THE Apostle describes himself as “being such a one as Paul the aged,” in his epistle to Philemon, while he pleads with Gospel love, on behalf of Onesimus. This young man, as the former servant of Philemon, had committed some misdemeanour and had, on this account, forsaken his master’s service. In the divine mercy and providence, he had come in the course of time into contact with the Apostle, a prisoner at Rome, and had been “born again” under the Gospel teaching of the ambassador for Christ, in bonds. Paul would have Philemon to receive Onesimus back into his fellowship and service: “Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord?” (verse 16). And to this end the Apostle brings to bear upon the mind of Philemon, among other arguments, the following entreaty: “Yet for love’s sake, I rather beseech thee, being such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ” (Verse 9).
Paul the aged could look back to the time when as a young man whose name was Saul, he was an enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ, a persecutor of the Church of God, and a sinner like others under the power of spiritual darkness and the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. Yet in the days of his youth and at the height of his evil career, Jesus met him in the remarkable way described to us in the Acts of the Apostles, and recited by himself before the men of the world when the occasion demanded. “And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, who art thou Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest” (Acts xxii. 6-8). This was the beginning of days to Paul, when electing love and the exceeding greatness of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, changed the whole course of his life. He could well remember while he lay a prisoner at Rome in his old age, his conversion and his commission to preach the Gospel, that Jesus was the Son of God, the Eternal Son, and the Saviour of lost sinners.
The times and ages that were past, during which he laboured in setting forth the great truths of the faith and the glories of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, to perishing men, wherever led in the providence of God, were days and years well spent, although not without a deep sense of his own unworthiness and imperfections, in his Master’s service.
He had been sustained throughout a life of trials, tribulations and sufferings for Christ’s sake. Who of the servants of Jesus, had more of these than he? He knew the wiles of Satan, the opposition of open enemies, and the unfaithfulness of false friends. Yet he had been kept faithful by the power of God, through faith, as a minister of Christ, in the midst of all his trials, until his declining years as far as “the earthly house of this tabernacle” was concerned.
And further, many a most precious experience he could recollect, wherein his soul rejoiced and was comforted with the consolations that are in Christ. He had been instrumental, the Holy Spirit working with him, in turning many of his fellow-creatures “from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts xxvi. 18). The prison at Philippi had been made a Bethel to himself and Silas, where they were enabled to pray and sing praises unto God. The thorn in the flesh obtained for him a great and precious promise, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (II. Cor. xi. 9). And the fellowship of the saints, in many different places and throughout his life’s labours, had been an unforgettable source of joy and encouragement to him. And Christ, above all, had been his chief joy, and was more than ever this to him, as Paul the aged.
He was now limited and circumscribed as to the exercising of his office as an Apostle and Messenger of the glorious Head of the Church, and this in the divine and inscrutable providence of God, being “now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Yet in his limited sphere, he continued to receive all that came in unto him, “Preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts xxviii. 31). His travels, visitations and personal supervision of the churches, were activities of the past. But in this divinely appointed retirement, he wrote, “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear” (Philip i. 12-14). And so “Paul the aged” continued to exercise a deep interest in the work of the Gospel, and to be a godly and gracious example and encouragement to the brethren following in his and his Master’s steps. The “crown of righteousness” awaited him, when the time came for his heavenly Master to call him from the Church on earth, to serve Him day and night in His temple above.