1961 Bible Studies - page 194

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BIBLE STUDIES

anyone who offered them all manner of indignities, if he brought them into bondage, devoured them, exalted himself, smote them on the face. He spoke by way of disparagement (dishonour), as though he was weak. But wherein anyone was bold or daring, he would be daring also.  In so saying, he said t h a t it was foolishness, yet they had compelled him so to speak in self-defence, his object being to save them from the evil work of the false apostles.

Verses 22, 2 3 : Are they Hebrews ? so am I.  Are they Israelites ? so am I.

Are they the seed of Abraham ? so am I. Are they ministers of Christ ? (I speak

as one beside himself) I more;  in labours more abundantly, in prisons more

abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft

Are they Hebrews, descendants of Abraham the Hebrew (Genesis 14. 13), the man who crossed the river (Euphrates) and entered the land of promise, called out and separated from all men, even from his father’s house ? Are

they Israelites, sons of the man (Jacob) who wrestled with God and with men, and was made a prince of God, and of the nation that sprang from him ?

Are they the seed of Abraham, the man to whom the promises were made ?

In each case Paul could say, "So am I, " "Are they ministers of Christ? "

(he spoke as one mentally deranged, for they had forced him to speak thus)

I more: in labours and prisons more abundantly, in stripes to excess, in deaths oft.

Verses 24, 25, 2 6 :  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of

rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the

Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

The Jews in their sufferings have reaped what they sowed in their attitude to the Lord, and the sufferings they caused Him, and Paul and many others. Alas, that it should have been so ! " By their fall (trespass)

salvation is come unto the Gentiles " (Romans 1 1 . 11). Paul suffered sorely at their hands, as is indicated here, and in 1 Thessalonians 2. 14, 16, and elsewhere, but his attitude of love for them did not change, as is seen in Romans 9. 1-5; 10. 1. His poor body bore the marks which they inflicted upon him, which he called " the marks of Jesus " (Galatians 6. 17), as also does the body of the Lord bear their marks. Besides receiving five times forty stripes save one (see Deuteronomy 25. 3, they were scrupulously careful religiously not to exceed the legal amount, so they dropped one), he was thrice beaten with rods, at Philippi (Acts 16. 22) and elsewhere. He was shipwrecked three times, which does not include the shipwreck off Malta on his way to Rome, for that took place some time after he wrote this epistle (Acts 27. 41). He had, perhaps in one of his shipwrecks, been a night and day in the sea. In his many and frequent journeyings he enumerates a number of perils to which he was exposed, of rivers, robbers, of his own race (the Jews), of the Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, and, perhaps the worst of all, which threatened to wreck his work, in perils among false brethren, of whom he wrote in Galatians 2. 4, who were wolves in sheep’s clothing (Acts 20. 29).

J. M.

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