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teaching of an elementary kind, and may be said to inculcate the first principles of Christianity and the practical inferences which are involved in them. (2) The great controversial epistles-Galatians, written during Paul's three years' residence at Ephesus, probably about A.D. 55; 1 and 2 Corinthians, written at Ephesus and in Macedonia respectively, A.D. 58; and Romans, written at Corinth during the winter of 58-59. The controversial

or doctrinal epistles, as they are sometimes called, expound Christianity as a religion of grace in contrast to legalism. (3) The epistles of the captivity-Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians and Philippians-which were probably composed while the apostle was a prisoner at Rome during the years 61-63. They set forth the dignity and heavenly relations of Christ, as well as the nature and privileges of those who are in vital fellowship with Him. (4) The pastoral epistles-1 and 2 Timothy and Titus-supposed to have been written after Paul had been released from his first imprisonment at Rome, the first epistle to Timothy and Titus being written during his period of freedom, and the second epistle to Timothy during his second imprisonment and shortly before his execution in 68 A.D. These epistles deal with Church order and pastoral duty.

The question might be asked, and indeed has often been debated, as to whether these groups disclose a development or gradual modification in the teaching of the apostle. Is Paul always consistent with himself? Do his writings form a unity? or do we find, as we might expect, that these writings-occasional in their character, written at different times, and addressed to different communities and with different objects-express views and exhibit elements which it is difficult to reconcile ? It would be unnatural to expect that Paul's

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literary labours would be exempted from the conditions and limitations which affect most human compositions. He himself does not disclaim the possibility of development, and he associates himself with those who know in part and wait for fuller light (1 Cor. xiii. 12). He regards progress in knowledge as a subject of prayer and a duty of the Christian (1 Cor. i. 5; Phil. i. 9). "It is plain that his own life was marked by an intellectual strenuousness which led him to sustained reflection on the divine basis and on the manifold significance and bearings of the verities of the faith." It cannot be denied that the earlier epistles to the Thessalonians contain a more simple and elementary exposition of truth than that which we meet with in the controversial epistles, while in the epistles of the captivity deeper and larger conceptions of Christ's significance for the world and humanity are unfolded. At the same time it would be hazardous to affirm that any marked development in the teaching of the apostle, or any real discrepancy between the earlier and later compositions exists. The critical readers might possibly fasten on what at first sight seems serious inconsistency between the apostle's views regarding marriage contained in 1 Cor. vii. and those which he presents in Ephesians v. 22-33. In the former passage he appears to incline to the ascetic view, merely permitting marriage as a prevention of evil; while in the latter he glorifies it as a type of the relation of Christ to the Church. Again, the epistle to Philemon might be cited as an instance of ethical progress. The new conception of the relation of man to God in Christ, which is assumed in the earlier epistles, passes here into an ethical application of the relations in which master and slave stand to each other. The condition of slavery

1 But see chapter on "The Family."

which was taken for granted in writing to the Corinthians, and assumed to be a necessary and natural institution of society not to be questioned or absolved (1 Cor. vii. 24) becomes by the implications of his later teaching morally impossible and indefensible. He shows Philemon that a full realization of Christian discipleship involves the abolition of slavery, and if Philemon is loyal to the Gospel which he acknowledges, then he will no longer regard Onesymus as a bondsman, but receive him as a brother (Philemon 16). Finally, Paul in his earlier epistles writes under the strong conviction that the end of the world is at hand and that he himself and his contemporaries will not see death, whereas in his later writings there is an indication that that persuasion was somewhat modified if not departed from. In any case it does not hold the prominent place in his latest letters which it does in the earlier.

On the whole, however, it may be said that the epistles of Paul are wonderfully free from inconsistencies, and that the differences are differences of emphasis rather than of contradiction. Greater stress is laid in one place than another upon certain virtues and certain vices, and sometimes a different perspective is given, or a different motive is adduced from the same mode of action. Sometimes with one set of hearers or readers one line of argument is followed, while another is adopted with a different class. Sometimes the emphasis is put upon one doctrine, sometimes upon another. Faith is the chief virtue extolled at one time, at another it is love, at a third it is hope. Now he commands patient waiting, now strenuous endeavour. The circumstances which called forth the epistles of the captivity led the apostle to give special prominence to certain truths which in writing the controversial epistles he felt no call to

explain. Doubtless Paul, in common with all Christians, was conscious of a growing enrichment in spiritual knowledge and in his later epistles he shows that he has reached calmer heights and breathes a purer air. He beholds larger prospects of redemption than when he first began to preach to the Gentiles. He knows the spirit of Christ more profoundly, and as his experience deepens and his relationship with all kinds and classes of men widens he seems to attain to a fuller grasp of the world-wide significance of the Gospel.1

But taken as a whole the moral teaching which is presented in the epistles of Paul is one. It constitutes a single normative authority of life and practice, and may be made, as we now propose to make it, the subject of careful and consecutive study. By Pauline ethics we mean Paul's interpretation of the ethics of Christ: and what we have to consider is the apostle's statement and enforcement of the moral and practical side of Christianity of the ideals, virtues, and duties which flow directly from a living faith in Christ.

1 Newman Smyth, Christian Ethics, v. 63,

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