Sermon

1 Corinthians 9 — The Care and Feeding of Christian Workers

March 2, 2003

Today we come to an important passage that speaks first to the responsibility of the people of God to care for the leaders and workers that God places in their midst to serve in the body. Then, it speaks to the duties of those same leaders to strive for fidelity in their service to God’s people and, most importantly, to the Lord. When those two things happen I want to suggest we have something beautiful that happens and that pleases God.

We can glean three primary messages from this text:

Paul defends the propriety (rightness) of offering adequate financial support to those who preach the gospel (vv. 1-11).
Paul argues that the real reward of the preaching life is not, however, measured by financial gain but by sharing in the blessings of the gospel (vv. 12-23).
Finally, Paul maintains that a life of faithful service to the Lord requires the endurance of an athlete (vv. 24-27).

1. Paul defends the propriety (rightness) of offering adequate financial support to those who preach the gospel (vv. 1-14).

A life in ministry has its peculiar difficulties. Paul found this out. He faced intense criticism during his ministry. I Cor 9:1 begins with Paul’s defense of his apostolic ministry. Paul asks four questions:

He asks, “Am I not free?” He had just rebutted those who were claiming ”freedom” in Christ to engage in sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols. Paul was free but he had made himself a slave not only to Christ but also to the believers at Corinth (cf. v. 19).
Second, he asks, “Am I not an apostle?” Paul claimed to belong to this choice group of foundational leaders in the church by virtue of his direct commissioning by the Lord (Acts 9; 1 Cor 1:1; 15:9). Some were apparently challenging Paul’s place of authority. Maybe they were saying: Well Paul wasn’t one of the twelve disciples. How can he call himself an apostle?
This leads to Paul’s next question: “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” Paul and the other disciples had a direct experience of the Lord. They had a unique historical and physical closeness to Jesus that authoritatively sanctioned them to be the ones to write the scriptures of the New Testament and to establish a sure doctrinal foundation for the church (cf. Eph 2:20; 3:5; Rev 21:14). Paul could say that he received the gospel “by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:12).
Finally, Paul says, “Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?” Remember, God has used Paul to establish this church (see Acts 18). In 9:2 Paul says that the Corinthians, of all people, should recognize his authority, and he even calls them “the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.”

One of the things that Paul was criticized for was his financial integrity. That Paul is always asking for money! He’s getting rich off the gospel. This is what some were apparently saying. We know that Paul was constantly appealing for the churches to reach out in generous support for their brothers and sisters who were facing difficulties (cf. 1 Cor 16:1-2; 2 Cor 8–9). They were accusing Paul of pursuing ministry for the wrong reasons or perhaps even misusing these funds.

In defense of the Corinthians, this was a perennial problem for the early church. Ours is not the first generation to deal with Jim Bakkers and the like who sully the reputation of those in ministry by their shameless seeking after financial gain for themselves.

In the midst of condemning false teachers in 1 Timothy 6:6-10, Paul says:

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.
8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Among the Ephesian elders in Acts 20 Paul defends his ministry by saying:

33 I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.
34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.
35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

When Paul lays down the requirements for an overseer in the church in 1 Tim 3 he notes that he must be a man who is “not a lover of money” (v. 3). In Titus 1:7 Paul says an elder is not be one “pursuing dishonest gain.”

But it seems that some had taken things too far, and they were criticizing Paul not for receiving too much money, but they were criticizing him for accepting any support at all to meet his basic living needs, so that he might preach the gospel.

In v. 3 Paul launches into his defense. In vv. 4-5 he asks: “Do we not have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?” This last statement, by the way, explodes any notion that the primitive model of church ministry required a life of celibate singleness for those in ministry. A blessing is given here to the model of a ministry family.

In v. 6 Paul asks if only he and Barnabas are expected to work for a living. Paul is sometimes seen as a model for bivocational ministry. According to Acts 18:1-4 he served as a “tentmaker” in Corinth, but note that when Silas and Timothy arrived to free him up from financial burden “Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching” (Acts 18:5).

Then in 1 Cor 9:7-11 Paul makes a sustained argument for the propriety of Christian workers receiving financial support to undergird them in their labors.

Paul lays down three analogies in v. 7. A minister of the gospel being supported in ministry is like a soldier, a keeper of a vineyard, and a goatherd. As a soldier does not serve at his own expense, so a preacher of the gospel should expect to be paid for his service in the Lord’s army. As one who plants a vineyard is expected to eat of the grapes and as one who shepherds goats should be expected to enjoy the milk that comes from the flock, so a minister of the gospel should be expected to gain his nourishment from the natural, healthy, yield of his work. Note that he is not expected to pick every vine bare nor to butcher the flock but to share from its natural, healthy yield.

