THE MARKS OF A TRUE APOSTLE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

2 Corinthians 12:11-13

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Paul had run into competition in the Corinthian church and he wasn’t happy about it.

The rivals were false apostles who had infiltrated the Christian church in Corinth and started to influence the believers there. Simultaneously, they launched a smear campaign against Paul, the one who had invested so much for the cause of Christ in establishing the Corinthian body.

It was obvious that the false apostles, sarcastically referred to by Paul as the “super apostles”, were very persuasive in their attempts to lead the Corinthian Christians astray. But Paul was no slouch when it came to persuasiveness himself. And so as we see in Chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Corinthians, Paul writes to remind the Christians in Corinth about the authenticness of his ministry.

As we have seen in prior messages, Paul placed an emphasis on the dedication he displayed while traveling wherever God led him so to carry the good news of salvation through Jesus to the “ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). These efforts led him into harm’s way on more than one occasion and he regularly experienced persecution, abuse, and threats to his life but he never quit, He pressed on to carry out the will of his Lord and as he did, the Lord was with him.

Conversely, the false apostles weren’t interested in following God or being obedient to His calling. They were on their own program and creating their own grounds for salvation, grounds they impressed on the Corinthian believers. It’s widely viewed that these “super apostles” were Jews who taught that elements of the Mosaic Law were still hard and fast requirements before someone could be saved. Specifically, these false teachers insisted that men still be circumcised as a requirement for gaining eternal life. In other words, one had to do something to earn being saved.

Of course, this view was certainly not in step with the new covenant that God had established, a covenant that only required someone to believe in Jesus as Savior to gain salvation, the covenant that Paul preached consistently and persistently.

How did Paul know that his work was in line with what God expected?

Because God had empowered him with special gifts to use in carrying out what He wanted Paul to do.

What were those gifts?

Go back to our scripture verses for today and we find Paul giving us the answer.

I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles.

The false apostles were doing no special work that would show they were spiritually set apart. On the other hand, Paul had performed signs, wonders, and miracles throughout his missionary journeys from place to place and Corinth was just the latest beneficiary and witness of that Lord-granted power. This is what distinguished Paul from any others who claimed to be apostles. He showed everyone that the mark of a true disciple isn’t seen in the apostle himself but rather the Lord who called the apostle to service.

Today, there are many who place the apostle title on themselves but that doesn’t mean they are true apostles. Today’s message helps us test the validity of apostleship by ensuring the work of the apostle in question isn’t by way of his own striving for significance but rather the glorification of the Lord who initiated the call to service. The true apostle will be specially empowered by the Lord to carry out His purposes and will present ever humble despite the distinctive nature of His calling and relationship to the Lord who called.

We see this in Paul and through his ministry, we get a glimpse of what a true disciple looks like.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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