ordinary christianity for the world.
Corinth, A Church Divided, 1 Corinthians 9:16-27
Poetic Praise
Necessary Freedom
1 Corinthians 9:16-27
Paul said that "necessity" (v. 16) was laid upon him. He was talking about preaching the gospel, and the gist of his words suggest that he preached not out of desire, but out of necessity. It was necessary for him to preach the gospel. He could not do otherwise. What is necessary is required. What is necessary is not optional.
"Woe to me," he said, "if I do not preach the gospel!" (v. 16). To not preach would put him under God's woe, God's curse. For Paul not to preach would be an act of disobedience, and act of unfaithfulness, and would open him to God's chastisement.
To love God is to live in obedience to His Word. "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). "And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3). "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them" (1 John 3:24). "And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments" (2 John 1:6).
Verse 16 tells us that Paul understood that God had commanded him to preach, and he could not do otherwise. This raised the question that Paul answered in verse 17. Was he acting freely or out of necessity? Was he acting out of his own free will? Or was he being constrained by God's will? His answer was, "For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship" (v. 17).
He is talking about his call to preach the gospel. He is saying that if his preaching issues from his own will, he will receive a reward. The Greek word is misthos, and literally means wages. Jesus said, "the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages (misthos) and gathering fruit for eternal life" (John 4:35-36). Paul is saying that if he is preaching out of his own desire, out of his own willingness to obey God's call, then he will receive a just reward. And that is good. He will be rewarded for his obedience.
However, if Paul did not preach out of his own will — but wait a minute! What does that mean? How can someone do something if they don't will to do it?
There are two possible meanings here. One, that Paul was preaching unwillingly, as in begrudgingly. We all know that obedience can be done begrudgingly. We do something even if we really don't want to do it. We can do something when our hearts are not in it. It's a attitude thing. Is that what Paul meant? I don't think so because Paul doesn't have a begrudging attitude. That's not what we find in Paul's preaching.
The second possible meaning is that Paul was preaching, not out of his own will, but out of God's will, or in response to God's will. Note that Paul doesn't understand these two wills to be in opposition, but in harmony. And what is more, he seems to be saying that it is not his own will that is taking the lead in his cooperation with God, but that it is God's will that is in the lead and his will that is following. It is not that God is helping him to preach (though surely He was), but rather that he — Paul — was engaged in service to the will of God, in the cooperation of his will with God's will.
It wasn't so much that God was helping him, but that he was helping God. God's will was in the superior position. God was leading. God was dominant. Paul was subservient. He was following,but he wasn't following begrudgingly. He was following in willing obedience, gladly following. If you ask me to do something, and I do it willingly, whose will is accomplished? Yours. My will would be involved through my compliance, but doing the thing was not my idea. It was your idea. I would be doing your will. And I would not be doing it of my own accord, but in response to your request.
Paul understood himself to be a steward, a manager of someone's property. He had a stewardship entrusted to him. He had an obligation to properly care for and to properly invest the gospel, which was not his own but God's. He was preaching out of obligation, out of duty — yes! But that does not mean that he was doing it unwillingly or begrudgingly. Rather, it was for Paul a source of great joy, though it caused him much trouble, much difficulty and pain.
It was a labor of love. It was hard work, and he would be rewarded for his labor. But that was not why he did it. He didn't preach so that he would receive a personal reward. He preached because he was compelled to preach. He was obligated to preach, called to preach. He could do no other. It was his duty to invest his Master's talent, his Master's possessions, to increase his Master's holdings. Though he would be rewarded for his efforts, he was not motivated by his own reward, but by the obligation of his stewardship of the gospel. He put aside his former concerns and took the concerns of his Master to be his own. He put aside his own priorities and took up God's priorities.
We mentioned previously that Paul's model of paying for his own ministry expenses was not the model for ordinary ministry, but that ministers should be paid a fair wage, even a double wage (1 Timothy 5:17) so that they could exercise and model greater personal generosity in their pastoral calling. "What then is my reward?" asked Paul (v. 18). He was not talking about his eternal reward, but about his wages and his job satisfaction, his salary as a minister and the satisfaction he received from doing his job well. Then he answered his question: "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" (v. 18).
In order to get the maximum return on his investment of the gospel in the hearts of the Corinthian believers, he understood that his presentation of the gospel needed to be unencumbered, that he must be able to present it free of charge, without cost, and without strings. He was not selling the gospel, nor was he providing gospel services for hire. He knew that maximum gospel growth would best occur if there were no obstacles to its presentation. So, even though he had a right to receive wages for his gospel work, he declined to "make full use of (that) right" (v. 18). Why? In order to maximize God's return.
Was it his own free will not to get paid for his work with them? No, he would argue that even an ox was fed from the threshing grain (v. 9), and by implication that the needs of pastors should also be provided for. He argued that pastors should be paid. Nonetheless, he accepted no wages from the Corinthians as a matter of God's will. So, he willingly — even gladly — accepted the honor to work for the Lord without pay. And because he worked without pay, he was free from them, free from the strings that come with wages, free to preach the fullness of the gospel in their midst. God's will liberated Paul! "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them" (v. 19). Though he was free from them, free from the politics and pressures of a settled pastorate, he submitted himself to them.
Well, not to them exactly. Rather, he submitted himself to Christ in their midst. He was a servant of Christ, not a servant to their personal desires. He was free, not to give them what they wanted, but to give them what Christ wanted them to have. That is the gospel freedom that is absent from too many pulpits. That is the freedom in Christ that wins souls.
