The Angel of the Church

It may not be out of place to offer a few remarks on the angel of the Church of Revelation 2 and 3., as it is evident that it will be impossible rightly to understand these chapters unless we know who the angel is or represents.
“The angel” is a designation constantly met with in the Scriptures, and has been generally, and we believe rightly, understood to signify a messenger or representative. No one questions when we read in Acts 8:26, “The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip,” that we are to understand by this the Lord’s representative speaking in His name. So, also in 2 Corinthians 12:7 “the messenger (angel) of Satan” is one sent from Satan, and acting on his behalf. With these Scriptures before us, who can doubt that the angel of the Church can only mean the mystical representative of the Church, not the representative of someone else sent to it? And that this is the only meaning to be assigned to the term is conclusively proved from Revelation 1, 2 and 3.
It is true that our translators, in the heading they have affixed to chap. 2, tell us that the angels are the ministers of the several churches; but we must ever bear in mind that the headings of the various chapters throughout the Bible are solely the work of man, and form no part of the infallible word of God. The apostle was directed (chapter 1: 11) to write the things he saw in a book, and to send it to the seven churches in Asia. In verse 19 what he was to write was enlarged so as to include, not only the things he had seen, but also “the things that are, and the things that shall be after these.” Before, however, he proceeds to open out the things “that shall be,” he is directed to write to the angel of each of the seven churches the epistle bearing its name; and as each of these epistles is addressed to “the angel of the church,” and each closes with the solemn exhortation to “hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,” it is clear that in the mind of the Spirit the angel stood for the Church, and that the message was addressed, not to the ministry, but to the Church at large. It should also be added that, while “the ministry” is but too generally regarded in Christendom as a body either apart from or else assuming to be the Church, so that we hear continually of “clergy and laity,” such a division is unknown to the word of God, which teaches us that “God hath set some in the Church” (1 Corinthians 12:28), not that He has constituted a class that is to be viewed as separate from it.
May the Lord give us the hearing ear, so that we may through grace profit by the solemn warnings and blessed encouragements addressed by the Spirit “unto the churches.” F. S. M.
The First Epistle to Timothy
From this point Paul turns to address Timothy more directly, exhorting him, first, as to that which he should avoid; next, what he should cultivate; and then to what he should give himself. He was to avoid profane and old wives’ fables; he was to exercise or train himself to “piety, which is profitable for everything, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” In connection with this we meet with the third of those faithful sayings recorded in the pastoral epistles. (1 Timothy 1:15, 3:1; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8.) “For this cause we labor and suffer reproach, or strive, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” These things he was to teach, and to be an example, young though he was, of believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. Further, he was to give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, and to be careful not to neglect the gift received through Paul with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, having been marked out for this service, for which he was fitted by the gift, by a prophetic utterance on the part of some member of the assembly.
Timothy then was young, yet he was placed in authority over all in the assembly at Ephesus. Hence regulations are appended for his guidance in dealing with people whether young or old. (vs. 1, 2.) Injunctions too he received about widows, and the qualifications and the age of such as might well be put on the list to be chargeable to the assembly. Added to this are wholesome words for those who had widows, and for those who as young women were widows. (vs. 3-16.) All this we learn was not beneath the Spirit’s notice, for it concerned order and comeliness of behavior in the house of God.
