1 Corinthians 9:1-18
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Scripture Reading
(1 Corinthians 9:1-18) Am I not
free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you
not my work in the Lord? {2} If I am not an apostle to others, 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 our food and drink? {5} Do we not have
the right to be accompanied by 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 at any time pays the expenses for doing military
service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit?
Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk? {8} Do I
say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same?
{9} For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not
muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." Is it for
oxen that God is concerned? {10} Or does he not speak entirely for
our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows
should plow in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of
a share in the crop. {11} If we have sown spiritual good among
you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? {12} If
others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still 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 what is sacrificed on the altar? {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 this so that they may be
applied in my case. Indeed, I would rather die than that--no one
will deprive me of my ground for boasting! {16} If I proclaim the
gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is
laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim 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 entrusted with a commission. {18} What then is my
reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel
free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the
gospel.
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SERMON
Last week, we entered the section of I Corinthians that has to do
with the eating of meat offered to idols. Pastor Alan looked at the
question that underlies this problem and did a masterful job looking at
Christian freedom. If you ask the question in the form: what can I do
without harm to myself? You get one answer- drop on by Aphrodite's Bar
and Grill and get the steak special. The gods the meat was sacrificed to
don't really exist-- so bon appetit. But Paul drives the question to a
higher level. The new question is- what will my action do to other
people? The answer here is: don't do anything that will compromise their
character or cause them to fall. You may not be your brother's keeper
but you are your brother's brother. Love is the higher way.
It looks here like Paul has changed the subject. But he has not. The
question of meat offered to idols goes through chapter 10. Right here
Paul is offering the example of his own life to illustrate the principle
of being free not to do something that really is OK. The question
he looks at now is the question of the minister's or the evangelist's or
the missionary's salary. Precedents were being made in Paul's time. The
economic side of the NT is easy to pass by because it is so seldom
mentioned. But all of the saints, missionaries, and apostles had to have
money for groceries. Where did it come from?
When I first considered this piece of Scripture and Paul quoting the OT-
don't muzzle the ox- I realized that I am the ox! I'm not sure how to
take that. I first thought it would be better to have an elder, or other
disinterested party, preach on this because Paul is defending the
practice, in the very early church, of providing a living for pastors,
preachers, evangelists and missionaries. The apostle Peter and others,
with their families, were compensated in order that they could do
full-time ministry.
But the question at hand is not whether it is right to adequately and
fairly compensate people in full-time Christian ministry. Paul has not
changed the subject. The question at hand still is-Can a
"right"- that is a permissible, approved, correct act-still be
wrong? Is a Christian sometimes, for the sake of "weaker"
brethren and sistren, to refrain from doing something
permissible, right and good? Paul has applied this principle to the
problem of the questionable sirloins. Now he takes a strong example from
his own life as a traveling preacher.
First Paul establishes his position as an apostle. We are all disciples,
that is, all true Christians are maohtai, learners of our Lord and
teacher Jesus. Paul claims to be an apostolov- one of those sent out, an
envoy or ambassador of Jesus. Their primary task was to proclaim the
Gospel, establish churches and teach sound doctrine.
He uses two arguments to prove his apostleship. First, he argues that he
has seen the Lord. The test of apostleship in Scripture is that the
person was an eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus. On the Damascus
Road Paul met the resurrected and glorified Jesus and was given a
commission to be the messenger to the Gentiles. You see, faith, in the
Bible, is not in philosophy or ethical system or a creed. It is faith in
a person, the Living Christ. Many people in churches, even this church,
have never met and given their lives to Jesus Christ. All Christianity begins with this personal relationship with Jesus.
The Scottish pastor, Rev. Carlyle, once said at the calling of another
minister, "What this church needs is someone who knows Christ other
than second-hand." This is particularly true of apostles who must
be eyewitnesses.
Paul's second (and secondary) argument for his apostleship was the
Corinthian Church itself. If others questioned Paul's apostleship,
surely the Corinthians could not, because Paul brought the Corinthian
church into being. He calls the Corinthian Church his seal. At that
time, when a will was made it was sealed with seven seals and was not
considered valid unless the seals were intact. A seal was a guarantee of
genuineness. As William Barclay puts it, "The final proof that a
man himself knows Christ is that he can bring others to Christ. The
reality of a man's own Christianity is best proved by the fact that he
helps others to be Christian." Again, this is particularly true for
apostles. The Corinthian Church was Paul's guarantee of genuineness.
