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1. Christianity has revolutionised the world, above all by teaching the value and dignity of man as man. There is one instance which exhibits this in the highest degree — "Paul, the slave of Jesus;"

2. It is thus that he begins the most elaborate of his letters. Now such a beginning is noteworthy for two reasons, because —

(1) It is deliberately chosen, for only one other of his Epistles opens in precisely the same way.

(2) In both cases the apostle is addressing those who, fully in Rome, and in some measure in Philippi, understood the proud position of Roman citizenship.

3. The gospel, however, had spread through every rank of society; and so in these two cities there would be those who understood the term of "master," as well as those who, to their sorrow, could not fail to realise the position of a "slave."

4. Dwell for a moment on the title. This man gives of himself an almost contemptuous description to the proudest people in the world. And then think of the man who thus voluntarily places himself in the ranks of the conquered. Brought up a Pharisee, by his very training inclined to be proud, uncompromising; to this must be added the possession of learning, and a consequent sense of superiority, was ever man less likely to submit willingly to the place of a slave? Note —

I. THE MEANING OF THE APOSTLE.

1. Complete submission of will to the commands of Christ. What those commands are, or mean, may be a matter, in part at least, of question; but the point of importance is that once discovered, they are to be unhesitatingly and entirely obeyed. It has been said that "a Colt craves for a king." It is true of all mankind, and a true King for us there is. One who understands man, whose sway is imperial, but whose laws meet the deepest yearnings of the soul, and whose result is blessing. To disobey such is to make life a scene of slaughter; and obey Him and "the wilderness and the solitary place blossom as the rose."

2. Entire submission of judgment to the revelation of Christ. To accept Christ at all is to accept Him as the absolute truth. Hard sayings, mysterious doctrines, came from His lips. To accept these in so far as they accord with our preconceived notions, or suit our tastes and wishes, is scarcely to accept them at all. To hold ourselves in submission to His revelation is the attitude of mind suited to His followers: to that tone of thought more light is given, and "spiritual things are spiritually discerned."

3. An entire and earnest effort to imitate the life of Christ. St. Paul felt this robe a necessity, because that life was itself a revelation. St. Paul, like others, might have set about to seek self in a manner not altogether ignoble, but in the prudent indulgence of legitimate ambition, and, indeed, he did so till Christ crossed his path. He had taken one view of life, and it was the wrong one. Here, in spite of all the world's assertion to the contrary, was the best, the noblest, the happiest life. What is your line in life? A servant you are to whom you obey; and your obedience will be regulated by that object of imitation and attainment to which your desire is turned. Is it pleasure? To seek it is, proverbially, to scare it from your path; and if found in any degree, how soon it palls upon the satiated soul! Is it reputation? Ah, me! it is a mere bubble shining for a moment in a gleam of sunlight, then bursting and gone. Is it riches? Our graveyards remind us that "we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." Nay, more. What is dearer, what more beautiful than family life? If ever the weary worker may find an end and an object in his work, it is to create around him those objects of love which elevate and soothe. And yet they die.

4. That one attitude towards the Redeemer that is suitable in a soul which has sinned. When we are fully alive to sin, how little do the arguments with which before we cozened ourselves when sinning then avail! We want — and we feel that we want — a Redeemer. It is then that Jesus Christ is precious. To waken to that great truth to which Paul wakened — "loved me, gave Himself for me" — is to become the willing, loving slave of the Redeemer.

II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS CHRISTIAN VIEW OF SUBMISSION TO CHRIST.

1. It points to a large and loving recognition of all who name the Holy Name. "Our common Christianity" is a dangerous phrase, when it is meant to hint or encourage a doctrine of indifferentism. But it is true and consoling when it expresses that amongst all who are "baptized unto Jesus Christ" there is a share in one main ground of common faith and hope, which may unite them more at last than their differences can divide.

2. It affects in a very serious sense the attitude of the individual life.

(1) There is one striking difference between the Roman servitude from which the apostle took his image, and that condition to which it pointed. To be a "slave of Jesus Christ" we must deliberately choose our Master.

