There can be no doubt that Paul really ranked with the Twelve. He
was a "chosen vessel," the "apostle of the Gentiles." Although as one
"born out of due time," he himself saw Jesus and from him received the
entire gospel by direct revelation. Consequently the other apostles
possessed no advantage over him. He himself says, "The gospel which
was preached of me was not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ"
(Gal. 1:11, 12). He "was not a whit behind the very chiefest
apostles" (2 Cor. 11:5). And it was through Paul particularly that
the revelation of the "mystery" was made complete--"that both Jews and
Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of _the_ SAME _body_," and he was
commissioned "_to make all men see_" it.

The general church was, therefore, made up of various local
congregations, which were "set in order" by apostolic authority. The
essential nature of this organization is determined by the object for
which these congregations were formed, the conditions of membership
therein, and the kind of laws by which they were governed.

[Sidenote: Nature of its organization]

The primary object for which the local church was formed was the
establishment and extension of the kingdom of God among men. A
secondary object was the encouragement and mutual edification of the
believers themselves, which was best obtained by united worship in
prayer, exhortation, praise, thanksgiving, and religious instruction.

We have already noted the conditions of membership in the local
church. None but those who were already members of the body of Christ