I’m excited about finishing 1 Corinthians with you. God willing, we’ll discuss divorce, singleness, the resurrection, idolatry, spiritual gifts, tongues, love, and money in the weeks to come as we move line by line, sentence by sentence through this New Testament letter. Remember, every word matters.
"Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 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.
3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along 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 serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 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. 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 the sacrificial offerings? 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 these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 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! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:1-18).
James Meredith was born is Mississippi on June 25, 1933. He served in the United States Air Force from 1951 to 1960 immediately after graduating high school. After watching President John Kennedy’s inaugural address, he decided to apply to the University of Mississippi. That a young man would apply to college would normally not be a big deal. Only it was a big deal for James Meredith for three reasons:
1. It was the early 1960’s.
2. It was Mississippi.
3. And Meredith was black.
Meredith applied to the University of Mississippi in his words, “in the interest of his country, race, family, and himself.” He spoke of his “Divine responsibility.” Upon application, he was denied twice before the Supreme Court granted him the right to attend. Racial segregation was so strong that it took Attorney General Robert Kennedy to broker a deal with Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett to gain Meredith access to the university. His enrollment sparked riots on the Oxford campus, and required enforcement by U.S. Marshals. U.S. Army military police from the 503rd Military Police Battalion were also sent in by President John F. Kennedy. The riots led to a violent clash which left two people dead, including a French journalist, who was found behind a building with a gunshot wound to the back. 160 soldiers were injured, and 28 U.S. Marshals were wounded by gunfire. Many students harassed Meredith during his two semesters on campus. Though the majority of students accepted Meredith's presence, according to first person accounts chronicled in the book The Band Played Dixie, students living in Meredith's dorm bounced basketballs on the floor just above his room through all hours of the night. When Meredith walked into the cafeteria for meals, the students eating would all turn their backs. If Meredith sat at a table with other students, all of whom were white, the students would immediately get up and go to another table Bob Dylan sang about the incident in his song “Oxford Town.” Meredith’s actions are regarded as a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in the United States. Despite all the adversity, he graduated on August 18, 1963 with a degree in political science. Once more, his grandson, Joseph Meredith graduated from the University of Mississippi as the most outstanding doctoral student in the School of Business Administration in 2002.
Tomorrow marks the birth of Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Tomorrow’s holiday is tied up in an ideal of American culture, the individuals’ right to freedom. All around us is “rights” talk. Whether it is the right to choose from the pro-choice side or the right to bear arms from the NRA group, Americans are in love with their rights. You might find it strange to see the Bible addressing your fundamental rights. But it does so in way that uniquely turns the discussion on its head.
Today’s Big Idea: We Do Not Exist for Ourselves.
1. A Sixteen Tons Kind of Guy
For those of you too young to remember Tennessee Ernie Ford, you won’t know the popularity of the classic country song, Sixteen Tons. The lyrics for the song that have even gone international in decades past go like this:
You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store
I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
The song is in reference to West Virginia coal miners.
“Am I not free? Am I not an apostle” (1 Corinthians 9:1a)? Paul begins in verse one by asking four rhetorical questions: first, what is an apostle? It comes from a Greek word meaning “to send.” But it means much more than this. This was a title given to some of the leaders of the early church and you must have seen the risen Jesus to qualify for this title. Being an apostle is more than being a pastor or missionary. Many of the apostles were used by God to write the New Testament. So being an apostle was a big deal. His freedom was a result of the authority he had as an apostle. And one of the freedoms he had the right to enjoy was freedom from hard, menial labor. Look with me at verse six: “Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living” (1 Corinthians 9:6)?
Barnabas is like Paul, as they are both apostles. Barnabas received pay from the churches and did not need to work for living with his hands. Paul offers several analogies that in everyday life, people expect to be supported by their labor: “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk” (1 Corinthians 9:7)? Can you imagine what morale would be like in the army if you showed up, you had to pay for boot camp? You had to bring your own uniform, bullet, guns, and Kevlar?
Then Paul segues to Scriptural examples of why ministers in both Jewish temples get their food from their sacrifice of labor: “Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you” (1 Corinthians 9:8-11)?
Next up is how even pagan temples pay their ministers from the food offered from their sacrifices: “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? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).
The entire chapter is devoted to Paul’s freedom. And while it is easy for modern readers to see Paul as coming across as self-important, a second read will cause us to see something entirely different. The chapter is not about raising the preacher’s pay. Instead, it’s about Paul’s eagerness to establish his status as an apostle is not because anyone was handcuffing his freedom. Instead, his eagerness stemmed from his freely chosen decision to renounce his rights. In place of insisting upon the trappings of status and power in his position, Paul voluntarily chose to forgo his rights. The grocery list of the apostle rights were offered only to name the rights he had chosen to renounce. Paul knew that people learned as much from the minister’s life as they did his words. So he presents his life as a model. The whole argument is to reinforce his point a chapter earlier.
