Paul, The Runt Apostle

A paraphrase of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 captured my attention today: ^{8 “}And finally, at the very end of His appearances, Christ appeared to me and showed Himself to me as well—as if I was a forgotten child, a runt, or a baby who was thought to be aborted, but survived. ⁹ I exist as the very least—the smallest in size, amount and dignity—of the apostles who have been chosen by God as His ambassadors carry forth His message with miraculous powers. I don’t even deserve to be called an apostle. My former life of pursuing and persecuting the Church of God totally disqualifies me in character and competence. ¹⁰ But by the divine favor of God upon me, I exist in the very way that I exist—a runt apostle. And this divine favor that God has granted me was not in vain—it was not empty or without purpose, because I have labored and toiled so incredible much more abundantly and to so much a greater degree than all the other apostles until I have been wearied and fatigued. Yet, it wasn’t me, it was the divine favor of God reflected in my life and working through me.”

Who would have thought of Paul (formerly known as “Saul of Tarsus, disciple of Gamaliel”) as an apostle of Jesus Christ? Yet, against human logic and intuition God chose him to be “the apostle to the Gentiles”. God had specifically chosen Paul and to pull him out of the insanity that he was pursuing and the expectations of those around him that he was trying to please and to totally alter the course of his life. It apparently was so hard for the other apostles and Christians who had been with Christ for 3 years already to come to grips with this that it took more than a decade.

God does this! It’s amazing! He takes the student that the teachers dislike the most and who causes the most trouble and turns him into the most inspiring student leader the school has ever seen. He takes the most delinquent student in the high school and turns his life around in college and sends him off to change the world. He takes the most unnoticed student and shapes her life so that she has an impact that no one would have ever imagined. He takes an poor unknown nun, in the poorest European country and gives her a vision of His work and sends her to minister to the poorest most rejected people in India, then from that platform brings her to rebuke the most powerful men on earth and gives her a funeral that rivals the most popular princess ever—televised to millions of people.

I’m no Saul of Tarsus or Mother Teresa, but I’ve seen this in my life and the lives of my peers and my students. There were more popular, better looking, far more articulate and organized boys in my high school. There were brighter prospects that me that CSCS could have hired. There have been better teachers, mentors and sponsors who have some through the doors of CSCS and have left, but God in His grace has chosen me for this moment to be in this position to have this influence to whatever end He has in mind. This emboldens me to live the life that God has called me to. To boldly have the influence that He has called me to have and to live in the confidence of that calling. In another place, Paul wrote: “My life is worth nothing, except to live out the calling that God has given me…” (Acts 20:24)—that inspires me.

History shows us that Paul’s tireless efforts for the Kingdom of God we, in fact, NOT wasted, but continue to produce fruit among Gentiles like me and millions of others in Europe and America and around the world who read from the New Testament—most of which was written by Paul—the runt apostle.