totally to effect the saving purposes of Christ’s gospel. The exact sense of the words that I might share in its blessings is debatable. Literally the Greek is “that I might be a partner of it.” But does Paul mean a partner in the blessings of the gospel (NIV, NRSV), a partner in the work of the gospel or a partner in the nature of the gospel, “to instantiate what the gospel is and how it operates” (Thiselton 2000:707)? I think that this latter is the correct sense. The gospel is to be proclaimed