Remember there were two groups pitted against one another: the “strong” group versus the “weak” group. Instead of the “strong” group insisting on their right to eat any food set down in front of them, they should make space in their lives for those in the “weak” group. The divide in the church was between the more knowledgeable group, called the strong… and the less knowledgeable group, called the weaker group in 1 Corinthians 8. The strong group felt the weak group lacked the right amount of knowledge to navigate life as a Christian in Corinth. So the strong group writes Paul so he can set the weak group straight. Only, Paul tells the strong group to forgo their rights for the sake of the church and for the sake of the Gospel. And then he offers himself as a model of relinquishing one’s rights. Paul says in effect, “Look at me. I’ve done exactly what I am asking you to do. “I have access to these rights and I have renounced my rights.” The “strong” group felt their strength granted them opportunities to insist on their rights. Paul counterbalanced this by saying: “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 9:12b). And again in verse fifteen: “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” (1 Corinthians 9:15).
Paul is about the Sixteen Tons kind of work because he doesn’t want anyone thinking he’s in this for the money. He displays himself to make a larger point: being strong doesn’t give you the right to choose. Again, Paul doesn’t want anyone thinking he is planting churches in Corinth for the money.
In essence, there should be no stumbling blocks placed before believers to inhibit their growth: “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 9:12). They were itinerant lecturers, or traveling lecturers, who traveled from place to place lecturing for money. Philosophers would either charge fees for their message or accept the patronage of a wealthy individual in the city. That is, a wealthy person would financially “adopt” a philosopher. The danger was they would tailor their message for the wealthy individual who financially supported them. It placed the speaker under obligation to the wealthy patron. This was a big deal in Paul’s day and he faced tremendous pressure form Corinthians culture to accept payments for his speaking. Why? The wealthy expressed their power by becoming patrons. The wealthy could control the “media outlets” of the city. When they controlled the message, it could reinforce their values and their pocketbooks. When Paul refused their gifts, it was an act of enmity. It was socially “thumbing his nose” at the wealthy of Corinth. So he refuses his right for money for the Gospel’s sake: “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:17).
Some people have turned ministry into a cash cow. Some people have just fleeced the sheep. Some people have completely overcompensated themselves, and they have found a great way to work the system. That is an evil. That is a sin. That is an atrocity: “But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2). To support himself, he worked. He probably worked with leather goods as he made tents. Perhaps working with dye for the leather had stained even his hands and forearms. The New Testament is clear that Paul worked in at least three urban areas of his day: Ephesus, Thessalonica, and Corinth. His life was very much that of the workshop as he was bent over the workbench like a slave: “For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil: we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:9).
Evangelism and working went hand in hand with Paul. The reason I say evangelism went hand in hand with his tent making is because the word you see for preach is the word we get the word “evangelism” from. He preached night and day as he labored over a bench working with his hands. Again, Paul was a Sixteen Tons Kind of an Apostle
There are at least three implications for Paul as a bi-vocational apostle:
1.1 Preaching is Not by Choice
“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” (1 Corinthians 9:16)! Paul had no choice in the matter of preaching. He was simply doing what the Lord had told him: “For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship” (1 Corinthians 9:17). He was the later. It was “not of his own will.” His preaching was his stewardship because it was entrusted to him by God. Only Paul doesn’t begrudge God’s sovereign choice of him.
Years before, the prophet Jeremiah is recorded as saying, “Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!?15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,?“A son is born to you,” making him very glad.?16 Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,?17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.?18 Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame” (Jeremiah 20:14-18)? Now compare Jeremiah to Paul’s attitude: “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” (1 Corinthians 9:15). There is a grammatical break in the original language in this sentence. Paul begins to write about insisting upon his right to be paid, but cannot complete the sentence. The emotional weight of completing the thought overwhelms him. He cannot preach the Gospel for pay. He must preach for free. He would rather die than to give up his preaching freely.
1.2 The Delight is Giving
Some of you perceive church and worship as just one more place to demand your rights: “What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:18). Paul’s gift was to preach a “free” gospel so that he could offer the Gospel with no price tags. He could preach with no strings attached.
While I was pastoring a small church in Grand Prairie, TX, I had taken my red GMC Somona pickup truck south on 1382. I ran out of gas about a mile south of a gas station. As I walked to the gas station, a man in a corvette veered over to the road to offer my a “lift.” On the way to the gas station and back to my truck, he began to tell me about his life. He told me that he owned his own company, his own boat, and later I found out he owned a large home right around where I ran out of gas. For several years, “Brian” attended our small church and for several years I labored for him to understand grace. On several occasions, he offered to tithe to our church. And while his giving would have been significant blessing to our small church, I refused his offer. I wanted him to see the Gospel was free. No strings attached. I wanted “Brian” to understand that grace is merited or earned. For those of us who know Christ, the delight is giving. The Reward is making the sacrifice.
1.3 A “Making Sacrifices” Culture
“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 9:12b).
“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” (1 Corinthians 9:15).
There is something unique about James Meredith, who refuses to be called a Civil Rights hero. Meredith is currently lives in Jackson, Mississippi and owns a used car lot. The reason he garners your respect was that he sacrificed his rights in order than others my secure their rights.
What does the Gospel demand of you?
