{"id":5117,"date":"2022-10-02T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5117"},"modified":"2022-09-20T08:05:49","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T14:05:49","slug":"pauls-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5117","title":{"rendered":"Paul&#8217;s Credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2 Corinthians is a difficult book to read in many ways. It&#8217;s not as tightly organized as most of Paul&#8217;s other letters. It&#8217;s deeply personal, somewhat emotional. He was &#8220;competing&#8221; for the Corinthians&#8217; respect after other, so-called, apostles tried to steal their loyalty. He lists his &#8220;credentials&#8221; in chapter 11. I offer them with little comment other than, &#8220;Do you really want to be in full-time ministry?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Are they Hebrews? So am I.\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Are they Israelites? So am I.\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. \u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one\u2014I am talking like a madman\u2014<\/em><ul><li><em>with far greater labors,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>far more imprisonments,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>with countless beatings, and often near death. \u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. \u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Three times I was beaten with rods.\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Once I was stoned.\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; \u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>on frequent journeys,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>In danger\u2026<\/em><ul><li><em>from rivers,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>from robbers,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>from my own people,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>from Gentiles,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>in the city,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>in the wilderness,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>at sea,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>from false brothers;<\/em> \u00a0<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><em>in toil and hardship,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>through many a sleepless night,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>in hunger and thirst,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>often without food,\u00a0<\/em><\/li><li><em>in cold and exposure. (2 Corinthians 11.22 &#8211; 27, ESV, bulleted for clarity)<\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What a list!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In danger from three kinds of people:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Jews<\/li><li>Gentiles<\/li><li>False brothers<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>I have fought the good fight&#8230; (2 Timothy 4.7)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2 Corinthians is a difficult book to read in many ways. It&#8217;s not as tightly organized as most of Paul&#8217;s other letters. It&#8217;s deeply personal, somewhat emotional. He was &#8220;competing&#8221; for the Corinthians&#8217; respect after other, so-called, apostles tried to steal their loyalty. He lists his &#8220;credentials&#8221; in chapter 11. I offer them with little &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=5117\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Paul&#8217;s Credentials<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-1kx","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5119,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions\/5119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}