2 Corinthians 11:5; Not a Whit Behind

2 Corinthians 11:5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.

The Apostle Paul was a man entrusted with a message. He was an ambassador for his Master, Jesus Christ. And to accomplish his Master’s mission, he had to testify of his embassage, that he was commissioned and sent. His mission was in danger of being derailed by the enemies of the gospel. He had to prove his credentials that his mission might not be thwarted. He claimed that he was an apostle – one commissioned and sent by his Master Jesus Christ. And his rank, we say he had to “pull rank”, was by no standard inferior to the calling and mission of the other Apostles of Christ. He met Jesus on the road to Damascus and was gloriously saved and later commissioned.

He understood the gravity of his mandate and sought to accomplish the work, not by his ingenuity but by the grace that his Master would accord him for the work that He sought for him to accomplish. The gist of his “boast” may be explained his testimony to the church in Galatia who had faced similar attack from enemies of the gospel.

Galatians 1:10-24 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called meby his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.

May the Lord protect His church for His glory. Amen.