BIBLE USES OF THE WORD “DISPENSATION.”
By G. T. Wilson
Much controversy arises over the use of unscriptural terms. The terms patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations can not be found in the Bible. That the Gospel dispensation is different this side of the cross from what it was before, is not taught in the Scriptures. The word “dispensation” is used only four times in the Bible. Paul says, “A dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me.” 1 Cor. 9:17. The Revised Version renders it, “I have a stewardship intrusted to me.” I will quote the texts where the word is found in the Authorized Version and the Revised Version, the one under the other, defining them by the letters A.V. and R.V.:— A.V. “A dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me.” 1 Cor. 9:17. R.V. “I have a stewardship intrusted to me.” 1 Cor. 9:17. A.V. “Dispensation of the grace of God.” Eph. 3:2. R.V. “Dispensation of that grace of God” (margin, “stewardship”). Eph. 3:2. R.V. “Dispensation of God,” etc. Col. 1:25 (margin, “stewardship”). A.V. “The dispensation of the fulness of times,” etc. Eph. 1:10. R.V. “A dispensation of the fulness of the times,” etc. Eph. 1:10. In the A.V. in Eph. 3:9 we have the expression, “the fellowship of the mystery,” which in the R.V. is rendered “dispensation” instead of fellowship. The definition of “dispensation” is, according to Young’s Concordance, “dispensation, law, or arrangement of a house.” These are all the uses of the word in either version referred to above, and are never used in the limited sense of patriarchal, Mosaic, or law dispensation, but always in the sense of the dispensation of the grace of God in the Gospel of Christ. As a minister of Christ, Paul had the work assigned him of dispensing of God’s grace to sinners, or, as the Revised Version renders it, “a stewardship” committed to him. So had all the disciples of our Lord. And so have all the followers of our Saviour, tho in a lesser degree, perhaps, as Peter shows in 1 Peter 4:10, 11: “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,” etc. The dispensation of grace has continued from the days of Adam to the present time, and will continue while the good tidings of salvation shall be sounded to fallen man. Do we feel individually the importance of our “stewardship” of divine grace to our fellow-men? It is a blessed work which God has intrusted us with in the Gospel of Christ. G. T. WILSON. Avondale, Cooranbong, N. S. W.