I like what Paul does next in v. 8. These human analogies are not enough. It is not enough merely to speak “from a human point of view.” Earlier Paul had urged the Corinthians: “Do not go beyond what is written” (4:6). Here Paul models that by appealing to scripture. In v. 9 he quotes from Deut 25:4: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Now to our human minds we might not have grasped what the real meaning of this seemingly arcane law is. Paul tells us that God isn’t concerned with oxen here, but with his servants (vv. 9-10).

Paul appeals to this same passage in 1 Tim 5:17-18:

17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Paul says that Christian workers are like the oxen! Not a real flattering picture of us, is it? But remember, we’re not really the important ones in ministry (cf. 3:5-9). Oxen were tied to the wheel and they go around in circles to do the grinding work of the master. Then, the ox would be fed some of the very grain that they had worked so hard, under the master’s direction, to produce. That is the way the Lord’s servants work and how they should have their needs met.

Paul says, “this was written for us” (v. 10). He pulls in another analogy, that of harvest. Just as the plowman and the thresher share in the harvest (v. 10), so Paul concludes, “If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest (i.e., if we have our basic needs met) from you? (v. 11).

If we were to sum up Paul’s teaching here it is that it is both logical and, most importantly, biblical to expect Christian workers to have adequate financial support to reward and sustain their labor.

If we look down a little further we see that in v. 13 that Paul calls his readers to consider the practitioners of the pagan religions. Those who work in the temple are fed by their labor. Then in v. 14 Paul speaks most forcefully and clearly to this matter: “In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.”

There are some Christian traditions that argue for the abolishment of “paid” Christian workers. They do away with full time pastors and preachers and have only lay leadership. This is true of some house church or cell church movements. They do this in the name of claiming a radical view of the priesthood of believers. But this passage challenges that notion. It seems that God has designed the church to function best with some who set aside their time, their vocation, to the labor of ministry leadership. And Paul says that those who are called to these roles in the church should be adequately cared for by the church. In Eph 4 Paul describes the apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor-teachers as “gifts” (v. 8) that he gives to the church “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (v. 12). We should take care that we are grateful for these gifts.

2. Paul argues that the real reward of the preaching life is not, however, measured by financial gain but by sharing in the blessings of the gospel (vv. 12-23).

Now after all his arguing for the logical and scriptural mandate of caring for God’s servants, Paul announces that this is not really what is important.

In v. 12 he says, “If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?” I guess he is referring to the other apostles (cf. v. 5).

But the mark of Paul’s greatness, of the degree to which he had progressed in Christ-likeness, comes in what he says next. Even though they are obligated to assist him in this way, Paul says, “But we did not use this right” (v. 12). You might recall at the end of 1 Corinthians 8 Paul said that if it meant causing a brother to sin, he would never eat meat again (8:13). Knowing that the Corinthians were “weak” in conscience with regard to the financial support of Christian workers, he says, “On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ” (v. 12).

Though he had a scriptural argument to appeal for better treatment at the hands of the Corinthians, he does not press it: “But I have not used any of these rights” (v. 15). He claims that his motive in writing is not to receive the support that they have, in fact, failed to offer: “And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me” (v. 15).

In v. 16 Paul says that no preacher worth his salt preaches the gospel in order to receive financial gain. It is not a career one enters in order to gain financial comfort or reward. One does not choose ministry; it chooses you! Paul says, ”Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach [KJV: for necessity is laid upon me]. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel” (v. 16).

Paul here reminds me of the Jeremiah who would say of the prophetic burden in Jer 20:9:

But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

A young man asked an old minister once how he might know if he was being called to be a preacher. And the old minister answered, “You know you are not called if you can allow yourself to do anything else.” By the way, that stands true for all believers, not just preachers. How do we know our call to follow Christ is true? It is not true if we can allow ourselves to do anything other than follow him and minister in his name.

Paul glories in the fact that he has proclaimed Jesus to these Corinthians without any material reward. This becomes a ground of boasting and great spiritual satisfaction. How much more meaningful is it to us when we can do something because we want to and not because we have to. Proclaiming Jesus for Paul was not a matter of making a living but of living his life.

Sometimes I envy you who are laymen. You see people often suspect that I am here, as a Pastor, worshipping or leading Bible study, because it is my job. In v. 17 Paul says, “If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.” You get to be here without any suspicion that you are “simply discharging the trust committed” to you. You are not here because you are receiving a reward that can be measured in earthly terms. You, like Paul, can say that you are just loving and serving the Lord, because you love to serve the Lord. Paul, having forsaken his “right,” can also claim that with the Corinthians. In v. 18 he asks: “What then is my reward?” and then he answers his own question: “Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.”

