Dear Titus: Who Is Paul? a. A servant of God. Paul begins the description of himself as a servant of God. The word servant is from the Greek word for a male slave, doulos. Paul calls himself a servant of God or Jesus Christ in multiple of his letters. But this is not peculiar to Paul. James, Jude, Peter, and John all call themselves servants as well. Paul called many of those that he worked alongside him servants of God. In the church today, you don’t find many people, let alone leaders, calling themselves slaves to God. But this is important because it indicates God’s ownership and our complete dependence upon God. First and foremost they saw themselves as servants of the living God and we should too. b. An apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul’s role amongst the servants of God is to be an apostle. He is a messenger sent to bring the gospel to the elect that had not heard it. He was a foreign ambassador sent by Jesus Christ as a representative from the kingdom of heaven. There were the 11 original apostles plus Matthias who was chosen to replace Judas and then Paul, who, as he says, was untimely born. They had a special office that died with them. No one else could hold that office. Paul had many coworkers but they were not apostles. So Paul was a servant of God and as a servant, his specific role was to be an apostle. c. A man with a mission. His mission, as stated here, had three goals. The first, is for the faith of God’s elect. His job was to share his authorized message from Jesus Christ so that God’s elect, his chosen ones, would come to have faith in him. Second, for the knowledge of the truth in God’s elect. He was to also share the knowledge of the truth of Jesus Christ. This would include all of the Old Testament, the life and teachings of Jesus, and all that the Holy Spirit had revealed to the apostles. Third, for the godliness of God’s elect. Paul’s job was to deliver his message that would bring about faith and knowledge of the truth that would lead to righteous living. Preaching would lead to faith, faith would lead to knowledge, knowledge would lead to holiness. This is who Paul was. This was his life. This was his reason for living.