Paul the Apostle
So Paul calls himself a servant of God above all, and then he goes on and also calls himself in that same verse, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
And I like what William McDonald said in his commentary about those two phrases. He said “the first pictures him as a slave of the supreme Master, the second as an envoy of the sovereign Lord. The first speaks of submission, the second of authority. He became a servant by personal commitment, an apostle by divine appointment.”
Apostolic Authority Explained
The apostles, of course, were those who were commissioned by Jesus in person to do the work of the early Church. And so they had what we call great apostolic authority.
It's why we believe the Bible is the Word of God, because we believe Jesus gave the writers apostolic authority. And so they weren't just writing their own words, they were writing the Word of God.
That authority was given to the apostles. And so there's a sense in which the original apostles had a divine and unique calling.
Called and Sent
But that word apostle simply means one who is sent. And so there is a sense in which we are all called to be apostles, maybe not in quite the same way as the first generation were, but we're all sent with God's authority to go and spread the gospel.
We use that authority not to lord it over people, but to love them, to be kind to them, and to share the good news with them. I think you and I need to see ourselves as apostles, not in a way that puffs us up and makes us arrogant, but as a reminder that we are called.
We're not just servants who God has saved—we are called. To go out and spread the good news in all the world. And you know what, friends, with the help of God's Holy Spirit, we can do wonderful things through His power.
And so maybe like Paul, you need to see yourself as both a servant and an apostle doing the will of God and especially anointed by His Holy Spirit to do it. I pray, friends, that you will have new power in your life as you yield to the Holy Spirit and then go as ones who are sent out—apostles to do the work of God in the world.
Just like Paul did.
