Paul begins his letter with the lengthiest introduction of all of his letters. Notice that he does not address who the recipients are until verse 7! Clearly Paul has something important that he wants to say and he begins to with it before he gets through all the formalities of a first century letter. Paul begins by calling himself a servant of Jesus Christ. While he is a called apostle by our Lord Jesus, he is first and foremost a servant of the Lord. As an apostle Paul has been entrusted with an awesome responsibility — to summon Gentiles to allegiance to Jesus (Acts 9.15).
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