“God's grace,” which makes Paul what he is (see 1 Corinthians 9:1 f.: the double εἰμὶ is firmly assertive “I am what I verily am”), is the favour, utterly undeserved, that summoned Saul of Tarsus from the foremost rank of the persecutors to the foremost rank amongst the servants of the Lord Jesus: cf. 1 Timothy 1:14; Ephesians 3:8; Ephesians 2:7; Galatians 1:13 ff. The grace of Apostleship implies the antecedent grace of forgiveness and adoption. καὶ ἡ χάρις αὐτοῦ ἡ εἰς ἐμὲ κ. τ. λ., “and His grace that was extended (or went out) unto me, has not proved vain”: cf. the emphatic ἐμοὶ of Ephesians 3:8; the repeated art [2295] marks me as the signal object of this grace; for χάρις εἰς, cf 1 Peter 1:10. κενή (cf. 1 Peter 1:14) means not void of result (that is ματαία, 1 Peter 1:17), but void of reality : Paul's Apostleship was no titular office, no mere benevolence towards an unworthy man; the favour brought with it a labour quite as extraordinary “nay, but (ἀλλʼ) more abundantly than they all did I labour”. κοπιάω connotes exertion, painful or exhausting toil; see note on κόπος, 1 Corinthians 15:8. So that, if last and least at the outset, and conspicuously unfit for Apostleship, in execution P. took the premier place: see 2 Corinthians 10:13-18; 2Co 11:23; 2 Corinthians 12:2 ff., Romans 15:15-21. αὐτῶν πάντων, presumably, more than all the rest together : by his single labours P. had extended the kingdom of Christ over a region wider than all the Twelve had traversed up to this date. From the depth of Paul's self-abasement a new pride is ready to spring, which is corrected instantly by the words, οὐκ ἐγὼ δέ, ἀλλʼ ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θεοῦ σὺν ἐμοί : “not I, however, but the grace of God (working) with me” this really wrought the work; I was its instrument. See 1 Corinthians 3:7 ff., 1 Corinthians 12:6; Philippians 2:12 f., Ephesians 3:20; Colossians 1:29; and for the turn of expression, Galatians 2:20.

[2295] grammatical article.

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Old Testament