The Apostle Paul
by Hugh DeLong
Most of those who will read this note would acknowledge the fact that Paul was a chosen apostle, chosen by Jesus (Galatians 1:1), witnessed the resurrected Jesus (I Corinthians 15), was acknowledge and given the right hand of fellowship by the other apostles (Galatians 2:9), and was confirmed as a messenger of God by the confirming miracles, signs, and wonders that Paul did (II Corinthians 12:12).
The Corinthians had a face-to-face encounter with Paul. Paul started the church there. Paul continued to preach there. He was the original source of the gospel message. He said in chapter 3 that he didn’t need ‘letters of recommendation’ as the disciples, converted and taught by him, were his proof of authenticity (II Corinthians 3:1-3). Yet, we see Paul defending his apostleship throughout these two letters!
Yet today one can hear it argued that he was not a true apostle for he was not one of the Twelve (and thus had no direct earthly connection with Jesus) and had not been with Jesus during His earthly life… but he affirms that he was an apostle ‘born out of due season,’ (cp. I Corinthians 15:8), witnessed the resurrected Jesus, and performed the miracles, signs, and wonders of an apostle.
Peter, after years of association with Paul and his teaching, stated: “… regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction" (II Peter 3:15-16). Note that he referred to Paul as a ‘beloved brother,’ that he wrote with ‘wisdom given to him,’ that his writings were categorized with ‘other scriptures,’ and that distorting such writings was done to one’s own destruction.
I still wonder at those, both in the first century and throughout history to this day, who reject Paul’s apostleship. After writing about the role of women, he forcefully stated: “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord's commandment” (I Corinthians 14:37).
And so, we have these apostolic letters from Paul to teach us the true gospel message.
