Good morning. For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to
be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. Wow Paul. If you
were not fit to be called an apostle, who was? It shows that no matter how low
you go, God can still receive glory through you. But by the grace of God I am
what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more
than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was
I or they, so we preach and so you believed. It didn’t have to be the original
apostles who preached to them. In fact, it did not have to be an apostle at
all. Someone preached to them, and they believed. From Paul’s long logical
argument that follows, apparently some were proclaiming that when Christians die
that was it - there was no resurrection from the dead. Now if Christ is
preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the
dead, not even Christ has been raised. That’s a big uh-oh good buddy. We will
continue this next time. Father thank You that Your word goes forth today and
every day. Help us to conform to that word.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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