Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH9
Dad’s have to get down on the floor and play with their kids if they want them to grow up and love the same things they do. We have to become like a child if we want the child to love and trust us enough to believe the things we believe. Action figures, cars, My Little Ponies, dolls, trains, Legos, video games, board games. We don’t have to love those things to do them with our kids, we just have to love our kids. If we want them to love what we love, we have to find common ground.
Last week we were in chapter 8 talking about freedoms and rights. Paul’s big idea was that even though we might have the freedom to do something, if doing it causes someone to stumble—either by tempting them to fall into old, destructive habits, or just getting in the way of them following Jesus—then we shouldn’t do it. He was specifically answering their question about whether they should eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols.
Chapter 8 ended with this verse:
Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall. 1st Corinthians 8:13
Then he goes on to talk more about freedom in chapter 9, he says:
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 1st Corinthians 9:1-2
At first, it may seem like he changed the subject but I don’t think he did. I think he’s digging into the idea of how we can be free to do something, have every right to do it, but not exercise that right for the sake of other people. He also seems to be answering his critics who were saying he wasn’t a real apostle. So, he says he is an actual apostle—but he’s willing to give up his apostolic privileges if it helps people accept the message about Jesus.
The Corinthians thought it was strange that Paul refused to let them support him financially. They figured that was proof that he wasn’t really an apostle. He was like an amateur. If he was a professional apostle, like Peter and James and all the real disciples, then he wouldn’t have to repair tents as a side hustle. He’s like, “I may not be considered an apostle in certain circles but I most certainly am an apostle to you! I’m the one who told you about Jesus and started your dang church!
So, he defends himself to his critics:
This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? 1st Corinthians 9:3-6
Paul’s saying he had every right to expect the Corinthians to give him room and board. He had every right to bring his family, if he had one, and expect them to be taken care of, too. Just like all the other apostles are taken care of. Cephas is another name for Peter, we know he was married because his wife and mother-in-law are mentioned in the Gospels. The Lord’s brothers is probably a reference to James and Jude, who were Jesus’ half-brothers—leaders in the church and authors of the books that are named after them. Paul sarcastically asks if he and Barnabas are the only ones who don’t deserve to be paid for their ministry.
He’s using this as an example of how followers of Jesus might have rights and freedoms that they willingly choose to lay down for the sake of ministering to other people—but it also gives us an insight into something else that people seem to be confused about. Should pastors and other ministers expect to be paid by the church for their work?
I’ve known a few people who’ve choked on this idea. Why should a preacher expect to get paid for preaching the Gospel?
Paul answers:
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? (no one) Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? (no one) Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? (nada) Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. (Remember, earlier he talked about the ministry in Corinth as Paul planting seed and Apollos watering.) If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? 1st Corinthians 9:7-12
So, he had every right to expect payment for his ministry...
But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 1st Corinthians 9:12
He goes on to explain this is the way it’s always been. God set it up so that ministers are taken care of by the people they minister to...
Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. 1st Corinthians 9:13-14
So Pastors and full-time church workers can expect to be paid for their work. But Paul wants them to understand that just because he refuses to let them pay him, that doesn’t mean he’s not a real apostle. He explains why he won’t take their money...
But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. 1st Corinthians 9:15
There are few places where Paul brags on his ministry, but he never brags about the kinds of things you and me might brag about. He likes to brag about how many times he’s been whipped and put in prison and shipwrecked—about how much money he doesn’t make. He’s like your grandpa who likes to brag about how he had to walk six miles to school in snow and ice, uphill both ways.
The only thing Paul feels like he can be proud of is that he doesn’t get paid for preaching. He doesn’t feel like he can take pride in the actual preaching because he doesn’t feel like he has any choice...
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. (He’s saying he doesn’t have any choice in the matter. He’s a slave of Jesus Christ. Jesus told him to preach the Gospel, so that’s what he does.) What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. 1st Corinthians 9:16-18
It’s almost like he knew some people would accuse him of only being in it for the money. Not that in the history of the church any preacher has ever taken advantage of their ministry and gotten greedy. I can’t think of a single example. Can you? Nope. Not one. ha
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Now he’s going to bring this back around to his original point. Whatever freedoms and rights we think we have, the reason Christ set us free wasn’t so we could get all caught up in the trappings of our freedom. That’d be stupid.
The reason Jesus makes us free is so we can be free to love the people in our lives. Remember the Luther quote: “The Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to no one, and the Christian is a servant of all, subject to everyone.” In other words...
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. 1st Corinthians 9:19-20
That wouldn’t have been much of a stretch for Paul. He was born and raised a Jew. So when he was around fellow Hebrews, he wore his little skullcap, drank kosher wine, and ate matzo balls. L’Chaim!
To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 1st Corinthians 9:20
Also not much of a stretch for him. He said he used to be a Pharisee of Pharisees. So when he found himself in the company of super uptight rule-followers, he went along with it as much as he could. He didn’t bring a BLT or Baby Back Ribs to the Hanukah party. He didn’t argue with them about feast days or which synagogue’s liturgy was more faithful to the Pentateuch.
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 1st Corinthians 9:20
Now this was probably a little harder for him to stomach. He ate with Gentiles. They had some weird ideas about food. It had to be disgusting to someone who was raised to think those things were unclean.
Imagine showing up at a friend’s house and being offered a bowl of cockroaches—wriggling around in milk. I don’t think I could do it. Americans are about the only culture on earth that doesn’t eat bugs. At least not on purpose. I’m sure a leg or two end up in our mouth now and then, whether we like it or not.
