1 Corinthians 15: 9-11….Who is this Paul?

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

Comment: This is a very short passage but a very important one. Many people say that they like the teaching of Jesus but they don’t like Paul very much. Let’s consider ‘liking’ Jesus. Most say the above, forgetting what Jesus actually said. He claimed to be God and was prepared to die for that. The Jews complaint against Him was ‘blasphemy’! Jesus talked more about ‘hell/judgement’ than ‘love’. Paul may well have listened to Jesus and certainly was bitterly opposed to Jesus until Jesus met Paul on the Damascus road. Then he spent years studying the Old Testament from a ‘Jesus’ point of view and prayerfully seeking to understand the ‘gospel’, after all Jesus was the promised Messiah. Paul claims and lived out what Jesus had actually taught, not the emasculated concept that many believe is ‘the Jesus teaching’, which they claim to like. Unworthy as he was because of his past actions, God straightened Paul out and greatly used him as God did the other apostles!

Prayer: Thank You for the richness and helpfulness of the Bible, Your Word to us, O God!

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