I read on. Paul added a second half to the metaphor: he was also a father to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:11). Paul thought of himself as a pastoral parent. I had never thought of Paul as a working pastor before. This two-sided metaphor indicated to me that Paul had a deep pastoral self-consciousness. I began to look for other metaphors in Paul’s writings that that reveal his pastoral sense of identity. I found them everywhere: farmer, architect, engraver, general, steward, ambassador, clay pot, slave, master builder, herald, and more.