Am I not an
apostle? Am I not free?
Have I not seen Jesus
Christ our Lord?
Are you not my work
in the Lord?
If I am not an
apostle to others,
yet doubtless I am to
you.
For you are the seal
of my apostleship
in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 9: 1 --
2
Paul after
converting to the Lord Jesus Christ by the appearing of Jesus Christ directly
to him giving evidence to Paul that Jesus Christ is the Messiah expected
throughout the generations of the Jews to come and save His people is now
facing opposition. When one converts to
the Lord Jesus Christ he or she should expect consequences from things that
occurred in the past and that people would question your conversion. This does not mean that the consequences are
always bad, sometimes they are even good, but often people only see bad from
the past and will not accept now the present good that has come from your
conversion. Paul faced opposition and
even more so, and faced discouragement by some within the
Corinthian church. We must not forget
that there were false brethren, those who were Judaizers, and many who had
entered into the church from a life of prostitution and idolatry. It is these brethren who were
attempting to injure Paul's character.
Therefore this necessity for Paul to write this to the Corinthians. We
are to gain from this account so that the principles that the Holy Spirit
inspired Paul to write in his defense will also become the principles by which
we can defend our conversion to Jesus Christ.
How is it that Paul could say that he was and apostle? To be an apostle means that you have had
seen and heard the actual Jesus Christ, and not by some vision rather by the
appearance of Jesus Christ personally and appointed to
be an apostle by Jesus Christ. There
are many today, who, run around throughout churches saying I am an apostle hear
me and do what I say because I have a special association with Jesus Christ as
an apostle. Yet they do not meet the
qualifications of an apostle, yet they want all the honor that the apostles had
by their actual association with the real Jesus and not by some vision. Some of the Corinthians had disowned the
apostleship of Paul and his apostolic character, therefore Paul now addresses
in their questioning. Paul gives the
rubric for apostle: "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?"
Furthermore Paul asserts his apostolic mission and character and this he
did by stating that he was an apostle and had seen Jesus therefore he was a
witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul had seen the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul then adds to this by showing them his mission work and what he had
done for the Corinthians especially because they were the work done by him for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul makes this
clear that the Gospel had been preached to them and they had converted what had
seemed to have forgotten, that they came to this conversion through the
preaching of Paul and they are his: "For you are the seal of my
apostleship in the Lord." It
seems as though the Corinthians were charging against Paul that he didn't have
certain rights, rights to each, rights to be married, rights to work or not
work. Years later, within the Roman
Catholic Church celibacy became required for the priests and monks and even
stands as a requirement in our present day.
This is absolutely un-Biblical!
Paul already had mentioned that if a person does not have the desire to
marry that it is all right, and if a person has a desire to marry it is all
right. Even within the Roman Catholic Church
for many years on Fridays only fish could be eaten as though this was somehow
holy, but Jesus Christ never authored such a thing and Paul reminds us once
again that we are not to refuse people to eat, only to keep from things offered
to idols. The Corinthian church step
outside of the Christian, so-called box, and created for themselves all kinds
of doctrines and rules that are not inspired by God and are not for Christians
to follow. Let's make this one thing
clear: Paul had the right to marry and to take his wife with him if he and she
so desired and able to take his spouse wherever he would travel.
Was Paul married? I personally
don't know for it is not so stated in the Bible but it is also not stated that
he was unmarried. But what is this,
only an argument for an argument's sake for Paul had only one mission and that
was to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to whomever and wherever he went, and
that principle stands for us today that we are to take the Gospel where ever we
go and in what ever circumstance we find ourselves. When we become so much of a busybody that we condemn that which
the Bible does not condemn and we accept that which the Bible does not accept
them the question is; have we really converted to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul makes it very clear in his
writings to the Roman to what it means to be a Christian: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin"
(Romans 6: 6). This is what is
important for you and I: have we made this decision about sin, that it must be
killed right out in me? Have we taken
time to learn and come to a moral decision about sin. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and take time to be alone
with God, to make it the moral decision and say: "Lord, identify me with
your death until I know that sin is good in me." Come to this decision, that moral decision whereby sin in you
must be put to death. Do not become so
wrapped up in arguments that are frivolous and do not lead a person to true
faith in Jesus Christ. Have you entered
into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ until all that is
left is the life of Christ in your flesh and blood? This is a question for all of us who claim to be Christians. I pray that you will take time alone with
God, read his word, and then apply that which he says to do or not do and you
will receive from God blessings untold.
Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD --
Your
salvation according to Your word.
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me,
for high trust in Your word.
Psalm 119: 41 -- 42
Pray to God today: take time with Him
No comments:
Post a Comment