(2) if we choose Christ, there follows necessarily a wholly new view of our relation to mankind. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in you all."(3) To have constantly before the mind an unblemished ideal, and that with the knowledge that all life, happiness, and power are proportioned to our approach to that ideal; and, further, to have learned that abundant help is offered to essay the task, this must indeed have a powerful effect on character.

III. THE SECRET SPRING OF SUCH AN ATTITUDE OF MIND. In the mind of Paul there was no sort of question as to who Christ was. He had had amplest opportunity of examining His claims, but no amount of study, observation or evidence was enough. Divine faith ruled his life. He recognised Christ as the Eternal God, who was also the Representative Man, and recognising this, by the grace given him, he acted on the recognition.

1. To do this was to live by faith. Henceforth he directed his course by the visual efficacy of a fresher and fuller spiritual sense directed upon the reality of the unseen world. That reality was Christ's, To submit to the absolute supremacy of the same Master involves in each soul the supremacy of the same principle, to "walk by faith." Now the antagonist of such a principle is to walk by sight. The man who lives by the principle of "sight" may be respectable; but one thing he is not doing, viz., seeking to guide his course and govern his actions by habitual reference to an unseen, a loving Friend; he has in no way staked his all upon the promise, and committed his destiny to the keeping of "the Son of God."

2. But as faith was allowed to exercise its sovereign sway, there grew and deepened in the mind of the apostle an intense personal love and loyalty towards Christ. This lay at the root of his patient study of the mind of his Master, and his unwearying effort to do His work. Henceforth life was changed. Not only was he now baptized into Jesus Christ, but he rose to the fulness of his regenerate life. One, the Highest, had thought of him, even him. Could he ever forget it? "The life that I now live in the flesh," so he writes, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Jesus the Conqueror! Paul the slave! A great love had overmastered Paul, and a faithful response was given.

(1) Loyal affectionateness is always beautiful. To see the grey-haired man, melting into tenderness at the dear memory of one, once loved, now gone — having once seen, what heart can resist it? To see the little child, sweet, gentle, retiring — flash into sudden enthusiasm, or grow into sudden gravity of reproof in behalf of an absent parent or friend — the heart is touched.

(2) Ah, me! the world grows cold and critical: young hearts lose their freshness because they lose their faithfulness; miss their nobility when hero worship is dead. God save you from the cynical spirit. It is the generous spirit that is the brave spirit; because where it is there is loyalty. To what? Well, to anything or anyone who is in any measure really deserving; to your Church, Queen, country, to a great tradition, to a hallowed memory — loyalty to these leads to the higher.

(3) Think what it is for us Christians to have the vision of the highest truth before us, and to fail in loyalty! What follows? Success, money, greed satisfied, and the dark heart, the narrow brain. Think also, to see the highest truth and to be loyal! Certainly it means some pain, some shame. Conclusion: What Paul did that we Christians must do. The child Blandina smiled as she went to her agony; the aged wept in an ecstasy of tenderness when he thought of the love of his Master, and the horror of denying One who so long had loved him. The Greek girl — in a beautiful romance — lay in the depth of the African dungeon; she had longed for the azure skies of Attica, she had pined for the free breezes of the fresh AEgean, but they found her radiant with joy in her darkness and solitude, and the only account she gave of that strange completeness of revolutionised nature was this, "My Love was crucified."

1. The comfort. Life is full of failure, of sorrow, of sin. Listen. He changes not, "He loved you, and gave Himself for you." Well, then, if listening —

2. The result.

(1) Surely penitence — deepening penitence. And more. You will grow, advance, increase in grace as your surrender becomes more complete.

(2) Devotion. Not perhaps the burning enthusiasm of His first followers, or the blind, vigorous courage of the martyrs. But life will be truer, nobler, better, if we keep Him before us; the business mart may restrain his speculations when they pass the line of honesty, may spend his money for God; the young city clerk may subdue his passions, and teach in the Sunday school; the fashionable lady may bend the proud rules of social convention With a sweet dexterity, and do self-denying acts in real Christian love; the labouring man may work; the bedridden may endure; each with one thing in common some surrender; that is, some deepening love of heart, and stronger energy of will for love of Him who gave Himself for them, may learn in their several measures to be "slaves of Christ."

(Canon Knox-Little.)

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KJV: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

WEB: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,