Further, having set forth the qualifications suited for such as desired to exercise oversight, the word of God testifies of His care of such by bespeaking due honor to be rendered to them if faithfully doing their work; and especially were those to be honored who labored, in the word and doctrine as well. All such were to be cared for in temporal matters if needing it. In proof of this, the apostle adduces God’s mind from both the Old and New Testament revelation. (Deuteronomy 25:4; Luke 10:7.) One sees here distinctly marked out the difference between office and ministry. An elder was such by virtue of his office. He might, or might not be able to minister in the word as well. To the office he was appointed by the Holy Ghost. (Acts 20:28.) In himself, if a laborer in the word, he was a gift from Christ (Ephesians 4:11), and received for the exercise of his ministry a gift from the Holy Ghost. (1 Corinthians 12.11.) Further, if any elder was complained of, for in the carrying out of his service he might be exposed to the malice of the unruly, Timothy was cautioned against entertaining a charge against him, unless substantiated by two or three witnesses. Thus God would have such protected from malicious prosecutions and attacks, by which a sensitive and faithful servant might be crushed in his spirit. But offenders, whether elders or others, “them that sin,” implying, it would appear, the existence of an evil habit unjudged, rather than an accidental fall, Timothy was to convict before all, that the rest might fear. A solemn office he was entrusted with, in the discharge of which he was to be faithful and just (vs. 21), and to avoid any hasty identifying of himself with others. (22-25.)
In the closing chapter (6.) two classes of society, widely different, are seen to be objects of the apostle’s care—the slave, who might possess nothing that he could call his own on earth (1, 2); and the wealthy, who had it in their power to distribute to others of their substance. (17-19.) As for the slave, subjection to his master he was to exhibit, whether that master was a heathen or a Christian, in order that the name of God and the doctrine should not be blasphemed. If his Master was a Christian, there was an additional motive for serving him well. The flesh might suggest the despising him as a master, because the slave was his brother in the faith. God’s word would remind him of the propriety of serving him well, because he was a Christian, faithful, i.e. a believer, and beloved. These things Timothy was to teach and exhort.
But all might not receive the exhortation, and a different doctrine might be promulgated. Heterodoxy might rear up its head on this as on other points, proving, however, if it did, that the men who taught it, or supported it, did not consent to wholesome words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, being proud, knowing nothing, but being sick about questions and strife’s of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, injurious speaking (literally blasphemies), evil surmising’s, incessant quarrels of men of corrupted minds and destitute of the truth, supposing godliness to be a means of gain. Here we reach the root whence such teaching comes. Godliness however, with contentment, is great gain. On the other hand, the desire to be rich is fruitful in results, damaging to its pursuer both as regards this world and the next. (9, 10.) Such a pursuit Timothy was to flee from, following after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness; striving, too, earnestly in the good contest of the faith, and laying hold of eternal life, to which he had been called, and had confessed a good confession before many witnesses. For the servant and the soldier must work and fight to the end.
Of this Paul reminds him in a beautiful but most solemn way. When Moses was about to depart this life, by God’s command he gave Joshua a charge in the sight of all the congregation. (Numbers 27:19.) Now ere Paul departed he gave Timothy a charge, but in the sight of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, putting him consciously in their presence, to keep the commandment without spot and unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ; for till His appearing—ἐπιφανεία, a different thought and time from His coming for His own into the air—Timothy, as a servant, would not be discharged from his responsibility by the Master taking account of his service. Hence to the appearing of Christ he is here directed. Before God, who keeps all things in life, he was thus put by Paul, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. The mention of God in this character would embolden him, and the remembrance of Christ Jesus as a faithful witness would encourage him. With their eyes on him he was to go forward, learning how God values a good confession, and will own it, when He, i.e. God, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of those who reign, and the Lord of those who exercise lordship, i.e. the fountain of all authority and rule in the universe, who only has immortality, dwelling in light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man path seen nor can see, will show Christ Jesus to all as His faithful witness here on earth.
To what a future does he point him! And surely with that in power in his soul he would warn the rich not to trust in uncertain riches, but in God, who gives us all things richly to enjoy, to do good, to be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on that which is really life.
With one word more of exhortation this earnestly written letter closes: “O Timothy, keep the deposit, avoiding profane, vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you,” not “thee;” for though writing to an individual, Paul was wont to remember all the saints.
The wisdom displayed in this epistle in connection with the internal affairs of the assembly, and the earnest and frequent exhortations to maintain and to teach the truth, make it a portion of no little value in these days.
C. E. S.