Paul’S Authority And The Sources For His Thought
PAUL’S AUTHORITY AND THE SOURCES FOR HIS THOUGHT
Paul’s Authority
Fundamental to Paul’s ministry was his consciousness of being an apostle. Like the other apostles, he had seen the Lord (1 Cor. 9:1), and the Lord himself, not any human being, had called Paul to his apostleship (e.g., Gal. 1:1). Because Paul was an apostle by God’s call, he could claim an authority equal to that of Peter, James, John, and the rest of the twelve—those whom some of Paul’s opponents had labeled "super-apostles” (2 Cor. 11:5). Paul writes from the consciousness of this apostolic authority in every one of his letters. True, Paul can sometimes distinguish between his teaching and the teaching of the Lord (e.g., 1 Cor. 7:6, 10, 12; 2 Cor. 11:17), and nowhere does Paul make it clear that he thought his letters to be inspired Scripture. Nevertheless, in differentiating his teaching from the Lord’s, Paul does not suggest that his carries any less authority. And, while not perhaps conscious of writing inspired Scripture, Paul’s apostolic stance enables him to interpret with sovereign freedom the Old Testament Scriptures and to make demands on his people that he considered to be as binding as anything in Scripture.