‘Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth.'
Paul speaks like this in almost all the introductions to his Epistles, with a view to emphasising the divine authority with which he writes. Firstly he states that he is ‘called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ'. Then he states that it is ‘through the will of God'.
‘Called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ.' Notice first the emphasis on his ‘calling'. It is quite clear that this is to be seen as God's calling which came to him in an unusual and emphatic way. He does not use it in the loose way in which we may speak of a man's calling, but of a specific and demonstrable call in which he was declared to be chosen by Christ as ‘a chosen vessel to Me to carry My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and before the children of Israel' (Acts 9:3-6; Acts 9:15-16) which all who knew of it recognised as directly from God. It was a call directly confirmed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:2), and was a call recognised and acknowledged by the twelve Apostles (see Galatians 1:11 to Galatians 2:21) to such an extent that his epistles were thought of as Scripture (2 Peter 3:16). They confirmed their agreement that he was an ‘Apostle to the Gentiles'.
‘An Apostle of Jesus Christ.' This phrase primarily, of course, referred to the Apostles appointed by Jesus (and named ‘Apostles' by Jesus - Luke 6:13), ‘the twelve' (John 20:24; Acts 6:2; 1 Corinthians 15:5), who had directly received revelation from Jesus and were witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 1:22; 1 Corinthians 15:5). They had come to include James the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:19), who possibly replaced the martyred James (Acts 12:2 with Galatians 2:9) as Matthias replaced Judas (Acts 1:10-26).
In Acts the twelve are clearly distinguished as unique. When writing about those who met in the Jerusalem church to make vital decisions, the leaders apart from the Apostles are called ‘the elders', and the Apostles are mentioned separately. Note the phrase ‘the Apostles and the Elders' (e.g. Acts 15:2; Acts 15:4; Acts 15:9; Acts 15:22-23), even though the Apostles could also be called Elders (1Pe 5:1; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1). The ‘Elders' are those usually responsible for churches (Acts 14:23; Acts 20:17). Thus Paul, by calling himself an Apostle here, sets himself alongside the twelve as having this unique position. Like them he too claimed to be a primary source of direct revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:12), and was recognised as such by the twelve (Galatians 2:7-9). And it is clear that he looked on his calling to Apostleship (Romans 11:13; 1 Corinthians 9:1) as being on a par with, and as personal as, theirs (Galatians 1:16-17).
‘Apostolos', an apostle, is derived from apostellein, (to send forth,) and originally signified literally a messenger. The term was employed by earlier classical writers to denote the commander of an expedition, or a delegate, or an ambassador (see Herodotus, 5. 38), but its use in this way was later rare as it came to have a technical meaning referring to ‘the fleet', and possibly also the fleet's admiral. It may be that Jesus spoke with a sense of humour when he named the fishermen ‘Apostles' using this term, seeing them as the future ‘catchers of men' (although it would require that He gave the title in Greek, which is not, however, impossible).
In the New Testament, apart from the Apostles, it is also employed in a more general sense to denote important messengers sent out on God's service (see Luke 11:49; 2 Corinthians 8:23; Philippians 2:25; 1 Thessalonians 2:6), and in one instance is applied to Christ Himself, as the One sent forth from God (Hebrews 3:1). But in the main it is reserved for the twelve (including James, the Lord's brother), and Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:4; Acts 14:14). Paul certainly saw it as giving him a recognised authority direct from Jesus Christ. He saw himself, along with the twelve, as being specifically commissioned by Jesus.
‘Through the will of God.' This solemn statement stresses the importance of his office. It is through the sovereign will of the eternal God that he has been so appointed. He is deliberately emphasising that he was called by the direct will and purpose of God, so underlining that he has been chosen out within God's purposes. He no doubt intended them to see this as being indicated by his experience on the Road to Damascus. There God had set him apart in a unique way through the appearance to him of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, calling him to a unique ministry among the Gentiles. In other words he wanted them to know that he spoke with maximum authority.
But in the light of what comes later in the Epistle we may probably also see this ‘through the will of God' as in direct contrast to those who ‘transformed themselves into the Apostles of Christ' (2 Corinthians 11:13), those who ‘call themselves Apostles and are not' (Revelation 2:2), appointed by themselves and not by the will of God. He wants to stress that, in contrast to theirs, his Apostleship is through the will of God.
‘And Sosthenes the brother.' This is quite probably the Sosthenes who had been a ruler of the Jewish synagogue at Corinth, whom Luke mentions in Acts 18:17. He was probably also the leader of the group that had come from Corinth with questions for Paul (1 Corinthians 16:17-18). His name was added here in order to stress his agreement with what Paul was saying, and to honour him in the eyes of the Corinthian church. Paul wants them to know that he and Sosthenes are at one. He could have described him as ‘your elder' but he wants to emphasise that Sosthenes is ‘brother' both to them and to Paul.
‘To the church ('ekklesia) of God which is at Corinth.' The word 'ekklesia was used of the ‘congregation' of Israel in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament), which was the sense in which Jesus used it where He was thinking of the gathering together of a new Israel (in Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:17 - although there His words were presumably in Aramaic). It was also used of the public assembly of citizens in a town or city. The ‘church of God' was the public assembly of the people of God and of the citizens of Heaven in Corinth (Philippians 3:20).
The term was taken over by Christians to refer to the gathering together of Christians in a particular place, and became the technical term to refer to Christians, either as a whole, or as represented in any particular city or town, e.g. Corinth. It would in this latter case include a number of such gatherings, small churches in various areas, but seen as ‘one church' of that particular city or town, ruled over by one group of elders, for not all would easily be able to meet together. But they would be united by having the same leadership.
Thus here Paul is speaking to all Christians who worshipped in Corinth, stressing that they are to see themselves as one whole, whose representatives have come to Paul and are now returning, and as part of one larger whole. As a church they practise baptism (1 Corinthians 1:14-17) and partake of the Lord's Table (1 Corinthians 10:21). They must recognise the elders duly appointed (1 Corinthians 16:15-16) and maintain unity around the cross as ‘one church' in spite of diversity on secondary matters.
‘The church of God.' The church was God's. There was no room for separate churches. Each smaller group was a part of ‘the church' (all believers) in the town or city, which in turn belonged to the whole worldwide church. That is what the creeds meant when they spoke of the ‘Catholic', that is to say ‘the universal' church. But there was no hierarchy. Each church was watched over by elders appointed by other elders, who were identified by their faithfulness to the teaching of Christ and the Apostles. Any external authority was merely an authority of love. This was so even of the Apostles. They spoke with God's authority, they showed the churches the right way, but they did not attempt to enforce their will on the churches except on that grounds.
Their basis of faith was found in the Old Testament and the Testimony of Jesus, the carefully memorised oral tradition of Jesus' life and teaching (now found in the Gospels), later expanded by the letters of Peter, Paul and John, until finally the New Testament was established, formed of all books which the church considered to have Apostolic authority.
The later establishing of a hierarchy ruling all churches was similar to Israel desiring a king. It was not part of God's purpose and demonstrated a lack of trust in Him. The church ceased being the church of God and became the church of each particular hierarchy. And it produced the same inevitable result, the church became political and was made to fit into the pattern laid down by the hierarchies, and when the hierarchies went astray the church went astray too. But fortunately there were always those who sought to bring the church back to Apostolic truth.
Today as a result of history we may be in many denominations, but we should still see ourselves as the one church of Christ, not ruled by men but as ruled by God, and as united in faith with all who believe the Apostolic teaching as found in the New Testament. That is the one true catholic church, the true ‘church of God'.