Paul’s rights as an apostle
9
📚Am I not an apostle 📖? Am I not free 📖? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord 📖? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 📚Even if I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.9:2 Some were denying that Paul was an apostle. But the believers at Corinth should not be so foolish. It was through him that they believed in Christ – 1 Cor 4:15.⚜
3 📚This is my defense to those who judge me:
9:3 His defense against those who denied he was an apostle is in vs 1,2.⚜
4 📚Have we not the right to eat and to drink? 5 📚Have we not the right to take along a wife, a sister in the Lord just as the other apostles, and as the brothers of the Lord 📖, and Cephas 📖? 6 📚Or have only I and Barnabas not the right to refrain from working for a living?
7 📚Whoever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock, and does not drink of the milk from the flock?
9:7 He uses these illustrations to show how natural it is that churches should support those who work for Christ in them.⚜
8 📚Do I say these things on my own as a man? Does not the Law also say the same thing? 9 📚For it is written in the law of Moses,
You shalt not muzzle the mouth
of the ox that treads out
the corn.
Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 📚Or does he say this altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, so that the one who plows might plow in hope, and the one who threshes in hope might share in his hope. 11 📚If we have sown spiritual seed 📖 in you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things 📖?
9:11 Here is the application of the illustrations.⚜
12 📚If others are taking part in this privilege among you, should we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this privilege, but endure all things, so we would not hinder the gospel of Christ.
9:12 See the principle which worked in Paul’s heart. For the sake of Christ’s gospel he was willing to renounce any rights, abstain from any action that might offend others, put up with anything. See 2 Tim 2:10. He is an example to us all (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1).⚜
13 📚Do you not know that those who work among the holy things of the temple eat of the offerings of the temple? And those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 📚Even so the Lord has ordained that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
9:4-14 In this portion he speaks of the “rights” of the apostles (or, for that matter, any others Christ sends into His work). These “rights” were to eat and drink whatever they wanted (v 4), to marry and take along their wives on their journeys (v 5), and to receive their full support from those to whom they ministered (vs 6-14).⚜
9:14 Verse 11; Matt 10:9-10; Luke 10:7-8. It is the solemn duty of all assemblies or groups of Christians to support to the best of their ability the servants of Christ who labour among them. Any group which will not do so is being disobedient to the Lord Himself.⚜
15 📚But I have used none of these things. Nor have I written these things that it should be done to me like this. For I consider it better to die than have anyone make this boast of mine void. 16 📚For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity presses on me. Yes, woe is me, if I do not preach the gospel! 17 📚Now if I do this willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, still a stewardship of the gospel has been entrusted to me. 18 📚What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may set forth the gospel of Christ without charge, that I do not misuse my privilege in the gospel.
9:15-18 Paul was entrusted with the secret truths of God (1 Cor 4:1-2), and Christ had sent him to proclaim them (Acts 20:24; Gal 2:7; Eph 3:8). Whether he wanted to do so or not, he still had to do it. If he did not, it meant “woe” (v 16. This indicates some sort of loss or punishment). So preaching the gospel was no reason for boasting. But he had a ground for boasting. It was this: he preached without pay. In this way he proved that his motives were good, that he was preaching “willingly”, that he was not like a hired man. He was like a soldier who served at his own expense (v 7), happy to serve so good a master as the Lord Jesus. In v 18 he speaks of his pay. His pay was to serve without pay and so prove his integrity and love.⚜
Paul’s use of his freedom
19 📚For though I am free from bondage to all, yet I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
9:19 Chapters 8—9 are about the proper use of Christian liberty, of spiritual freedom. Here Paul says he is willing to give it up altogether if it enabled him to bring others to Christ. In other words, he loved people more than his own freedom. His personal likes and dislikes were as nothing to him compared with his desire to do good to others. He wanted to win them more than he wanted to do what pleased him. In the next verses he shows what he meant by saying he made himself a “servant” (or “slave” – the Greek word means either) to all. He speaks of three kinds of people – the Jews, the Gentiles, and those weak in conscience and faith.⚜
20 📚And to the Jews I became like a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the Law, like one under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law;
21 📚to those without the Law 📖, like one without the Law (not being without law toward God, but under Christ’s law) that I might win those who are without the Law. 22 📚To the weak I became like one weak, that I might win the weak 📖. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 23 📚And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might share in it with you.
9:23 The gospel was the important thing to Paul, not his preferences, his appetites, or his “rights”. “Share” means partake with others in the blessings of the gospel and not simply to have them himself.⚜
How believers can gain a crown
24 📚Do you not know that those who run in a race all run but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may get the prize.
9:24 Is service for Christ then, like running a race? In some respects, yes. See Acts 20:24; 2 Tim 4:7; Heb 12:1. And not everyone who runs gets a prize. The prize Paul speaks of is not salvation (this is a gift and all believers have it, not just one among many – Eph 2:8-9). The prize is some reward for service to Christ.⚜
25 📚And everyone who competes for the prize uses self-control in all things. Now they do it to get a perishable crown 📖, but we an imperishable one. 26 📚Therefore I run accordingly, not uncertainly; I fight accordingly, and not like someone who beats the air,
9:26 Paul ran with a goal in mind – Phil 3:13-14. He did not make a pretense of fighting. He actually fought, and he fought to win – 2 Tim 4:7.⚜
27 📚but I roughly discipline 📖 my body, and treat it like a slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be approved 📖 for the prize.
9:1-27 The principle Paul taught in chapter 8 was self-denial for the good of other believers. In this chapter he sets before believers his own example. He did not preach one thing and practice its opposite. Several times in this chapter he refers to his freedom and his rights – vs 1,4,5,12,19. But he did not use his freedom and rights to please himself, but thought only of how he could help others come to Christ and be built up in faith. He concludes by saying that self-denial is the only way any servant of Christ can win the rewards God promises His faithful servants.⚜
9:24-27 Do we wish to win the rewards God gives for faithful service? There is only one way, the way Paul took. It is the way of self-denial and discipline for the sake of the gospel. See Matt 10:38; 16:24; Luke 9:23.⚜