David Hathaway

We have been called and chosen by Jesus. in 1 Timothy Paul introduces himself as an ‘apostle of Jesus Christ by the Command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our Hope’. That’s important for you and for me, because Paul was not one of the first 12 apostles. The remaining 11 disciples, after the betrayal and death of Judas, had to decide who should replace him in the ministry. A man called Matthias was chosen, a man who was with Jesus from the beginning. We don’t actually see much evidence of his subsequent ministry; to me, the one who truly replaced Judas as one of the 12, was not the one chosen by the casting of lots as a decision of men, but rather Paul, an apostle chosen ‘by the Command of God’.