as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings". What it must have been to serve with Paul - an exercise that would not be without its searching, because Paul was, in a right sense, irrepressible. He would move on with the spirit of a man who at every point is deeply affected by that which he is there to be the exponent of, "the work of the glad tidings". How vigorously Paul would take it up! Are we ready to move in vigour and definiteness, in purpose of heart? Are we going to hang back? Is anything in our localities to be left undone which needs to be done? The kind of person that the young man Timothy was would not allow such a challenge to pass by. He had feelings like-minded with his beloved father, Paul. It is one of the most moving features of the epistles and of New Testament scriptures to see the father and son relationship working out between Paul and Timothy - his true child, as he called him in one letter, and his beloved child, as he called him in the other letter. We thank God that in the localities that we know and love, there are fathers; very generally this is true, the fathers are there. The need at the present time may be for sons to come to light and to prove themselves; "Ye know", he says, "the proof of him". The proofs will come as the testimony continues.

I believe the Lord through this occasion would bring Timothys to light, and hence the enjoinder in the last scripture I read: "O, Timotheus, keep the entrusted deposit, avoiding profane, vain babblings". This is a direct appeal from a father to his son in the Lord; "O, Timotheus", he says - an exclamation of feeling, beseeching his beloved child in the Lord. This reaches right down in the Spirit to us. Am I going to be in any sense a child of Paul, to prove myself? He says, "O, Timotheus, keep the entrusted deposit". What is the entrusted deposit? The great extent of truth that has come out through the labours of Paul and the other apostles under the touch of a glorified Christ; the great extent of divine truth maintained in the Spirit and sustained at its true character. What a trust! No· greater trust could there be than this. He says in another place, "Keep, by the Holy Spirit... the good deposit entrusted", 2 Tim 1: 14. Do we see what a trust enters into these days together? If we have enjoyed the truth, enjoyed the divine affections, enjoyed some sense of experience of heavenly things, how do we keep the good deposit entrusted? This is yours as a precious trust; it is mine as a precious trust. We have the full weight of Pauline appeal in the Spirit brought to bear upon us as we sit here this afternoon: "Keep the entrusted deposit, avoiding profane, vain babblings, and oppositions of false-named knowledge" - of which, dear brethren, from various quarters there are plenty to be heard. The word is, "... of which some having made profession, have missed the faith". What a warning!

"Grace be with thee". The Lord would leave that word with us, that there may be grace from Him to work out what is Pauline in character under the touch of Christ and of the Spirit in every local company. It is that fruit for God might abound, even as it has abounded in Pauline times; it is yet to abound in these times so close to the end. May God bless the word, for His Name's sake.

EDINBURGH

18 June 1977