These are tremendous terms. How were those preachers approved of God? Well, they were approved of God in the very earliest times by the signs and wonders which the apostolic band were given power to do.
The Greek word translated allowed means tested. What has that got to do with it? The sense of course is tried, so perhaps a better translation would be approved. Now the word ‘allowed’ in the days of the King James translation, you may be surprised to know, meant approved as well as permitted or allowed, but it has lost that sense, approved. So the King James translators, their intention is a little lost. When they translated ‘as we were allowed of God’, they meant you to understand – as we were approved of God, tested, tried, approved of God. And the sense is now lost to us. But that is the sense – ‘as we were approved of God.’