Paul Is Like the Other Apostles

9 I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. You people are all an example of my work in the Lord.

³ I passed on to you what I received. And this was the most important: that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say; ⁴ that he was buried and was raised to life on the third day as the Scriptures say; ⁵ and that he showed himself to Peter and then to the twelve apostles. ⁶ After that, Jesus showed himself to more than 500 of the believers at the same time. Most of them are still living today. But some have died. ⁷ Then Jesus showed himself to James and later to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all he showed himself to me—as to a person not born at the normal time. ⁹ All the other apostles are greater than I am. This is because I persecuted the church of God. And this is why I am not even good enough to be called an apostle. ¹⁰ But God’s grace has made me what I am. And his grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But I was not really the one working. It was God’s grace that was with me.) ¹¹ So then it is not important if I preached to you or if the other apostles preached to you. We all preach the same thing, and this is what you believed.