by Hugh DeLong<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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<\/em>‘ 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!<\/p>\n 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<\/em>,’ (cp. I Corinthians 15:8), witnessed the resurrected Jesus, and performed the miracles, signs, and wonders of an apostle.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>” (II Peter 3:15-16).\u00a0Note that he referred to Paul as a ‘beloved brother,<\/em>‘ that he wrote with ‘wisdom given to him,<\/em>‘ that his writings were categorized with ‘other scriptures<\/em>,’ and that distorting such writings was done to one’s own destruction.<\/p>\n 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<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:37).<\/p>\n And so, we have these apostolic letters from Paul to teach us the true gospel message.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[118],"class_list":["post-91000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-paul"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":35267,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-made-paul-an-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":0},"title":"What Made Paul an Apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Galatians 1:11-24 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Paul was different from the other apostles \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He wasn\u2019t with Jesus when he was on earth \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He was not among the original twelve apostles - Luke 6:12-16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He started out as a zealous persecutor of the church \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0D.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How is it that Paul\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90953,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/test-yourself\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":1},"title":"Test Yourself","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!\" (II Corinthians 13:5 ESV). We see in the two letters to the Corinthians that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90594,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ii-corinthians-and-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":2},"title":"II Corinthians and Paul","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"There are many things I disagree with Paul about\u2026\" This was how my grandmother concluded our discussion on being faithful to the teachings of the New Testament. In Paul's time, not everyone who was converted remained faithful to acknowledging Paul as an apostle of Jesus and thus\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20251,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preaching-like-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":3},"title":"Preaching Like Paul","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bobby Witherington via\u00a0Guardian of Truth\u00a0XXXVI: 3, pp. 80-82, February 6, 1992 There are many books that deal with preaching. Some are excellent. Some are not worth the paper and ink they require. Some are downright dangerous. But there is one book that not only reveals the value of preaching;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0013-13-300x235.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":63873,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":4},"title":"The Apostles (Sermon)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Corinthians 11:1-15 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I Corinthians 12:28-29; Ephesians 4:11-13 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The world contains many strange ideas regarding apostles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Mormons and some other denominations claim their organization is more truly like the first century church because they have apostles. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I have had some strong discussions with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1314,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-paul-mean-by-chiefest-of-the-apostles\/","url_meta":{"origin":91000,"position":5},"title":"What did Paul mean by “chiefest of the apostles”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What did Paul mean by \"chiefest of the apostles\" in\u00a0II Corinthians 11:5? Answer: The context of this verse reads: \"Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly--and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}