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Paul An Apostle - 2 Cor. 1:1-2
Paul An Apostle - 2 Cor. 1:1-2
The opening words of Paul's second letter to the Corinthians reads: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:1–2).
Many of us have a tendency to read quickly over these opening remarks in the letters. Here we need to take a moment and reflect on who was writing what and why he was writing these things. He was Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. This was not just a friendly letter from a fellow believer, but an apostolic letter. It came not from the mere mind of Paul, but by the very will of God. They were not just the likes of Paul the man, but the very words of Jesus unto these believers.
The NIV Application commentary on 2 Corinthians had an extensive note concerning the meaning of the word 'apostle'. Let me attempt here a short summary of some of that information.
- In the OT Hebrew, we often find verb šalaḥ = “to commission with a mission or a task”.
- When they normally used the Greek word 'apostello' to translated that Hebrew word (there were only 12 exceptions to the 696 times it was used.)
- Thus 'apostello' became a technical designation for the "sending of a messenger with a special task".
- The author added: "the one who is sent is of interest only to the degree that in some measure he embodies in his existence as such the one who sends him".
- From this concept, the Rabbis drew a saying: "the one sent by a man is as the man himself”.
Thus, to speak as an apostle of Jesus was to speak with the authority of Jesus. Paul could thus write: "If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord' (1 Corinthians 14:37). Jesus warned that to reject an apostle's word is to reject Jesus (Luke 10:16). To receive Paul's message was to receive the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13).
Yet, this was apparently the very thing being done by the Corinthians: they were rejecting the teaching of Paul. Even though they owed their very existence as believers to the preaching of Paul, some were now denying him as an apostle. Paul didn't need 'letters of accreditation', for THEY were his letter! Written not upon paper but upon their hearts! (2Cor. 3:1-3).
While we today have no one that was directly converted by the teaching of Paul, we do have people who now reject Paul's word as authoritative. My own grandmother stated "there are many things I disagree with Paul about." Others discount Paul's teaching proclaiming him to be "just an old male chauvinist." Still others will accept his statement in Gal. 3:26-29 and then pit it against his teaching concerning the role of women in other passages. Peter warned that some who were unstable, took the words of Paul and twisted them to their own destruction, even as they did the other Scriptures (2Pet. 3:16). Whoever denies, ignores, or perverts the words of an Apostle of the Lord is doing so unto his very destruction.
Be careful what you do with the writings of these apostles of Jesus!
Hugh DeLong
