Grosey's Messages

1 Corinthians 9 Laying Aside Rights For The Sake Of The Gospel

1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

 3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

 8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

 15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

 19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

 

This looks like a new section where Paul deals with pay for a pastor, but its actually not a new section. It is not an interruption; it is an illustration of the very principles that Paul presented in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. Life was not about rights. Life is about building others up and promoting the gospel. Paul used himself as an illustration of the mature use of liberty: he was free to receive financial support from the Corinthian church, yet he set aside that right in order to achieve a higher goal.

In verse 1 he asks four rhetorical questions to set the tone: "Am I not free?  Am I not an apostle?  Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?  Are you not my work in the Lord?"  If we read this ninth chapter casually, we might think that Paul is introducing a new subject, his apostolic authority.  But this is really a continuation of the argument that he started in chapter 8.  In that chapter Paul urged the more mature believers in Corinth to exercise the freedom they had in Christ in a very loving, sensitive way, concerned about the brothers and sisters in the body who had a weakened conscience with regard to the food sacrificed to idols and events that took place in pagan temples.  They were to build others up, not to get the best deal for themselves. Paul stated his own willingness to give up his freedom for the sake of these weaker brothers.  He said their spiritual life and growth was more important than whatever freedom he had in the Lord Jesus.  "Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble."

Now Paul uses his own life as an example of what he has asked them to do in chapter 8.  Paul practiced in his own life what he preached to other people.

His right to boast! [16]

His right to compensation (wages/reward)! [18]

His right to independence! [19]

His right to a life of ease! [26,27]

Paul teaches two principles for ministry in the body of Christ here.  In verses 1-14 he is going to establish beyond a shadow of doubt that as a full-time minister of the gospel of Christ, he has every right to be supported financially.  The church of Christ is obligated to him before the Lord to meet his physical, material needs.  But then in the second half of the chapter, verses 15-23, he explains why he chose not to exercise that right, not to be supported by the church in Corinth; in order to promote the gospel and to build up as many folks as he can.

Paul affirmed his missionary rights.   He was an apostle. The Corinthians experienced his apostolic gifts first-hand, "for you are the seal of mine apostleship in the Lord" (v. 3).

Paul affirmed his marital rights He asks, "5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Paul also affirmed his material rights. 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?" (1 Cor. 9:5-6).

Churches should count it an honor to take care of God's servant. So Paul is preparing to show the Corinthians that he had a right to adequate financial support and adequate family support. He makes this case so he can show himself as an illustration of the concept of loving others and building them up as the higher good.

Paul offers an illustration (vv. 7-14). In fact, he uses many illustrations to defend the right to receive support.

First, he uses an illustration from life. He writes (v. 7). 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

Paul employs three vivid pictures to demonstrate his point. He begins with a soldier who is supported by the government for which he fights. Our military should draw wages—honorable wages—for the freedom and protection they provide. He next uses a sower who eats from the grain he plants. Finally, he uses a shepherd who has the right to drink from the milk produced.

No more relevant images could be conceived to picture a pastor and the church. He protects the flock from false teaching. He sows the Word of God for spiritual sustenance. And, he tends the flock, tenderly caring for God's sheep. Hence, every pastor may rightly expect to be supported from the flock he serves.

Second, Paul uses an illustration from law. Note well his words, "8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop." (1 Cor. 9:8-10; cp. Deut. 25:4; 1 Tim. 5:18). Frankly, it is inhumane not to allow an ox to eat the corn from the field it plows. Even so, if God is interested in animals' welfare and what is just for them, how much more is He interested in our welfare!

Paul makes an analogy to the priest of the Old Testament temple (vv. 13-14). . 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?

Just as priests were fulltime servants of the Lord, so are His pastors of His churches. Thus, Paul summarizes the case he makes for receiving support from the ministry he serves.

Thirdly Paul uses a direction from the Lord  14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

Paul quotes the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who clearly affirmed ministerial support, "Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (v. 14; cp. also Luke 10:7).

 

The case Paul makes is air-tight. Ministers of the Gospel live from the Gospel.

Had Paul been before a court of law, no judge would have dismissed his defense. Nevertheless, Paul does a startling thing. As vigorously as he made his case point by point, he now completely renounces it! Note carefully his words, "15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." (1 Cor. 9:15-18). What is the apostle attempting to do?

He is showing that just as in chapter 8 and throughout these chapters, Christian maturity is shown by sacrificially looking to build up the other. We are not in it for ourselves.

In verses 14-23, Paul mentions the "Gospel" nine times. It doesn't take one long as they look at the life of Paul to realize the importance of the Gospel to his life.