"To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law" (vs. 21-22).
These verses tell us Paul's strategy for soul winning. Paul was already a Jew, so when he said that he "became as a Jew, in order to win Jews" (v. 21), he didn't mean that he had petitioned the local synagogue for membership. Paul was speaking culturally. He meant that when he was with Jews he behaved as they did. He observed the laws and customs they observed because he didn't want anything to get in the way of his presentation of the gospel. He didn't want them to discount his testimony for any reason. He wanted them to think well of him.
Next, to those "under the law" — he already mentioned the Jews, so who was he talking about here? Paul clearly understood that there were only two classes of human beings — the saved and the lost, covenant keepers and covenant breakers. Thus, he was extending the reach of the gospel. He could act like a Jew because he was a Jew. He didn't say that to the Egyptians he would become as an Egyptian, nor to the Greeks that he would become as a Greek.
Rather, he was saying when he was with those who obeyed the law and used obedience to the law as a fellowship shield, or a symbol of community identity, he would then also obey the law. What law? God's Old Testament law. Even though he understood himself not to be under the law, he obeyed it because obeying it in their presence would further the gospel.
To those who were "outside the law," those who rejected strict obedience to God's law — not criminals, not rapists, thugs and murders, but people who didn't believe that complete conformity to Old Testament law was a requirement for salvation — to these people Paul became as one outside the law. He agreed with them that obedience to the law was not a way of salvation. And yet he understood himself not to be "outside the law of God but under the law of Christ" (v. 22).
He was not under the law, nor was he outside the law. Rather, he was under the law of Christ. It wasn't that Paul agreed with various people as they spouted the so-called cultural wisdom of whatever social or ethnic group they identified with, not at all. Paul was not being culturally relative. He was not suggesting that all cultures are equally valuable. Rather, he was saying that there are some elements of Jewish practice and culture that are okay in Christ. The Jewish culture provided the context for these comments.
Jews did not have to give up everything Jewish to become Christians. Those who found life in obedience to God's commandments do not have to give up God's commandments to be Christians. And those who were burdened by the law, burdened by trying to live in obedience to every detail of the Old Testament law did not have to accomplish to every jot and tiddle of the law to be Christians. Salvation was not a function of being Jewish, nor a function of obedience to the law, nor a function of the disregard of the law. Salvation was a function of Jesus Christ, period.
These verses reflect Paul's understanding of how Jesus Christ changed the relationship of God's people to Old Testament law. It is beyond our purposes here to discuss how Jesus Christ's fulfillment of the law effected the relationship of God's people to the law. But suffice it to say, as Paul says here, that Christians do not need to be Jewish, they do not need to be slaves to Old Testament law, but nor are they completely free of God's law because Christians are under the law of Christ. Christ changed the relationship of the Christian to God's law, but He did not negate it. "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ," (Galatians 6:2) Paul wrote to the Galatians. The relationship between God's people and God's law changed with the propitiation of Christ on the cross. That is what Paul was talking about in these verses.
He went on. "To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some" (v. 22). Paul became feeble, impotent, sick, and without power or strength in order to win to Christ those who were feeble, impotent, sick, and without power or strength. Paul was a superstar, but he didn't act like a superstar. He always acted with humility. So, when he was with the downtrodden, he could relate to them because he was also downtrodden.
Yet, Paul was a superstar. He went on to talk about running a race, and that only one person would win the first place prize, only one person would wear the first place medallion or wreath. Comparing the walk of faithfulness with a foot race he encouraged believers to train hard, to exercise self-discipline in all things as both a method of training for faithfulness and as a lifestyle of faithfulness.
"So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air" (v. 26). The walk of faithfulness was not without purpose or aim. It was not a matter of working for a goal that was out of reach. Unlike a foot race where only one runner would win, in the race of faithfulness, all who ran in faithfulness and righteousness in Christ were winners already. Nonetheless, Paul encouraged believers to put all of their strength and energy into their exercise of faithfulness. Don't slack off because you know that in Christ you cannot lose, but rather pull out all the stops and run as if your very life depends on winning the race — because it does!
Christ expects His people to give themselves fully to the task of faithfulness. You may fool me. You may fool your parents or your boss that you are actually doing your very best, but you cannot fool God. He knows when you are holding back, when you could do better.
Finally, Paul said "I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified" (v. 27). He was not saying do as I say not as I do. But rather, he made himself a model of Christian behavior. If you want to know what Christian faithfulness looks like, look at Paul. He knew that people would not listen to him if he failed to model in his own life what he preached to others.
Does this only apply to preachers, only to those called into ministry? Not at all. Paul said that all Christians are called to the high calling of faithfulness. Mediocrity is not an option for Christians. Rather, Christians are called to be ordinary, not ordinary in the eyes of the world, not ordinary in the eyes of fellow Christians, but ordinary in the eyes of God. Living in faithfulness, running the race with all of our might and winning the imperishable wreath of salvation in Christ is exactly what ordinary Christians are called to.
If you really want to go for the gusto, go for Christ. Christ calls us to do more than we think we can. He calls us all to exceed our own expectations because He has sent His Holy Spirit to dwell with His people to accomplish for them — for us — what we cannot of ourselves accomplish. The church and all of God's people are one of the means that God uses to accomplish His will, and God will not fail. Praise be to God!