Paul says he was free from the law. The dietary laws and all the cultural laws of the Jewish people—he seems to mostly be talking about all the added rules of the oral law. The fence the Jewish leaders had built around God’s Law in a vain attempt to protect themselves from sinning. God doesn’t want us to live that way.
That’s like building a fence 100 feet from the edge of the Grand Canyon. Sure, it keeps you safe from falling in, but it also ruins the view. God wants us to walk right up to the edge, and then not fall. Every sin is just an abuse of something good. A misuse of something that was meant to be a blessing. Like beer and bacon. A little is delicious. A lot is how you get a dad bod.
For us it’s like Pauls’ saying it’s best to avoid ham and eggs when eating breakfast with your Muslim friend. And it’s probably not good to buy your Baptist friend a beer when you’re trying to tell them about Jesus. Best to go straight to bourbon. I’m kidding. It doesn’t do any good to tell a Baptist about Jesus.
I told that joke to Angel and he laughed, then he said, “Wait. Are you saying that it doesn’t do any good to tell Baptists about Jesus because they can’t believe—or because they already believe?” Yes, son. That’s the joke.
Paul says he might not be under the law but he is certainly not free from God’s rules and commands. He just understands that Jesus was the final point of it all—Christians are to obey Christ. Jesus didn’t do away with the law, He fulfilled it. Finished it. He said it all comes down to this: Love one another. That’s the law.
Then Paul comes back to the argument he was making about not eating meat that was sacrificed to idols if it meant harming a weaker brother or sister, but he takes the point and expands it to include everything he’s been talking about...
To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. (If I have to deny myself the right to exercise certain freedoms when I’m around weaker Christians—Christians who aren’t strong enough to get quite as close to the edge as I’m free to go—then he becomes like the weak. He stays back where the view isn’t as nice, he drinks water, orders a salad, and has some friendly conversation that might point his weaker friend to Jesus. He says,) I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 1st Corinthians 9:22-23
He does his best to fit in with the people he’s with. This has always been the way missionaries go into a new culture and share the Gospel. The Gospel doesn’t change but the presentation of it does. We have to speak their language, eat their food, wear their clothes, become like them in any way we can. Find any common ground to build a relationship. Everyone seems to understand this when it comes to foreign missions.
But we don’t seem to get it at all when it comes to reaching people in our own country.
Instead of becoming like the people we’re trying to reach, finding as much common ground as possible—we do the opposite. We argue with people. Push them away. Attack their politics and ideas. Make a big confusing mess out of where our opinions end and the Gospel begins.
You think Paul didn’t want to argue with the Jews? You think he didn’t want to argue with the Greeks? Instead, he invited them to hear the Gospel by talking about the Old Testament stories and Moses with the Jews and talking Philosophy and quoting pagan poets with the Greeks.
There’s nothing easy about it. We’ll probably gag a little. What if Paul had said this:
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 1st Corinthians 9:19 To the Republicans I became like a Republican, to win the Republicans. To those who are extremely conservative, I became like someone who is extremely conservative. To those who are more liberal, I became like a Democrat (though I am not a Republican or a Democrat but am a Christian), I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might have some.
A little hard to swallow, isn’t it? No one said it was going to be easy. Don’t miss the big point, though—our goal is to win people to Christ. To save them. Make converts. This is not a popular idea these days.
Since it’s Father’s Day, here’s a sportsball analogy. Directly from the Bible...
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 1st Corinthians 9:24
The Christian life is like the Olympics—that’s what he’s talking about. There’s no point being in the race if you’re not going to run as hard as you can and try to win. You need to approach the Christian life with the same single-minded determination that an Olympic athlete brings to their training. He’s not saying only the best Christian is going to win, he’s saying we need to bring our best to the game.
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1st Corinthians 9:25
Strict training. Discipline. Discipleship. You’re not going to accomplish what you’re supposed to do in life if you’re not disciplined. The point isn’t to stay weak. The winners in the Olympic games would get a wreath that would fade into dead flowers. Every Christian who finishes the race strong in their faith, all the way to the end, will get a crown that lasts forever. Life eternal.
Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; (run following Jesus in as much of a straight line as you can manage.) I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. (Either shadow boxing or punching wildly and not hitting his opponent.) No, I strike a blow to my body (this is a violent image, literally “I give my body a black eye.” I think Paul was a fan of the games. I bruise my body) and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1st Corinthians 9:26-27
He’s still talking about doing the hard work of finding common ground with people who need to hear the Gospel—becoming all things to all people so that some might be saved—he says if we don’t, then we’re not going to get the prize. We might technically tell people about Jesus but if we do it while pushing them away from Him, we will be disqualified.
Like, you let everyone know you’re a Christian and you go to church. You also let everyone know you’re a jerk. That you don’t think much of people who think different than you do. We can’t let our attitude push people away from Jesus. Gotta fight the good fight!
We have to find common ground.
Have you ever heard of someone who deliberately made themselves weak in order to help someone else? Gave up their rights and privileges on purpose to save someone else? Emptied themselves, humbled themselves, got down into the thick of it and became like the people they were trying to save? Have you ever heard of Jesus? That’s basically what Paul’s talking about here—the incarnation. Jesus took on flesh and became a vulnerable man so He could be taken to a cross where He would die to save you. Paul’s reminding us that if we’re going to follow Jesus, we’re going to follow Him to a cross, too. You’re going to have to lay your life down if you expect people to believe you actually believe all this Jesus stuff.
Your heavenly Father did far more than just get down on the floor and play with you. He sent His Son to be Your brother, your champion, your Lord and Savior. May the love of God the Father, the grace of Christ the Son, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you, and strengthen you, and guide you, today, this week, and always. AMEN.