Therefore, as an apostle, Paul has the right to receive support the
other apostles, like Peter, were receiving. It was his privilege, if he
wanted, to marry and bring a wife with him, as was the case with Jesus'
brothers and Peter. Support, at least, was due to Paul.
Paul then defends this right on the grounds of usual customs in society.
Soldiers do not serve for nothing. Their rations and needs are cared
for. The person who works in the vineyard shares in the fruits. The
shepherd gets his food from the flock. Why should that not be true for
the Christian pastor or missionary? Paul even argues that the Scriptures
show that an ox threshing grain is not to be muzzled but allowed to eat
the grain. We even make provision for animals. How much more for the
apostle, the missionary, the preacher!
Further, Paul argues, this right to support is established by the fact
that the Jewish and Greek priests were supported by the offerings which
were brought to the temple and they were given portions of the
sacrificed animals. But most important of all, Jesus said that the
Christian worker is worth his wages. That was Paul's clincher. Paul
quotes the substance of Luke 10:7, where Jesus sent out the 70 and said
so.
It is here that Paul comes to his point. (About time…) Even though to
accept support would be right, and in fact just what Christ commanded,
Paul will not use this right. Paul knew the deep secret-that to be truly
free you must be free not to exercise your freedom. For the sake of
loving others, we may need to refuse ourselves things we are free to
have or to do. Often our freedom not to is when we are most free. This
is a most important concept today in our country of so-called freedom
and clamoring for rights.
Our situation reminds me of the story of a slave trading vessel before
emancipation under President Lincoln. The vessel was returning from
Africa with its cargo of "black ivory". Two hundred slaves
were packed together below decks. One of them was a great chief, who was
stewing and plotting his revenge for this great insult. He got his
opportunity when one of the guards grew careless. The chief overpowered
the guard who had the key to the chains. Quietly, the chief released all
of the other slaves and at his signal they rushed onto the deck,
overpowered and killed the crew. They threw their bodies overboard and
they were free! There was only one problem. None of them anything about
sailing a ship. They had seen the sailors watching a compass, but to
them it was like a god or a devil. They thought that they might persuade
it to guide them home if they fell down and worshipped it. But the
compass was useless to them in that vast ocean because they knew nothing
of the great magnetic forces the compass obeys. The slaves got their
freedom and their power all right, but without a right direction their
freedom and power led them to disaster.
The agape love of Christ is our compass. The love of Christ, which gives
us the freedom to sacrifice for the good of others, is the missing piece
in our culture's quest for freedom. Am I free not to? Am I free not to
fudge in a business environment that favors lying because others know
that I am a Christian? Am I free not to drink alcohol because another
person may be hurt by even occasional drinking? Am I free not to work so
hard for the sake of spending time with my kids? Am I free not to
divorce when things get hard? Am I free not to? If not, I am a slave and
the worst of all slaves because I have deceived myself into thinking I
am free.
So back to Paul. Paul will not use his right. Why? Because he wanted to
make the gospel free of charge and because of his personal desire not to
be indebted to anyone for anything (Paul was fiercely independent). He
wanted nothing to hinder the furtherance of the Gospel. In the
Corinthians Greek environment, the great Greek philosophers Socrates and
Plato had taken nothing for their teaching, on the one hand. The abuses
and self-aggrandizement of both Greek and Jewish priests were well
known, on the other hand. They were growing fat on religion. "Whose
bread I eat, his song I sing" is a proverb the Corinthians would
have understood. Paul no doubt knew, what many ministers since his time
have discovered, that there are people both inside and outside the
Church who have a suspicion that the minister has to say what he says
because he is paid to say it. Paul would rather be in a position to be
free not to rely on support. He had an outside occupation- tentmaking.
He did piece work for Kelty or Coleman or Ridgeway and got by. The bread
he ate was his own and the song he sang was his own. Paul was free not
to.
Paul ended this chapter by saying "I do it all for the sake of the
Gospel." Paul wanted more than to be barely saved; he wanted the
"Well done!" of his Master. Paul had no doubt about his
salvation, but he is concerned that his work is approved by God. Is he
an honored servant or merely a tolerated one? He wants high rating for
his work. A person may be a true Christian but do very sloppy work for
the Lord. Paul did not want to be one of those people.
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