Paul calls himself the “very least of all the saints” even though he will tell the Corinthians he worked harder than any of the apostles and in his letter to the Galatians he even questions the authority of the big three, Peter, James and John, those “reputed to be pillars”. But then one can hardly imagine the church surviving let alone expanding without a person like Paul. The same traits that made him a formidable foe to the fledgling faith made him the fanatical convert to the mystery of Christ made known through revelations. His love for the Lord he formerly persecuted was expressed through an unmatched intellect, a stoic personality and an obstinate nature. And maybe it takes a “chief of sinners though I be” to really appreciate with boldness and confidence the access to God carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. So God uses Paul’s weakness to make the Gentile church strong and his foolishness to make the Gentiles wise to the eternal purpose of God. While we can’t claim to be on par with Paul it might be a good thing for us to accept that God finds our whole being (the good, the bad, and the in-between) useful for making known the mystery of God to the present day gentiles to whom we have been sent.
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