The Word: I Corinthians 9:1-18
1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3My defense to those who examine me is this:
4aDo we not have a right to eat and drink?
5aDo 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?
6Or do only aBarnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?
7Who 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?
8I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?
9For 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?
10Or 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.
11If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
12If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
13Do 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 from the altar?
14So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
15But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will 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.
16For 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.
17For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
18What 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.
By Scott Fiddler
The Apostle Paul came from a wealthy family. We know this in part because he was a Roman citizen. As a Jew, Roman citizenship was obtained by the payment of a large sum of money. Paul also was taught by the most famous teach in Israel, Gemaliel. This was an expensive privilege. In addition, Paul told the Philippians, “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity.” Philippians 4:12. Paul knew how to live in prosperity because he had been prosperous.
In I Corinthians Chapter 9, Paul makes the point that he had a right to insist on money from the Corinthians for his role as a minister of the Gospel. He even gives the Corinthians an example about an Ox. When an Ox was threshing (trampling the grain to make it usable as a food product), the farmer didn’t put a muzzle over the Ox’s mouth. The Ox needed to eat of the grain to have the energy to continue to thresh the grain. It was to the benefit of those who would receive the grain that the Ox was able to eat of the grain.
Yet after spending a number of verses pressing the point that he is entitled to be paid for his work as a minister of the Gospel, Paul says he was going to preach the Gospel without insisting on any money from the Corinthians. (v. 17) Why? Because Paul wanted to remove any possible objection to the Corinthians receiving the Gospel. The Corinthians might reject the Gospel because they didn’t want to give up their sin but they wouldn’t be able to reject the Gospel because they thought Paul was only preaching the Gospel to them because he was in it for the money; Paul took that argument off the table.
This would be like Joel Osteen saying, “I have made millions from my books and have built the largest church in America, but I am going to sell my $10 million home in River Oaks, give the money to missions and church-planting and move to Sharpstown because I don’t want anyone to think I am preaching the Gospel for the money and have them miss out on an opportunity to know Jesus.”
Application
On a scale of sacrifice, the Apostle Paul was well beyond being concerned about the approval of man. He was on the other end of the spectrum where he was giving up things even the Lord did not require he give up—Paul was entitled to be paid for what he did as a minister of the Gospel—so he could advance the Gospel.
What sacrifice have you made so others can hear the Gospel?
City Life Starter 
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