Paul As Ambassador And Apostle

Paul as Ambassador and Apostle

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o describe his mission of preaching the Gospel and guiding the communities

towards maturation in Christ, Paul uses a broad array of rich metaphors. Here are the most important of these: First, Paul uses metaphors of representation, like the word ambassador which, though rarely used by Paul, expresses something very important about his selfunderstanding. As ambassador, Paul sees himself as an agent or representative of God with a very important message: reconciliation of God through Christ offered to all nations (2 Cor 5:18-20). But Paul (along with other missionaries) is not only a messenger: his mission is an actual participation in God’s reconciling activity. What is true of “ambassador” is also true of Paul as apostle, a more frequent selfdesignation. An apostle brings to mind an envoy, a representative of a higher authority and who is to be received accordingly (Jn 13:20). In the New Testament, Christ himself is described as the envoy (“sent one”) by God; the Twelve are sent by Jesus; Paul is an envoy of God or Christ; people like Timothy and Titus serve as envoys of Paul; and individual church communities send emissaries. In Paul’s case, his sense of vocation comes from the conviction that he had been called by God and sent to the Gentiles (Rom 1:4-5).