Imprisoned on Behalf of the Gentiles

There is a circumstance of conformity between St. Paul’s history and his letters, especially those which were written during his first imprisonment at Rome, and more especially the epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians, which being too close to be accounted for from accident, yet too indirect and latent to be imputed to design, cannot easily be resolved into any other original than truth: which circumstance is this, that St. Paul in these epistles attributes his imprisonment, not to his preaching of Christianity, but to his asserting the right of the Gentiles to be admitted into it without conforming themselves to the Jewish law. This was the doctrine to which he considered himself as a martyr.

Thus, in the epistle before us, Col. 1:24, (I Paul) “who now rejoice in my sufferings for you”— “for you,” that is, for those whom he had never seen; for a few verses afterwards he adds, “I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” His suffering therefore for them was, in their general capacity of Gentile Christians, agreeably to what he explicitly declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, 3:1: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”

Again in the epistle now under consideration, 4:3: “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds.” What that “mystery of Christ” was, the Epistle to the Ephesians distinctly informs us:

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Author: William Paley

Keywords: Paul in prison, Apostle to the Gentiles, Jews persecuted Paul, Minister to the Gentiles, Jew versus Gentile, Jew vs. Gentile

Bible reference(s): Acts 21:28, Acts 22:21-22, Acts 26:17, Acts 26:20-21, Ephesians 4:3, Colossians 1:24, Colossians 4:3

Source: Horae Paulinae (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1850).

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