1 CORINTHIANS
Chapter 9, Verses 1-14
“Sometimes We Surrender Our Rights For Others!”
[4-12-22]
Review: “If I Feel It’s Right Does That Give Me The Right?”
1 Corinthians 8:10-13) [NAS] For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?
11) For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died.
12) And thus, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
***NOTE: There are Christian liberties that you have that you must exercise care as to when to enjoy those liberties.
NOTE: A few examples would be: movie theaters, casinos, places that serve alcohol [which includes sports’ stadiums and most grocery stores], dance clubs, haunted houses, etc.
13) Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, that I might not cause my brother to stumble.
QUESTION: Does Paul mean literally that he would “never eat meat again”?
ANSWER: If never eating meat offered to idols again was the only way to make certain he didn’t place a stumbling block in front of a Christian with a weaker conscience than his, then he would literally never eat such meat again. However, he is probably referring back to verse 10 where he said, “if someone sees you” doing it.
NOTE: If you’re going to go to movies, go; but if you have Christian friends who believe movie theaters to be off limit then don’t go to them at a location where they might see you entering such a facility. Enjoy the movie, but not at the expense of the weaker brother/sister. DON’T FLAUNT YOUR LIBERTIES, BUT ALWAYS EXERCISE CARE! Your Christian liberty is never to trump the love you must have for your Christian brothers and sisters.
This Week’s Lesson: “Sometimes We Surrender Our Rights For Others!”
1 Corinthians 9:1-14) [NAS] Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
QUESTION: What is Paul getting at here?
ANSWER: Remember, there are no chapter and verse divisions in the original letter he wrote to the Corinthian believers. He had just told them in the last verse of the previous chapter; verse and chapter added by translators; that “if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.” He’s now reminding his readers of the facts that:
- He is free in Christ,
- He is an Apostle,
- He had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus,
- He had led the majority of his readers to Christ.
QUESTION: Why is Paul reminding his readers of these facts?
ANSWER: If anyone had the right to exercise his Christian liberty it was him; however, he would gladly lay aside that liberty for the spiritual welfare of others.
NOTE: Many commentators believe Paul is merely defending his right to be called an apostle in this verse since many of his detractors claimed he wasn’t. I don’t! If you follow the thread of what he’s saying in chapters 8-10 he is saying these things to underline the point he made in the final verse of the previous chapter. He is answering his critics here, but he’s doing so to illustrate the proper use of Christian liberty.
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.
QUESTION: What is Paul reminding his readers of here?
***ANSWER: Their very existence in the Christian family is proof of his apostleship.
3) My defense to those who examine me is this:
QUESTION: What is Paul doing here?
ANSWER: He is about to answer his critics regarding his apostleship; again, he’s doing so in the process of teaching the responsibilities that come along with Christian liberties.
4) Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
5) Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6) Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?
NOTE: Paul had the “right” to expect sufficient support from those he preached to:
- In order to feed himself and his traveling party,
- In order to feed a wife if only he had one,
- In order to refrain from working so as to devote his full attention to ministry.
QUESTION: Why is Paul pointing these things out to his readers?
ANSWER: Again, he’s wanting them to see that simply having a “right,” a Christian liberty, doesn’t always mean that exercising that “right” is expedient.
NOTE: Don’t our American soldiers abroad have the “right” to the safety and security of their own homes? Yes! But they lay aside that liberty for the welfare of others.
7) Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?
8) I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?
9) For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He?
10) Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.
QUESTION: What is Paul doing here?
ANSWER: He is giving his readers more examples to illustrate that he had the “right” to expect financial support from them.
NOTE: Soldiers were supported by their governments; farmers were sustained by their crops; and shepherd were provided for by their flocks. Even the dumb oxen were allowed to partake of the crop of the field they were working in.
11) If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?
QUESTION: What is Paul doing here?
ANSWER: He is reminding them again of a Christian liberty that he had that he was willing to lay aside for the welfare of those he preached to.
12) If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
QUESTION: What didn’t Paul expect this benefit that the other apostles enjoyed?
ANSWER: He didn’t want to create a “hindrance to the gospel of Christ.”
13) Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?
14) So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
QUESTION: Where did the Lord direct such a thing?
Matthew 10:9-10) [NAS] “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts,
10) or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.”
Luke 10:7) [NAS] “And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.”
QUESTION: Again, if this is a preacher’s right, as Paul points out it is, then why didn’t he follow suit with Peter and the other apostles?
ANSWER: At times he did, as the following verse points out, but often he didn’t. It might have had something to do with the different audience he had from the ones the other apostles had. He preached primarily to Gentiles; the others primarily to Jews.
