All things are yours,22 whetherPa u l or Apollos or Cephas or the
world or life or death or the present or the future\u2014all are yours,23 and
you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

Our view of Paul is coloured by our own reading of the Acts and our
recognition that so much of Christian doctrine rests on his writings. We
want to try and see him as the early Christians might have done \u2013 so
that when comparing him with Apollos and Peter we might be able to
see what it was that marked out and influenced his development as a
NT Leader.

The few references that we have to his physical appearance and
mannerisms suggest that we might have had some difficulty
appointing him to our church!
We \u201chear\u201d him through such marvellous writings as 1 Corinthians 13,
his defence before Agrippa, his many memorable passages of
exhortation.

At length they saw a man coming (namely Paul), of a small stature
with meeting eyebrows, bald [or shaved] head, bow- legged, strongly
built, hollow-eyed, with a large crooked nose; he was full of grace, for
sometimes he appeared as a man, sometimes he had the countenance
of an angel.

but with a demonstration of the Spirit\u2019s power,5 so that your faith
might not rest on men\u2019s wisdom, but on God\u2019s power.
1 Corinthians 2

The letter to the Galatians is, like that to the Philippians, an intensely
biographical letter \u2013 but unlike that other letter it is harsher in its tone
as it has to deal with a serious threat to the spiritual life of the Galatian
Christians \u2013 the Judaisers.

The transformation of St Paul is, of course, legendary. His Damascus
Road experience has entered common usage even amongst those who
know nothing of Paul or his Saviour.

There is no mistaking Paul\u2019s zeal for Christ. This whole letter declares it \u2013 sometimes in a tone that makes us feel he may have been difficult to work with \u2013 full of ambition for the cause of God and the sufficiency of Christ.

We are often sceptical about radical conversions. We somehow expect them to fail, and so we reserve judgement until time has passed to see if it is \u201creal\u201d.

oIt humbled him
oIt centred his faith in Christ not tradition
oIt enabled him to come to terms with the claims of the world

15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles\u2026

Set apart
Called me by his grace
Was pleased to reveal his Son in me