The Greatness Of Paul

by "Watchman" | Category: General | Mar 1980

"In nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing" (2 Cor. 12:11).

So wrote Paul in reply to his critics in Corinth. His words signify the transparent sincerity of the man, and at the same time uncover the secret of his greatness. On the one hand he was an accredited apostle; on the other, he was "nothing". Always aware of the nobility of the service to which he had been called, yet equally conscious that complete self-effacement was indispensable to the performance of it.

Paul did not indulge in overstatement. There was no mock modesty in the assertion, "I am nothing"; it was the sober truth, the self-appraisal of a servant in total slavery to his Master. The Paul we love was not the product of scholarship or self-culture, of intense mental application or mere strength of purpose. If these had been the dominant influences in his training he would have been shaped, no doubt, in the same mould as Gamaliel. The man God fashions must first acknowledge himself to be just what he is - a piece of clay. On the Damascus road the piece of clay that was Saul of Tarsus was taken in hand by the great Master Potter and fashioned into an apostle bearing the image of the Original. The process was severe and painful; the result exquisite. So complete was the transformation that he could plead, "Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11:1).

Paul was badly treated by the Corinthian church. He had been a father to them, spending himself to the utmost on their behalf. But they were not worthy of him! There were those who challenged his authority, belittled his person and cast doubt upon his motives. All this is on record to their shame. They might of their charity have spared him this needless anguish. We can trace the hurt as he bares the heartache, "If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?"

A lesser man than Paul might have been provoked to retort in kind. But like his Master the apostle was content to commit his cause to Him that judgeth righteously (1 Pet. 2:23 RYM). There was no petulance, no self pity, no wavering in his love and care for the Corinthian church. "I seek not yours, but you", he wrote, "and I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls" (2 Cor. 12:14,15). The greatness of Paul!

"Men heed thee, love thee, praise thee not; The Master praises; what are men?"

"Watchman" | Mar 1980
General