1 Corinthians 9:13-23 Bible Teaching

Welcome
Prayer
Song
Silence
1st Corinthians 9.13-23
June 24th 2018
Milk

In chapter 9 of 1st Corinthians Paul has been under examination that seems to have something to do with a false accusation against he and Barnabas – and it was an accusation that seemed to orbit around some imagined impropriety related to taking goods or donations for themselves.

Because of our work last week on the topic of giving (and all the nuances of that), we will be able to move more quickly through some of the rest of chapter 9 today in 1st Corinthians.

As we go I will try and point out some things worth greater consideration.

So, before going on to exonerate his actions as an Apostle, Paul says some things that reiterate what he laid out last week for us in the first 12 verses, saying at verse 13:

1st Corinthians 9:13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

That is the point of all Paul wrote in the first 14 verses. Then, having established this, he pulls a switch and says (at verse 15) some really amazing things which we can all learn from. Let’s read through to verse 23:

15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.
19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Okay back to verse 13 where Paul reiterates his points from last week, saying:

1st Corinthians 9:13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

Point blank – those who were appointed to offer sacrifice received a maintenance in their work according to the Old Testament manner of doing things.

The office of the Levitical priests was to keep guard around the tabernacle and then subsequently around the temple too.

It was also their duty to see that the temple was kept clean, and to prepare supplies for the sanctuary, such as oil, wine, incense, etc.

They had the care of the revenues; and, after the time of David, were required to sing in the temple, and to even play instruments. (All of that can be found in Numbers and 1st and 2nd Chronicles)

So Paul says in his argumentation:

Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple?

And then he adds:

“and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

Again referring to the priests whose job was to offer up animal sacrifice and all that that required.

Of course his argument was if it was reasonable then, it is reasonable now.
This idea is sustained in the next verse (14) where he says

14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
Enough said on this.
Point made.
Defense presented by Paul.

But now at verse 15 he take it all to the next level – which is what I think we all ought to strive for, saying:

15 But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

“Though I have established my right to such support, both by common reason, by examples in the law, and even through the words of the Lord, I have personally decided not to avail myself of this right.”

He adds

“Neither have I written these things in order to induce others to provide for me,”

And then he adds something pretty radical, saying:

“for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.”

In other words, he says, “I would rather suffer uncertainty in my material security, be in poverty and want, be exposed to potential starvation, than to make my glorying void.”

I love this about Paul.

he had preached the gospel without expense to anybody, and had therefore prevented any real charge of avarice. In his own word, He would rather die than mar or harm his witness and work for the Lord.

This is true devotion and heart for Christ and to me it exemplifies the FACT that Paul was in fact, trained and taught and a witness of the resurrected Lord.

I mean, this is a witness that he knew the score from the first-hand source and because of this chose to be as upright in his apostleship as humanly possible.

Perhaps we can use this example as the “gold-standard” for true faith in religious leaders – the MORE they cling to an unfettered allegiance to the Lord and the LESS they personally benefit from their witness (in terms of money, fame, popularity and pride) perhaps we can say that these types are more genuine followers of God and Christ than the people who represent the opposite.

Just a thought. In this light, Paul continues forward and says

16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

This verse and the two following verses, are very difficult passages and has been very variously understood by interpreters.

So let me read them all together

16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

I’m going to begin by quoting another translation that may clear some of this King James obscurity up.

So the Revised says

1st Corinthians 9:16 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 entrusted with a commission.
18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel.

The general scope and purpose of the passage is to show what was the ground of his “glorying,” or of his hope of “reward” in preaching the gospel.

In verse 15, he had intimated that he had cause of “glorying,” and that that cause was one which he was determined no one should take away.

In these passages, (1st Corinthians 9:16-18,) he states what that was. He says, it was not simply that he preached; for there was a necessity laid on him, and he could not help it: his call was such – to preach the Gospel, and the command was such that if he failed to do it his life would be miserable.

But he adds, all “glorying,” or perhaps all or any reward was connected with some voluntary service that came from his own will – something which would show that within him was the inclination, disposition, or desire of the soul to do his job without taking advantage of the benefits that could come along with it.

As a result, where the necessity to preach the Gospel was laid on Paul it was best illustrated when he chose, of his own free will, to forfeit security and to voluntarily submit to trials that came with denying himself; in being willing to forego comforts which he might lawfully enjoy; and in this, by showing a full and complete readiness to do anything to promote the gospel, his witness was all the more reliable.

In other words, as the call to preach was certainly laid upon him he could not, in good conscience, tie or connect the earthly rewards that legally come with it to himself.

So in effect, he chose to share the Gospel without charge, which again, as our Gold-Standard, proves his committed heart was totally in the call – he was not doing it because of opportunity to benefit himself in anyway, but only to benefit the Lord and those who received the message given.

