”Unto this I myself was appointed a preacher and apostle, truth I am speaking, I am not lying, a teacher of the nations in faith and truth."
-Unto this. Unto what? Paul was appointed as a preacher and an apostle, but to what end? So that he could carry and communicate this truth, this message of all that God has done and desires with regard to people everywhere coming home to Him in their hearts. The dissemination of the Good News, this message about Jesus, the Mediator and Ransom for all mankind. Just as God gave witness to this truth in the fullness of time, at the divinely appointed season of opportunity, so Paul himself had been appointed to preach this news and bear witness to this truth in every season, in season and out. Jesus had appointed him, had laid him down as such, such that his would be a life laid down for Jesus, for this Good News about Him.
-Paul is a “preacher” - of this Good News! That’s our English word, but the Greek word is kéryx, from the verb kérysso. It means a herald, or a proclaimer. The herald would herald, the proclaimer would proclaim a proclamation, one which carries a formaility and a gravity with an authority which must be obeyed. We don’t get these much anymore. Certainly not in the 21st century, not in the land of the free and the home of the impudent. These would have been official messages from kings, magistrates, princes, military commanders. Um, how about an official proclamation from the King of kings? From God Himself. The keryx were first and foremost servants (of the one who sent them). Their chief qualification would appear to have been a clear and loud voice (no microphones or sound systems in those days) - but originally they functioned as well to call soldiers to battle, and citizens to the assembly. They were responsible in many ways for the maintenance of the laws and thus generally for political as well as religious order. Theirs was a sacred, a sacrosanct position - when the keryx appeared, weapons were stilled. These guys were not to be touched, such was the respect accorded their position. Whatever the keryx proclaimed, by virtue of his being a spokesman for the person or people with absolute authority, was absolutely binding. Now it is true that in John’s day, the essence of this binding authority of a keryx had been diluted quite considerably, and that the word had come to be used and understood more like our modern word, preacher. But surely an appointment by the King of kings to be a keryx - HIS keryx - was (and still is) a sacred and sacrosanct calling. And surely we must pay close attention to the words of this keryx...
-Also an apostle. Paul was also appointed an apostle - one who had seen the resurrected Jesus and sent with authority to testify (everywhere) to that fact.
-Paul parenthetically tells Timothy that he is telling the truth, that he is not lying. Surely Timothy knew this. Surely Timothy had seen the reality of Paul’s call born out in countless ways in too many situations to have any doubt as to this truth. It’s almost a case of the lady doth protest too much, methinks. Paul’s protestation, his excessive insistence at this point would seem to undermine his credibility (he does the same thing in Galatians 1.20). We do find that Paul repeatedly seemed to feel it necessary to defend his apostleship. There were some at least who indeed questioned the legitimacy of his claim (1Corinthians 9.2, 2Corinthians 12.11). He had a record, for one. He was a spiritual felon, as things go. And he wasn’t one of the “original twelve”. An apostle with an untimely birth, this one (1Corinthians 15.8-10). He was late to the game, for sure. Paul does repeatedly restate his claim to being an apostle, over and over in his letters. Did he feel it necessary to do this, in part, because of the naysayers, the doubters? There should however be NO doubt as to the veracity of his claim, based on how the Lord repeatedly confirmed this singular call on the life of this Saul-who-became-Paul (2Corinthians 12.12). Apostle. To the nations.
-That’s right - to the nations. If there’s one thing Paul says even more frequently than that he was appointed an apostle, a sent-one, it’s that Jesus sent him to the nations. To the despicable dirty Gentiles. Paul mentions the Gentiles 55 times in his letters. Talk about a call. A burden. Even after the Lord had to pry open the eyes of the original apostles along with the rest of the early church - all Jews - there was still this huge built-up cultural inertia against actually going TO Gentiles (ANY Gentiles) and actually conversing with them and spending the kind of time with them which would be necessary in order to help disciple them to Jesus. But Jesus had laid Paul down to lay his life down to do just that. To help people everywhere - really, regardless of their ethnicity - learn the truth about Jesus. I wonder, is there someone, some group to whom the Lord has laid down you? May we each find a similar grace to lay me down...
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