J.H. Jowett said concerning preachers, "We are not appointed merely to give good advice, but to proclaim good news."

My Life shall touch a dozen lives      Before this day is done,     

Leave countless marks of good or ill,      E'er sets the evening sun.     

This, the wish I always wish,      The prayer I always pray;

Lord, may my life help other lives,      It touches by the way.       

 

Paul is saying there are two reasons and only two reasons for doing anything. Don't be a preacher to get paid!  The only time in my life I have been paid the correct amount as a pastor was the same day my daughter began her job as a raw first year out assistant teacher. We had the same pay rate! 

The right reason is to preach the gospel! And to build others up in the same gospel.

 

16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

First, Paul was renouncing all rights to support for the sake of his Saviour.

Recall Paul's concern about the "hindering" the Gospel (v. 12). The term translated "hinder", is enkopē, and it was used of the military who, upon the advancement of an opposing army in their city, would make slits in the street to hold them up. Paul wanted nothing to hold the Gospel up from being delivered to all peoples. Hence, Paul was literally saying he had no desire to preach for money (v. 18).  Furthermore, Paul simply could not live without preaching. He says, "woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!"

Imagine if that were the heartbeat of every pastor. Imagine if that were the heartbeat of every church. An undying, unstoppable commitment to proclaim the everlasting Gospel to the world would bring a heaven-sent revival.

Second, Paul renounced all right to support for the sake of sinners.

He mentions a glorious paradox, "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant to all, that I might gain the more" (v. 19). Though no one had bondage over his soul, Paul was still in chains to the Gospel. Why? He viewed ministry that saved souls as the only real "gain."

I think of David Brainerd who laboured among the poor, benighted Indians. He once said, "I care not where I live, or what hardships I go through, so that I can but gain souls to Christ. While I am asleep, I dream of these things; as soon as I awake, the first thing I think of is this great work. All my desire is the conversion of sinners, and all my hope is in God."

 In 1904, King Edward VII invited William Booth to Buckingham Palace. When the king asked Booth to write in his autograph album, the old man-now seventy-five-bent forward, took the pen, and summed up his life's work:      Your Majesty,     

Some men's ambition is art,     Some men's ambition is fame,      Some men's ambition is gold,     

My ambition is the souls of men.

 

What is your ambition? What is your goal in life? What is most important to you?

Having mentioned his servitude to the Gospel, Paul now describes the various modes of it. He describes how his ambition for the gospel works itself out in practice. He describes how he foregoes his own rights for the sake of the gospel.

He has already foregone his rights to be paid appropriately.

He has foregone his rights to have a family for the sake of the gospel.

You are saved to serve.    Do You Live a Life of Availability?

Now he will say how he tries every way he can to connect people to the gospel, and so he will forego other rights in this goal.  And what are these?

Do you have a heart of compulsion to make the gospel known?

Do you have a heart of compassion for those who are lost?

It is really about having a heart for others to know Christ.

Saved to Serve.  Do You Live a Life of Adaptability?

Do you forego your rights by adapting to the people around you for the sake of the gospel?  

Verse. 20. "And I became," says he, "to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews." And how did this take place?     "To them that are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law."

And when was he under the law? When he shaved his head; when he offered sacrifice. Now these things were done, not because his mind changed, (since such conduct would have been wickedness,) but because his love condescended. For that he might bring over to this faith those who were really Jews, he became such himself not really, showing himself such only, but not such in fact nor doing these things from a mind so disposed. Indeed, how could he, zealous as he was to convert others also, and doing these things only in order that he might free others who did them from that degradation?

 21. "To them that are without law, as without law." Chrysostom wrote "These were neither Jews, nor Christians, nor Greeks; but 'outside of the Law,' as was Cornelius, and if there were any others like him. For among these also making his appearance, he used to assume many of their ways. But some say that he hints at his discourse with the Athenians from the inscription on the altar, and that so he saith, "to them that are without law, as without law.""

J. Hudson Taylor recognised that missionaries to China were largely ineffective.  They lived in Missionary compounds and would occasionally sally forth in English clothes to make evangelistic forays often in the English language, which to the Chinese looked weird and not understandable.  He dressed like those he sought to minister too. He lived with those he sought to witness too.  He learned the language.     

He adopted customs but lived a godly life different from some fo the English who descended into the lasciviousness of the opium dens.

Ver. 22. "To the weak became I weak, that I might gain the weak:" And here is the very issue he has raised in chapter 8.  He adapted to the weak in order to impress them with the gospel.

Next, not to waste time by naming every way, he says, "I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some."

Next week will ask the question

If you are Saved To Serve Do You Live a Life of Accountability?

Forego them by living for Christ now