Paul refers to in these verses himself as the least of the apostles, and definitely the least deserving. He is not referring to any hierarchy within the apostles, but to the fact that he once persecuted the church. But being an apostle was not a measure of merit, but of the grace of God. Any positions or missions we have within the church are not, ultimately, given on merit, but by grace. This does not mean we ignore skills and abilities, but even the skills we have were given to us by God. And none of us deserve to be servants of Christ, we are servants only because of the grace of God. Moreover, all the skills and abilities in the world will not guarantee success, only the grace of God.
And this grace “was not in vain”. Too often we think of grace as being passive, ie of us receiving forgiveness and mercy (which of course we do). But grace is also active, as here. God’s grace towards Paul enabled him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Looked at logically there is no way that the gospel should have broken into the Graeco-Roman world, and especially not through Paul, yet that is what happened.
“I worked harder than any of them”. God’s grace towards us does not mean that we do not do anything, quite the opposite in fact. If we truly receive the grace of God, then we will work all the harder. And, at least on some measures, Paul worked harder than all the other apostles. When God does stuff it always involves men and women doing stuff. God’s grace enables us to do things and be more fruitful than we have any right to expect. A sign of the grace of God truly being in our lives is the amount of work we do for Him!
“Though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me”. So the grace of God leads us to work hard, but when we are working hard in the grace of God we find and know that it is actually God who is working through us. We know that we do not succeed because of our abilities or effort, but because it is God working through us.
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