Paul has noted that the Corinthians, in their pride, have selfishly exalted mere knowledge over living out the application of that knowledge. They have gone too far in their antinomianism, overlooking surprisingly obvious sinful behavior without discipline (chapter 5), in the name of freedom and “individual rights” (chapter 6). Paul has wisely brought them back, not so far as to become legalistic – declaring gray areas to be black and white – but to the center where truth is exalted in balance with love and grace, where freedom and rights are balanced with what is good for individuals and for the Body of Christ. He’s discussed marriage and food concerns in application of the truth, and in this chapter, he gives a very personal illustration of the principles he’s proclaimed in action. In v1-14, he establishes his credentials and notes his rights as a minister of the gospel of Christ, his entitlement as an apostle of Jesus. Then, in v15-18, he explains, in more detail than in the previous verses, why he didn’t take advantage of his apostolic rights. Later, in v19-27, we see that Paul was not only willing to give up wages, not just willing to give up his food and his drink, but willing to give up anything and everything for the sake of winning other people to the Lord Jesus Christ – that by any means he might save some. Let’s take a look.
The Rights of an Apostle
1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4Don't we have the right to food and drink? 5Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas[1] ? 6Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?
7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses: "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."[2] Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more?
13But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions (v1) to defend his authority to essentially demand that ALL Christians be willing to forego their rights out of love for one another. If anyone has rights stemming from freedom, it’s Paul! Yet he will gladly forego his rights for the benefit of weaker brothers. If the Corinthian believers were free in Christ, as they so zealously proclaimed, was Paul not free? Of course he was! Some of them were trying to take that away from him, yet they should have been considering that he had more freedom than them. There was some doubt, thanks to false teachers and enemies of Paul, regarding Paul’s apostleship, and so he asks, “Am I not an apostle?” Paul frequently defends his ministry in both 1 and 2 Corinthians, and through this defense, the audience gains confirmation of his apostleship (v2). In fact, the next 2 questions, along with several others in this passage and elsewhere (2 Corinthians 12:12), help to confirm that. Paul saw Jesus! After His resurrection! That’s got to count for something, right, O wise Corinthians? And lastly, their faith came from Paul’s preaching, which they would admit; so that’s another reason to see Paul as one having freedom and rights galore. The church has no authority over Paul; rather, he has authority over the church!
In v3, Paul acknowledges that some Corinthians (not the ones who wrote the letter to him) examined and found him lacking, yet he asks 12 or 13 more rhetorical questions in the next 10 verses to defend his apostleship and teaching authority (2 Corinthians 11:7-12). Let’s look at them briefly: Paul wonders if the Corinthians would have him starve while serving the Lord (v4)? He uses the “wife” question in v5 as an example of having but not exercising a right. Some suggest that the question in v6 implies that since Apollos and Peter were well supported in their work for the Lord, while Paul and Barnabas kept their day job while serving God, it must mean that Paul and Barnabas didn’t have the right to the support given to Peter and Apollos. But Paul and Barnabas had the right; they just chose to forgo it (v15). He gives 3 illustrations with his questions in v7 – a military example, a farming example, and a shepherding example. No one volunteers for the Roman army; it’s a paid position, and it requires courage and honesty. Farmers eat from their own crop; they work hard and long in order that their barren field will bear fruit, and they have the right to taste the fruit of their labor. And no shepherd fails to drink the milk that is so readily available to him; he’s with the sheep and goats 24/7, working for their good.
The questions in v8 set up perspective. Paul has used questions from human logic, but he’ll now turn to the Law to get God’s perspective. And some suggest that Paul quotes Scripture in v9 out of its context, but the entirety of the Old Testament Law was to drive home religious principles for use in human relationships, as noted with the questions in v10, such as the context of Deuteronomy 24:5-25:4. Paul reasons in v11 that he should be like a farmer who tastes the fruit of his labor, reaping what he sows. But even with this proper reasoning, he explains in v12 that he didn’t want to burden the churches (1 Thessalonians 2:6-9; see Philippians 4:15-16 for the lone exception). One commentary says, “It appears from 2 Corinthians 11:7-12 that the Corinthians misinterpreted Paul’s motives.” And he makes a final appeal, in v13-14, to the remarkably obvious truth that the Levites, the priests of the Old Testament, got to keep a portion of the sacrifices for themselves to eat. Scripture demands (“the Lord has commanded…”) that preachers make their living from preaching the gospel (Luke 10:7; Galatians 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:17-18).
You know, in terms of application, we can do to our preachers and missionaries exactly what some of the Corinthians had done to Paul. We can claim our freedoms and demand more from them. “We can buy our TVs, watch our movies, and eat at nice restaurants, but preachers and missionaries shouldn’t be buying things or watching certain shows or eating at nice places, right? After all, they’re supposed to be devoted to God’s work! Especially considering that I give some money to their work, through my tithe or beyond that, they shouldn’t spend it on pleasure – they’ve chosen the hard life!” In that mentality, we wrongly exalt our freedom and suppress the freedom of God’s workmen. Paul says, “If anything, the full time laborers for the Lord have more freedom and deserve more consideration for rights, than the laity.” Yet we get it backwards. (But at the same time, don’t forget that the laity are just as much God’s workmen as the preachers and missionaries. That’s just not the point Paul is making here…)
15But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. 16Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18What then is my reward? 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.
19Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
Paul has rights and freedoms. But he didn’t take advantage of them; he was so highly motivated that he didn’t use “any of these rights.” In fact, he didn’t write about his rights in hopes that the Corinthians would make him more comfortable in his lifestyle. He wasn’t a prophet for hire like Balaam; he didn’t preach for the many benefits that came along with it. As he says to the Ephesian elders, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). What was his motive? He says, “I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast.” He’s not talking about boasting in his preaching, since he is compelled to do it; he didn’t choose this life, but he does it with great passion, “as working for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23). But his boast is that he does it for free. That’s his motive, and that’s his boast, and that’s his reward, and no one can take it away from him (v15-18).
Coming to v19, Paul turns back to his thoughts from v1. He is implicitly defending himself against the charge of inconsistency. And he’ll revisit this charge in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. Some of the Corinthians saw him not taking advantage of his rights, and they assumed that meant he had no rights. He was living inconsistently, compared to some of the other apostles and preachers out there. But that wasn’t a knock against his ministry; it was kudos to it! For he knew the truth, that in dying you live and in losing you win.
Paul is free, but he makes himself “a slave to everyone,” because he wants to be first (Mark 10:44). Aren’t you free, Paul? “Yes, but I make myself a slave.” Why? “To win as many as possible… To save some.” Why preach, Paul? “I’m compelled.” Why preach so passionately? “I work for the Lord.” Why do it for free? “It’s my reward.” How is that a reward? “I win more; my share in the blessings of the gospel increases.” That’s the apostle Paul. And notice, he’s not trying to win all; knowing that not all will be saved, he wants “to save some.” He’s not the one who sovereignly brings people to faith; that’s God’s work, and Paul knows he’s just the agent of God in that regard. He wants “to win as many as possible.” And it’s exciting! And it ought to be more exciting for us.
When ministering to Jews, Paul was more observant of their important things, though they were inessential (v20). And when ministering to Gentiles, Paul was more lax, though never disrespectful of God’s Law and certainly not disobedient (v21). As Warren Weirsbe put it, “It took tact to have contact.” Paul never watered down the gospel, and many people try to do that in order not to offend. But the gospel is offensive. John MacArthur said, “If a person is offended by God’s word, that is his problem. If he is offended by Biblical doctrine, Biblical standards, or church discipline, that is his problem. That person is offended by God. But if he is offended by our unnecessary behavior or practices, no matter how good and acceptable those may be in themselves, his problem becomes our problem – and it is not a problem of law, but the problem of love.” V22 is an apt summary of the whole of chapter 8.
According to Calvin, Paul “requires from them nothing more than he himself practiced, that he may not be reckoned so unreasonable as to impose upon others a law that he did not himself observe. For he puts them in mind how he had voluntarily refrained from availing himself of the liberty granted him by the Lord, lest he should give occasion of offense to any one, and how he had, in things indifferent, put on as it were various appearances, with the view of accommodating himself to all, that they may learn from his example that no one should be so devoted to self as not to endeavor to accommodate himself to his brethren for their edification.”
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Paul gives one more picture, a race illustration, to show why we should forgo our rights. It’s “to get the prize” (v24), and he’s emphasizing three things, collectively seen as self-discipline, with the image: determination, perseverance, and single-mindedness (Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:7-8). Paul has self-discipline, and it’s a fabulous trait (that God gives His people by His Spirit; 2 Timothy 1:7 interestingly notes that it accompanies love and power, and that it’s the opposite of fear).
To improve self-discipline requires incentive. You need a goal, and Paul calls it “the prize” (v24). And you must be determined to win. Now it’s not a competition against one another, but rather a battle against self and against the enemies of God. “Strict training” is required (v25), and perseverance is a big part of that. It’s a long race, a marathon compared to a sprint, and it hurts (Hebrews 12:2 – agony). Direction is required; focus and single-mindedness keep you from “running aimlessly,” and fighting “like a man beating the air” (v26). Self-control (beating your body – not destroying it, but making it slave to your mind) is crucial for improving self-discipline (v27a). When I was an elite swimmer, I exercised self-discipline, physically speaking, pretty well. I went to bed early, though I had the right to stay up late. I didn’t party on the weekends, though my friends did. I had goals and checkpoints along the way that kept me focused and motivated. I punished my body in the pool and in the weight room so that it would do what I called it to do come race day. That’s what Paul is talking about. Now I ate all the cookies I wanted, and that was my right. I didn’t gain an inch of waistline or add a pound of fat from that, because I was working it all off in the pool. But I might have been better off to choose better foods. And Paul is noting that type of thing too. I compromised in my physical efforts, and maybe that’s why I never made the Olympics. But Paul doesn’t compromise, and that’s why he knows he won’t be disqualified (v27).
When Paul remarks about being “disqualified for the prize” (v27b), he’s not denying eternal security. At the same time, he’s not being presumptuous as antinomians are. There’s a balance. Christians are called to discipline, a self-sacrificial mentality, and the casual American culture is trying its best to intrude and disrupt our efforts there. V. Raymond Edmund said in his book, The Disciplines of Life, “Ours is an undisciplined age. The old disciplines are breaking down, above all the divine grace is derided as legalism, or is entirely unknown to a generation that is largely illiterate in the Scriptures. We need the rugged strength of Christian character that can only come from discipline.” 1 Timothy 4:7 says, “Train yourself to be godly.” Failing to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:2) is hypocrisy, and that’s what many people outside the church see and use as their excuse in refusing to come. Paul knows that he hasn’t yielded to his freedom or his rights in any way that would cause others to stumble. And we shouldn’t either. Otherwise, we might only escape through the fire (1 Corinthians 3:15).
Footnotes
- 9:5 That is, Peter
- 9:9 Deut. 25:4
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.