I continued where I left off and read on to 1 Cor 15. In 15,15 Paul expresses his fear that he and his associates are found to be "false witnesses of God". This is certainly an interesting phrase and self-description where in the Greek the word is "pseudomartures" which is made up of 2 words, pseudo (false or inauthentic) and the word, martures for witnesses. The verb martureo is a key word in the New Testament and Paul later uses it to make the point that they have witnessed that God has raised Jesus from the dead. Interestingly, Paul could act as witness and he included others beside as witnesses to the fact that Jesus was alive or had been raised. Paul had earlier noted that that the risen Jesus had appeared to 500 brothers and to James and lastly to him as one born out of time. Paul could be a true witness to Christ and to God who had raised Jesus from the dead because he had encountered and seen the risen Lord.
Paul and many others are true witnesses and by expressing the hypothetical situation that they could be found as false witnesses of God only adds weight and probity to all that Paul had to say, especially that which he had seen and received from the Lord. If we reject Paul's teaching on anything, whether be it the resurrection in ch. 15 or women's role in ch. 14, we are making Paul a false witness of God and that is a charge that any God-fearing man or woman should avoid.
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