Pay The Piper
Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 9:4-8 is that Christian freedom incurs a cost
. Turning Paul's questions into statements he said that Christians indeed have the right to eat and drink whatever they want. Apostles and pastors can marry just as anyone else can, and they can take their wives with them as they minister.Speaking of wives, he implied that it is costly to care for a family and that those costs don't go away because a person is in the ministry. Ministers have the freedom to marry and have families, but not everyone has the means to do so without actively working to support them. Those serving the Lord Jesus Christ in ministry should not have to pay all their own expenses. It's just not realistic to try to engage in ministry and work another full-time job -- and try to raise a family.
The way that the question is phrased suggests that Paul was a little angry that he had to work a job and take the lead in the ministry of the church(es). Paul seems to be saying that it is unrealistic to expect pastors to work a secular job in order to pay for their own ministry expenses. The fact that Paul was not currently married was a blessing in this regard. It helped to keep Paul's expenses down. But many of Paul's experiences were not to be norms for ministry.
The synagogue model, upon which the Christian church was built, required at least ten families to establish a local synagogue. Those ten families would then contribute ten percent of their incomes for the maintenance of the ministry, which would support a Rabbi and his family. As the synagogue grew, they could then engage in other ministry projects and mission efforts as more families and funds became available. The point is that the model for church growth was not only self-perpetuating, but would encourage young men to enter into ministry without sacrificing their natural passions and desires for their own family.
Paul seemed to be suggesting that the model of church leadership that he had personally set was not ideal. The ideal was not to roam the countryside as he had done, but to serve in a settled church. Paul's itinerant life as an apostle was not the norm for Christian leadership. We are to model Paul's faith, his commitment to Jesus Christ and his habits of study, prayer, etc., but not his itinerant lifestyle. That was particular to Paul.
Paul's itinerant lifestyle was the result of his former position, his drastic conversion and his change of political allegiance, and, of course, the fact that the Jews perused him relentlessly because they wanted to kill him. In Paul's day, the church was under persecution by both the Romans and the Jews. During his entire life as a Christian, Paul had been running from powerful people who sought to stop his ministry and ultimately kill him. He knew that such a life was not normal. So, in these few questions he was lobbying for churches to provide for those who would take on Christian leadership. A settled ministry by a resident pastor was to be the norm.
Paul went on with his questions. You feed your oxen, don't you? Is God concerned about more than oxen than pastors? You feed the plowman and the thresher, don't you? All of the workers of the fields share in the bounty of the harvest. Why should it be different in the churches? It shouldn't be. Paul was lobbying for a church model that collected tithes and administered local social welfare ministries, providing for the poor, widows without families, orphans, etc. These kinds of local welfare concerns were the providence of the local villages, synagogues and churches. This was the model for Christian churches that Paul taught. Obviously, local churches would help other local churches when the needs at hand were more than a local church could handle, as during the Jerusalem crisis (Romans 15:25).
In verse 11 Paul asks, "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?" Those who focus on the spiritual aspects of the gospel still have material needs. He continued, "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" (1 Corinthians 9:11).
Who were the others who shared in the rightful claim upon the tithes of the church that Paul referred to? The local leaders, those who were now opposed to Paul, those who were teaching false doctrine in the Corinthian church. Paul said that the Corinthians were rightly supporting their leaders, in spite of the fact that those same leaders were teaching falsehoods in their midst. And by extension, then, Paul, who came to correct the errors of the local leaders, was a legitimate recipient of the material care of the Corinthian church as well -- even more so, because he was the spiritual father of the church.
And yet, in spite of that rightful claim upon the Corinthian purse, Paul did not request or receive any such care. Why not? Because he did not want to give the impression that his ministry was motivated by monetary concerns. He did not want to be perceived as a hired gun that had come in to clean up the Corinthian church. He did not want to put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. In order to insure that he did not give the impression that he was in it for the money, he provided for himself. He worked another job and neither asked for nor received any compensation for his gospel work. But he wanted to make sure that they understood that his actions in this regard were not to be set up as a model for Christian ministry.
We can hear this concern in verses 13-15, "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? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. 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."
This last phrase, "deprive me of my ground for boasting" is an unfortunate translation in that it is open to misunderstanding. Other translations render the phrase "make my glorifying void" (ASV), "make my reioycing vaine" (Geneva Bible), "nullify my glorying" (MKJB), "deprive me of this boast" (NIV). None of these translations do justice to this phrase. Paul was not boasting about the purity of his apostleship. As an apostle, he had a rightful claim upon some of the material wealth of the Corinthian church because he founded the church and because he was actively engaged in ministry in their midst. But he was not bragging or boasting about his claim upon them or about his position as an apostle. He was not boasting about himself at all, but about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 sums up this argument, "In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." He was merely stating the facts. He was saying that he would rather die than have anyone or anything undermine the truth of the message that he brought to them. Paul was not in it for the money, though he had a rightful claim on compensation for his expenses. Rather, Paul was in it for the glory of God, and he would do whatever was necessary to make that point clear. So, he neither asked for nor received any compensation for his efforts. But he insisted that this was not to be a model for Christian ministry.
Finally, in verse 16 Paul said, "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!" There is no ground for personal boasting in the gospel because the gospel message is a message of both condemnation and salvation, in that order. If there is no condemnation from which to escape by the grace of God, then there is no need for salvation. The message of salvation contains within in, implicitly and explicitly, the understanding of a prior condemnation. Another way to say it is that the gospel message rightly preached convicts both the hearers and the preacher. The gospel truth applies to everyone. Paul was not an exception. He had nothing to boast about in and of himself. The gospel laid the necessity for salvation upon Paul just as much as it laid it on anyone else.
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