Moved away (neraxwovpevor). The present participle sig- nifying continual shifting. Compare 1 Cor. xv. 58.
To every creature (év don xtice). Rev., correctly, in all creation. See on 2 Cor. v. 17, and compare ver. 15.
24. Who now. Omit who. ow is temporal: in the midst of my imprisonment and sufferings, after having become a minister of the Gospel, and having preached it.
* Bishop Lightfoot is influenced in his preference for the other sense by his sacrificial figure.
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In my sufferings. Not as our idiom, rejoice in, as rejowe im the Lord, but in the midst of ; while enduring.
Fill up (avtavarrAnpd). Only here in the New Testament. Lit., jill up in turn. Rev., on my part (avril). ”AvarrAnpsw to jul up occurs 1 Cor. xiv. 16; xvi. 17; Gal. vi. 2, and else- where. The double compound TpocavaTAnpow to fill up by adding, 2 Cor. ix. 12 (note); xi. 9. "Avti/ on my part offsets Christ in the next clause. Lightfoot explains well: “It sig- nifies that the supply comes from an opposite quarter to the deficiency, and so describes the correspondence of the personal agents,” and not merely the correspondence of the supply with the deficiency.
That which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ (ra votepnuata Tov IrApewy tod Xpictod). Lacking, lit., behind. Used with different compounds of wAnpédw to jill, 1 Cor. xvi. 17; 2 Cor. ix. 12; xi. 9; Philip. ii. 30. Of the afflictions of Christ. The afflictions which Christ endured; which be- longed to Him: not Pavwi’s afflictions described as Christ’s because endured in fellowship with Him (Meyer); nor the afflictions which Christ endures in His Church (Alford, Elli- cott, Eadie).
These afflictions do not include Christ’s vicarious sufferings, which are never denoted by drAbpess tribulations. That which as lacking of the afflictions of Christ signifies that portion of Christ’s ministerial sufferings which was not endured by Him in person, but is endured in the suffering of Christians in all generations in carrying out Christ’s work. Compare 2 Cor. i. 5, 7; Philip. ili. 10. Hence those are mistaken interpretations which explain the filling up as a correspondence of the supply with the deficiency. The correspondence is between the two parties, Christ and His followers, and the supply does not cor- respond with the deficiency, but works toward supplying it. The point is not the identification of Paul with Christ in His sufferings (which is true as a fact), but the distinction between Paul and Christ. Hence the present tense, 7 am filling up, denoting something still in progress. The full tale of sufferings will not be completed until the Church shall have finished her
478 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I
conflict, and shall have come up “out of great tribulation ” to sit at the marriage-supper of the Lamb.
In my flesh. Connect with jill up.
For His body’s sake, which isthe Church. 2dp& flesh is never used of a metaphorical organism like the Church, but caua body. See on flesh, Rom. vii. 5, sec. 3. In ver. 22, flesh was used with body in order to define the reference of body to the fleshly human organism of Christ. Compare John i. 14. Here capa body only, defined by Church.
95. The dispensation (oixovowiav). From oixos house and véuw to dispense or manage. Hence oixovopos a house-steward. Here the meaning is stewardship—the office of a steward or administrator in God’s house. See on 1 Cor. ix. 17, and com- pare Luke xvi. 2-4; 1 Cor. iv. 1; Tit. i. News Leto iv loge Eph. iii. 2, the word is used of the divine arrangement or econ- omy committed to Paul. In Eph. i. 10 of the divine govern- ment or regulation of the world.
For you (eis suas). Rev., more strictly, to youward. Con- nect with was given. The stewardship was assigned to me with you as its object. Compare Eph. iii. 2; Rom. xv. 16.