No believer worth his salt ministers in the name of Jesus for external reward but only for the internal satisfaction of knowing the pleasures of obedience to the Lord’s compulsion.

Again, we get that counter-intuitive Christian truth that real freedom does not come from pressing one’s rights over against other men and women, but by becoming their slave for the sake of the one who has bought us by his blood. We are no longer our own.

In vv. 19-23 Paul lays out his incarnational method of ministry. Just as Jesus was the Word become flesh, just as Jesus humbled himself in human form, so he calls on his followers to humble themselves and become incarnations of the gospel in whatever cultures they find themselves.

Paul again reiterates that, though he is free, he makes himself a slave (v. 19). Recall, there were some Christian slaves at Corinth who were pondering whether or not to pursue freedom (cf. 6:21-22). Paul says, you are slaves and want to be free; I am free and have made myself a slave! For Paul there were really just two ethnic classes of people: Jews and non-Jews.

To those living in the Jewish culture, Paul says that he became like a Jew in order to win Jews (v.20). To those living under the law, he came like one under the law, but he adds: “though I myself am not under the law” (v. 20). You see in talking with a torah observant Jew about Christ, Paul would not begin talking about how faith in Christ does away with the need for eating kosher or how circumcision doesn’t matter anymore or how Jesus has transformed the meaning of the Sabbath. He would talk to them first about their common ground, about the expectation of the Messiah. And then all those other implications would follow.

Then in v. 21 Paul says to those not having the law, he became like one not having the law, but now he adds: “though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law.” You see to the Gentiles, who had lived outside the law of God, Paul does not begin by naively blessing their freedom–through ignorance–from the law, but by speaking to them of the demands of God. Paul tailor’s his ministry to meet men and women at their point of need.

In v. 22 he says: “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might win some.” This does not mean that Paul is wishy-washy or that he was a chameleon. Paul had deep, unshakable convictions about how God had chosen to reveal himself in Jesus. But he was willing to crucify any of his external, culturally determined, biases, so that he could more clearly speak of Jesus.

I think v. 23 may well be the theme verse for this section: “I do all this for the sake of gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” Paul is a man who is losing himself in Jesus. He does not care what the world or other believers owe him. He does not care about gaining rights or privileges for himself. He does not do things for the sake of Paul. He does it all for the sake of the gospel (the good news of what God has done for us in Christ) and its inherent blessings.

3. Finally, Paul maintains that a life of faithful service to the Lord requires the endurance of an athlete (vv. 24-27).

In this final segment we are reminded of what Paul aspires to: losing himself for the sake of Jesus. Paul recognizes that this is not an easy task. It requires great discipline and effort and hard work. We do not become mature believers overnight. It takes years of God working on us and training us.

Paul uses several athletic images to describe the Christian journey. First he describes it as a race. He says that not all who start out in the race get the prize. Some will drop out from exhaustion and injury. Some will get misguided. Some will not be adequately prepared. Paul urges: “Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

In v. 25 Paul shifts the metaphor and speaks of those who compete in the games. Of course, ours is not the first civilization to value athletic competition. The Greeks invented the Olympic Games as we will be reminded when the next summer games are played in modern Athens. Paul encourages us to look at the athletes who go into training to receive a crown (the laurel wreath) that does not last. In contrast, he says, “But we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

What is of eternal importance in our lives? You know what amazes me? We can place our kids in athletics. And we will allow demands to be made on our children that they come to practice for hours a day, nearly every day of the week. And, by the way, there is nothing wrong, in itself, with sports. But then we can fail to be as conscientious in making our kids be present to study God’s Word and learn to worship. We live as practical atheists. The witness of scripture is that one day each man and woman will have to give an account. And our children will not be asked how well they can dribble, or do ballet, or play the piano, or score a goal. They will be evaluated on one thing only, on how they stand with Jesus. Does this make us tremble? Will we not then go into strict training to insure that we and our children are ready?

Paul then says in v. 26: “Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” Paul says I am not a man without a spiritual goal. I do not approach my faith in Christ like one who only does shadow-punching. My faith is not something I just go through the motions and pretend to do.

“No,” he says in v. 27, “I beat my body and make it a slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

I want to submit to you today, again, that it is beautiful thing when two things happen. First, it a thing of beauty when the people of God take on the Biblical mandate to care for the needs of those workers that God has given to them as his “gifts” to equip them and grow them in Christ. Second, it is a thing of beauty when those workers are so lost in Jesus that they serve not for external blessing but for the sake of sharing in the blessings of the gospel. Put those things together and we have a body that gives great honor and blessing to the God who demands it.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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