Have I Not - 1 Corinthians 9:1

Reading Paul’s letter to Corinthians in response to an earlier letter that he received is like reading the transcript to phone call made in another country about important business but you have no idea what the business is, and it’s 2,000 years old. It’s very difficult to understand, but with help I can kind of make out what’s going on here. The article from gospeldoctrince.com explains, “Again, Paul is responding to criticism received from the Corinthians in a previous communication. It would seem that Paul was criticized for the manner in which he traveled and performed missionary work (v. 5-6), for the manner in which he dined with investigators and members, (v. 7-14), and some even questioned his authority (v. 1-3).”

Paul poses some interesting questions, “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” I feel like this is one of those times when one has to ask, “do you believe that I’m called of God or not?” I don’t know if that’s specifically what he’s saying here, but he’s pointing out that he is in fact called of God and has authority. The question, “Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” The article explains, “Paul cannot easily be understood without accepting the supernatural knowledge that he claimed.” 

We have to remember that, unlike Peter and many other apostles, Paul never knew Jesus during his mortal ministry. We know that after Christ appeared to him initially, Paul spent three years in Arabia, and that is where he was taught the gospel, perhaps by the Holy Ghost, but I’ve also seen it speculated that Christ taught him personally. So he had the same amount of time training, but just in a different setting. And probably few to no saints in Corinth could answer that they had been divinely visited by the glorified, resurrected Christ himself. The fact that Paul had, sets him apart from the others and gives him credibility in answering the accusations being thrown at him.