Philippians 4:15) [NAS] And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;
1 CORINTHIANS
Chapter 9, Verses 15-27
“Running The Race Before Us!”
[4-19-22]
Review: “Sometimes We Surrender Our Rights For Others!”
1 Corinthians 9:1, 13-14) [NAS] Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
13) Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?
14) So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
QUESTION: Where did the Lord direct such a thing?
ANSWER: Note:
Matthew 10:9-10) [NAS] “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts,
10) or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support.”
Luke 10:7) [NAS] “And stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you; for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house.”
QUESTION: Again, if this is a preacher’s right, as Paul points out it is, then why didn’t he follow suit with Peter and the other apostles?
ANSWER: At times he did, as the following verse points out, but often he didn’t. It might have had something to do with the different audience he had from the ones the other apostles had. He preached primarily to Gentiles; the others primarily to Jews.
Philippians 4:15) [NAS] And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;
This Week’s Lesson: “Running The Race Before Us!”
1 Corinthians 9:15-27) [NAS] But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.
“any man make my boast an empty one,” – “deprive me of my privilege of preaching the Gospel without remuneration (2 Cor. 11:7-10). Rather than hinder the progress of the Gospel by giving any pretext for a charge of interested motives (2 Cor. 12:17-18) Paul would ‘die’ of hunger” [JFB].
NOTE: Note the following passage:
2 Corinthians 11:7-10) [NAS] Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?
8) I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to serve you;
9) and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia, they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so.
10) As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.
QUESTION: If Paul received offerings from other churches, why not the Corinthians?
ANSWER: We are not told why! Perhaps the Lord had given him a revelation that accusations would follow him if he accepted money from them. Or, perhaps the answer lies with verse 18 of this study.
16) For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.
QUESTION: What is Paul saying here?
ANSWER: Preaching to Paul was not a voluntary thing; but rather, he was under compulsion to preach. A slave must do his master’s bidding! Paul considered himself a servant/slave of God. If God, his Master, asked him to preach, then he preached. Paul didn’t consider the call of God to be something we choose to do, or choose not to do; if God says go, we go.
NOTE: Consequently, when we do the will of God we have nothing to boast about. We must do it!
17) For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
“reward,” – “Wages, hire, reward” [Word Study].
***NOTE: If you willingly join the Army to fight the enemy of your country you can expect a paycheck. If the enemy attacks your home and you must grab a gun to defend your family, no one will be sending you a paycheck. You are fighting “under compulsion.”
18) What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
QUESTION: What is the Apostle’s train of thought here?
ANSWER: He was preaching “under compulsion,” and could therefore not expect a paycheck; however, preaching the gospel “without charge” to the Corinthians was a “paycheck” of sorts.
QUESTION: Peter, and the other Apostles, preached “voluntarily” and received pay for it; why didn’t Paul?
ANSWER: Again, he did receive offerings from some churches, but not from the churches in the Roman province of Achaia, the province that Corinth was the capital city of. Why? Perhaps Paul simply found joy in choosing an area where he would not allow the churches to offer financial support to him. He preaches free of charge to them.
19) For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
20) (NLT) When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ.
21) (NLT) to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.
22) (NLT) When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ.
23) (NLT) I do all this to spread the Good News, and in doing so I enjoy its blessings.
QUESTION: Why is he telling us that though he is “free from all men” he had made himself “a slave to all”?
ANSWER: The subject is still Christian liberty. Paul is using his example to illustrate how Christian liberty must never trump Christian love.
QUESTION: What was Paul’s strategy for winning the lost?
ANSWER: Paul lived like a good Jew when dealing with the Jews; he lived like a Gentile when dealing with the Gentiles; he lived as though he was weak when ministering to the weak.
NOTE: Paul didn’t brag about being free from the Law of Moses when he was working among the Jews. He didn’t tout his righteous life style while working with unsaved Gentiles. He didn’t boast about his good health, his sound mind, or his ability to pay his bills when trying to win those who were weak from facing the trials of this life. He identified with them all so that he might be successful in seeing some of them come to saving faith.
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 win.
25) And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26) Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
27) (NLT) I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
QUESTION: Why is Paul talking about the Roman version of today’s Olympics?
ANSWER: He wants us to take note of how an athlete will exercise great self-control in order to win a medal. We should be willing to exercise a greater self-control because we are striving for eternal rewards.
NOTE: We must run with purpose this Christian race; we must refine our fighting skills so that we are not just “beating the air;” we must “buffet” our bodies and make them slaves to us, rather than us being slaves to them. We must do these things so we can win others to Christ.