Week 44 1 Corinthians 15
For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. Paul brings together the two contributors to his work. First there was him working hard. Second there was the Lord working along as well. Credit me. Credit the Lord.
It’s a nice picture of collaborative action. Paul the front man doing things in the obvious & visible foreground. Then also the Lord doing things in the not-always-as-obvious background (where the Lord had the option of injecting some spectacular miracle into the mix if he wanted to). But according to Paul whatever the exact distribution of work was the general formula looked like this: me working + the Lord working = successful church life.
Trying to balance these kinds of concurring inputs is tricky. Paul – in spite of being the marquee guy – had to keep in mind that he was part of a team and couldn’t be too arrogant about his role. So even though he started out saying something very self-congratulatory (‘I outworked all the other apostles’) he acknowledge that the Lord gave him a big boost.
Thinking back to the book of Acts it’s likely true that Paul actually did outperformed everyone else. But despite his track record Paul doubled back. Took a humbler line. Reigned-in what sounded a lot like smug self-congratulation. Gave the big credit where it was due.
Note: quote from 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NLT). End of October reading: 91% completed.