1 Corinthians 9:2,3

“If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord; this is my answer to them that do examine me.”

The datives unto others and to you are not only datives of appreciation (in the judgment of), but also datives of relation, as Rückert observes. Though Paul had not been related as an apostle to any other Church, yet as truly as the Church of Corinth was a Church founded by him, he possessed in his relation to it this title of apostle. It was the seal officially put by the Lord Himself on his apostolic mission, and it would have been somewhat strange if those who were themselves the living proof of his apostleship should put Paul in the position of proving it to them.

The asyndeton between 1 Corinthians 9:2-3 announces a reaffirmation under strong feeling of the idea of 1 Corinthians 9:2. The emotion is explained by the last words: them that examine. Paul's apostleship is the subject of an examination at Corinth! At Corinth a discussion is raised regarding the nature of the appearance whereby Christ conferred on him the apostleship! There is a tendency, perhaps, to represent him, even as in Galatia, as a disciple of the apostles who has revolted against his masters! It is allowable to suppose that these words do not apply to the members of the Church themselves, those of whom Paul has just said that they are his living defence, but to the foreign emissaries who have arrived at Corinth. Comp. Galatians 1, where Paul replies to similar accusations.

The pronoun αὕτη brings into bold relief this idea of defence: “As to this defence, it is yourselves, you, the work of the Lord by me.” After having thus established the reality of his apostleship, at least in relation to this Church, he draws the inference from it: his right is to be maintained by the Church of Corinth and the others which he has founded.