During Saint Paul’s era, it is common for people to dictate their letters to a secretary and then add their signature to it. Also, as pointed out by Dr William Barclay in his Daily Bible Study Series, the letters in those days would usually consist of the following sections: (i) The Greeting; (ii) The Prayer (for the health of the recipients); (iii) The Thanksgiving; (iv) The Special Contents (the main body of the letters); and (v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings.
Why did Paul write his letters or epistles, as they are commonly called? How come they can still speak to us through the years? Dr Barclay explains, “With a very few exceptions, all Paul’s letters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was something threatening in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, ‘Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation … he had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in the next generation, far less that one day people will look at them as Holy Scripture.’
We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paul’s letters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.”
Today, for our study and reflection, let’s refer to 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 (NKJV): “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In his greeting, Paul identified himself by his new name after conversion from Judaism to become a believer and follower of Jesus Christ and forsook his former identity as Saul of Tarsus. The name “Paul” is derived from the Roman family name Paulus, which meant “small” or “humble” in Latin. As for Saul (Saoul in Greek or Sha’ul in Hebrew) it denotes “asked for” or “prayed for”. He certainly never looked back. For example, he regarded himself as the least of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9) and consistently acknowledged that it was God who has called him to be an apostle; he did not pray or asked for it.
While Saul was still persecuting the churches and making his way to Damascus, he had a life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ (Acts 9:1-9). He was called to be a chosen vessel of Christ to bear His name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel and to suffer for His name’s sake (Acts 9:15-16).
Later on, as he testified before King Agrippa, Paul recalled the words of Jesus to him, “…for I have appeared before you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:16-18)
What I find amazing is the faith and obedience that Paul demonstrated to fulfill his calling. It wasn’t like he was launched off in double-quick time, smoothly, unchallenged and without perils to become a prominent apostle of Jesus Christ. After his calling, Paul immediately went to the synagogues preaching that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The Jews were furious and plotted to kill him. “But their plot became known to Paul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a larges basket.” (Acts 9:24-25; NKJV)
As explained by Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 (NKJV), “In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to apprehend me; but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.”
Paul then went to Jerusalem but the disciples there found it hard to accept his sudden turnaround. Moreover, he disputed against the Greek-speaking Jews, but they attempted to kill him. “When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus.” (Acts 9:30; NKJV)
From his letter to the Galatians, we understand that Paul “went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus” (Galatians 1;17b; NKJV); “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to se Peter, and remained with him fifteen days” (Galatians 1:18; NKJV); and “Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.” (Galatians 1:22; NKJV); and “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.” (Galatians 2:1; NKJV)
Indeed, Paul endured much suffering just as Jesus Christ had said he would for his calling. Consider Paul’s account in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 (NKJV): “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness – besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.”
Paul was diligent to make his calling and election as an apostle of Jesus Christ sure. It was an apostleship that is rooted in Christ and for the glory of Christ. He was not an apostle for his own satisfaction and achievement; he was nothing apart from Christ. Dr C. Peter Wagner briefly defines an ‘Apostle’ as a: “Christian leader who is gifted, taught, and commissioned by God with the authority to establish the foundational government of the Church within an assigned sphere of ministry by hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches and by setting things in order accordingly for the advancement of the Kingdom of God.”
Also, he pointed out that his calling was by divine initiative (“by the will of God”). He set this out clearly in Galatians 1:1 (NKJV), “Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead). To this, we can add divine revelation, as well, from what he disclosed in Galatians 1:11-12, “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
In his epistle to the Corinthians, Paul recognized that the Church is primarily the Church of God, regardless of whether it is located at Corinth or elsewhere. He described the Christian as: (i) one who is set apart to God by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (i.e., positional sanctification); (ii) one who is marked out and being made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit as specially belonging to God and devoted to God’s service (i.e., progressive sancitifcation); and (iii) one who is part of a community of believers worldwide.
Finally, as Dr Barclay explains, “Paul speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then, as it were, he corrects himself and adds their Lord and ours. No man, no Church, has exclusive possession of Jesus Christ. He is our Lord but he is also the Lord of all men. It is the amazing wonder of Christianity that all men possess all the love of Jesus Christ, that “God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love.” ”
Thus in just the aforesaid three verses from 1 Corinthians 1:1-3, we have much to understand and deepen our knowledge of God’s Word. You may wish to ponder over the following questions and emulate the example of Saint Paul:
a) Have I truly embraced my new identity in Christ by seeing myself in the mirror of God’s Word?
b) Am I living out my calling in Jesus Christ or am I still enslaved to self and sin?
c) Am I growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ?
The following selected manifesto from Saint Paul is for your takeaway:
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
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Bibliography:
1. The Daily Bible Study Series (Revised Edition): The Letters to the Corinthians – translated with an Introduction and Interpretation by William Barclay
2. Meaning of “Paul” and “Saul” (Source: http://www.behindthename.com/name/)
3. Definition of “Apostle” (Source: http://www.coalitionofapostles.com/about-ica/definition-of-apostle/)
4. The NIV Study Bible by The Zondervan Corporation
