The Signs of a True Apostle

Having completed his Fool’s Speech (2 Cor. 11:16–12:10), Paul provides an epilogue in today’s passage. In it, he expresses his frustration at having to boast in the foolishness of weakness, explaining that the Corinthians had forced him into it. His speech was something that should not have been necessary, for the Corinthians should have been able to commend him without it. In other words, the Corinthian church well knew that Paul was an Apostle called by God and that they never should have entertained the accusations of the false apostles to begin with (12:12).

Paul used his suffering and how it revealed the power of God in weakness to undermine the false apostles’ claims of greater success in ministry and more powerful miracles, and thus their superiority to Paul (see, e.g., vv. 7–10). This was to remind them that wondrous deeds in themselves do not authenticate divine messengers (see Deut. 13:1–5). However, we should not conclude from this that performing miracles was optional for true Apostles. In fact, Paul did do great signs and wonders among the Corinthians, as he says in 2 Corinthians 12:12. He had chosen not to boast in them because he wanted to set his ministry apart from the work of the false apostles.

The Apostle identifies “signs and wonders and mighty works”—miracles—as “signs of a true apostle” (v. 12). His labeling miracles this way is one reason that we believe that the gift of miracles has ceased in the church, along with the Apostolic office. The Apostles delivered new divine revelation, and thus they performed miraculous signs to authenticate their ministry. God gave His inspired messengers the gift of miracles at each major epoch of divine revelation, including such periods as the exodus generation under Moses, the work of Elijah and Elisha, and the ministry of Jesus. When these epochs ended, so did the flurry of miracles that accompanied them.

Miracles authenticate inspired messengers from God such as prophets and Apostles, and when there is no prophet or Apostle, we should not expect to see the gift of miracles. God may—and often does—answer prayers in powerful ways today, but the gift of miracles has ceased. Some people claim the mantle of Apostle in our day, but we know that they cannot be true Apostles because they do not perform the signs of a true Apostle. The Apostolic office ended once the Apostles had laid the foundation of the church in the first century (Eph. 2:20).