(2 Tim. 1:15.)

The Apostle Paul's commission, as given in Ephesians 3:8,9, was a double one. The first part was, "To announce among the nations the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of Christ." The second part, "To enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery hidden through the ages in God, who has created all things."

The first applies to the spread of the gospel as we speak of it to-day, the announcement of God's salvation to the unsaved. In obedience to it the Apostle carried out his missionary tours, and multitudes heard the Word, believed it, and were saved.

The second part is further truth. It refers to the unfolding of the mystery-the Church, the Assembly. Its administration was committed to Paul. Under authority from His glorious Master, he was for the first time to unfold and everywhere teach, the doctrines of the Assembly-what it is, its order, its procedure, and its government. Consequently, we must turn to Paul's writings to find instruction in the order of the Assembly's activities and exercises as the Lord wishes them to be practiced. So that they are His regulations for its procedure, its responsibilities, and its government.

These hitherto unrevealed truths, comprising the second part of the commission, are the truths which distinguish the dispensation in which we live from those which have preceded and from those yet future. And it is with them that God has in an especial way identified the Apostle. In the first chapter of Colossians he again speaks of the twofold character of his ministry. In verse 23 he declares that the Lord had made him minister of the gospel; in verse 25, that He had also made him minister of the Church. In this latter case, the personal pronoun "I" is in the emphatic form in the original. In other words, the Apostle was the preeminent minister of the truths which reveal God's thoughts and purposes as to the Church. They have an identification with him which no other servant of the Lord may claim.

In carrying out this latter portion of his commission, the Apostle, and his associates, like Timothy, taught these truths to the saints far and wide; and they constantly fought against the attempts of the enemy to overthrow the testimony which the Apostle had established in the practices of the Lord's people everywhere.

But in spite of their unflagging efforts, and owing to the insubjection of the saints to God's Word, as given to him, these attacks of the enemy soon made themselves apparent in the midst of assemblies by the formation of parties, as we learn from the first epistle to the Corinthians. The outstanding weaknesses among the Lord's people which gave the enemy his opportunity were, pride of gift; favoritism; an undiscerning sentimentality, often mistaken for love; and the substitution of expediency, dictated by fleshly wisdom, for simple, faithful, whole-hearted, unswerving subjection to God through His Word. As the offspring of these, party-spirit developed, the line of cleavage became more marked, until it widened into actual division, as mentioned in our text. What selfishness and self-will on the part of so favored a people!

With Timothy, the disaster seems to have left him in a maze of uncertainty as to what course to pursue. And discouragement, incident to the refusal of his faithful ministry, had apparently driven him into a measure of retirement. To afresh fan into flame his gift, and to mark out a God-defined course under these new and difficult conditions, the Apostle addressed this second letter to him.

After an introduction of a personal character, he turns directly to the conditions confronting them:"This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me."

Evidently this "turning" was not from the truths of the gospel-not from God's salvation; that is, the truths which formed the first part of Paul's commission; for he does not accuse them of turning from Christ. That would have been open and complete apostasy. They were really Christians. The division was not of the nature of the present Fundamentalist-Modernist struggle. What is now known as "Fundamentalism" falls wholly within the bounds of the first part of the commission. Consequently, all those of whom the Apostle writes in this verse were what would be called Fundamentalists in the strictest sense of its modern usage.

But he does charge them with "turning" from him; that is, from those further truths with which God has especially identified him-the truths of this dispensation, and which form the second part of the Apostle's commission, as we have seen. They had refused subjection to those principles and practices in connection with their collective testimony, which the Lord had ordered through him. In thus turning away, they had necessarily established another order, a human one, in place of the inspired.

They had turned from him; they had left the divinely marked out path, and the Apostle could not go with them in their defection. For him to do so would be himself to abandon the practice of those truths which God had ordained. It would make outward unity of more importance than subjection to God; and this principle carried to its logical conclusion would entirely rule God out as the director of His people, and would mean spiritual anarchy.

No! The Apostle could not go with them in their departure, even though they were Fundamentalists. He must be subject to God and His Word at all cost. He has no intention of sacrificing divine principles for outward unity. Better for him to walk the narrowed path than to dishonor his Master. Sad as division among the people of God is, it would have been sadder still if, under those circumstances, it had not occurred.

The division of Paul's and Timothy's day is still with us in principle, only in greatly multiplied forms in the various systems which surround us – all foreign to God's Word. God allowed the beginning of them to occur in the Apostle's day, that we might see how the Apostle, to whom was committed the administration of these things, acted under the circumstances. Time does not change principles. Therefore, the principle of the Apostle's action is for the guidance of the Lord's people to-day. His action carries with it the full authority of God. That is enough for the Christian whose desire is to walk in simple, hearty subjection to the Lord.

Therefore, we cannot go along with every Christian, even though he be a Fundamentalist, and still be true to our Master. We must maintain obedience to divine principles, even though it separates us from many who are truly our brethren in Christ, if we wish to be in fellowship with the Apostle. His position was a distinct testimony against the departure of brethren, and so must ours be. Under the conditions of the day, our responsibility is to "follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart"-a limited fellowship.

The Lord, in grace, give us that singleness of eye which will enable us to abide by His will at whatever cost. R. LeB. Daniel