He adds that in preaching the Gospel it is not “to him glorying” meaning he gets “no glorying out of doing what was laid upon him by God.”

In verse 15 he has said that he had a cause of glorying, or of joy, (kauchma.) He here says that that joy or glorying did not consist in the simple fact that he preached the gospel; for necessity was laid on him: therefore, there was some other cause and source of his joy or glorying than that simple fact.

When he writes that, “necessity is laid upon me,” that seems to suggest that to him preaching is inevitable and therefore it could not be regarded as something with which he could glory in.

I mean, Paul was called into the ministry in a miraculous manner; He was personally picked out and addressed by the Lord Jesus.

His was a direct and powerful commission so there was no way, in light of all he saw and experienced that what he was doing would or even could, be connected to personal benefit.

In another fantastic way, what Paul illustrated was pure undefiled selfless love for Jesus because his actions were unconditional and without reward.

His actions were like that of a good spouse or parent who loves and gives without the need for recompense or reward because they are acting out of love. It’s the actions of volunteers to a cause or people who create things to share Jesus with others without ANY ties to personal benefit – in Paul’s case, his efforts not only went without him taking advantage of the benefits available they also came with persecution, prison, beatings, and the like.

Of course, this was the walk of our King, who could have called down 10000 angels which were at his beckoned call, but chose to endure what was given Him by His father.

Tremendous love and respect, of course, for our Lord but those who follow Him likewise in refusing personal reward and accepting personal punishments and trials for Him – and others.

17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

In other words, if I accept what has been entrusted to me and do it willingly I will receive something from God he calls a reward. But if he does these things begrudgingly, against his will, there still remains a dispensation of the Gospel placed in his hands.

That is how I interpret verse 17.

So now at verse 18 he askes this follow-up question:

18 What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

So, “how am I rewarded amidst all of the things that I have said,” he asks, and then he answers:

“What I preach will cost my hearers nothing and therefore I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as the provider of the Good News to them.

As long and sort of convoluted these passages are, that’s what I got.

At verse 19 he sort-of spins off this topic indirectly, and expands the application of this principle of freedom he as to other areas. So he writes

19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

Here Paul juxtaposes his freedom in all things – which is the height of the Christian experience.

Did you know that? To be free to be, say and do anything, as afforded by the grace God bestows on us by and through His Son, is the highest form of living a Christian can have – except for one other!

To paradoxically take that freedom and willingly, out of no other reason than love for God and Man, choose to sacrifice the self and place oneself into the service of others.

To willingly live a life of servitude and bondage as a free person in Christ, all the while knowing you have it in your power to do otherwise.

When I was in the school of ministry Chuck Smith used to tell us:

“You know you have a servant’s heart when people treat you like one.”

So very true. And this is what I suggest Paul is alluding to here in verses 19 and beyond.

19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all (and his reason?) . . . that I might gain the more.

Though I am a freeman as a Roman citizen, though I am a freeman in that I labor with my own hands, though I am a freeman without wife or family, though I am free to wander where I would like, and though I am a freeman without any compulsion toward religion and its demands, and those I have been made utterly and absolutely FREE by my knowledge of Christ Jesus who made me free from sin and death . . .

(I mean Paul was certainly a free man, wasn’t he) he adds

“I have made myself servant unto all,” with the better Greek being, though “I have enslaved myself unto all.”

The key to this, remember our context of this part of the epistle, the key is he calls himself a slave in such things he has chosen, and by refusing payment or reward, he ironically remains BOTH free and a slave.

So ingenious and such a high road to not only living the Christian life but living life itself.

In doing such in the state of slavery, Paul has also chosen to serve a master – Jesus.

This is the wonderful extension of reciprocation that God gives all humankind – he gives, and then allows us to chose to respond.

He gives us life – do we respond by seeking Him in it.

He gives blessings like family, parents, protections, providential resources – do we look back to Him – or not.

He gives His only human Son – do we receive Him and all He provides, and he gives salvation – what do we then do with it!

In all of these things God gives FREELY – and every one of us – freely choose to return these free gifts with willing servitude by turning back and allowing Him to be our master.

It’s a constant cycle, where each of are given the choice – receive freely and embrace bondage to Him – or receive freely and then simply live freely without any reciprocation.

It is at this point where Paul explains why he has placed himself, as a freeman, back to servitude or bondage adding:

That I MAY gain the more.

“For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all (and his reason?) . . . that I might gain the more (of course, gain the more to Christ).

Rumor has it that many early Christians actually sold themselves into slavery in order that they might have access to share Jesus with slaves which is the principle of what Paul has shared with us here.

We take our lives – our freedoms to be and do all things that we want and desire, and we submit them to the ways and will of others so as to obtain a better chance to win them to the Lord Jesus.

We are free to resist such associations, we are free to live our lives as we wish, we are free to never share Jesus with anyone on earth or associate with any groups we do not appreciate or enjoy – but Paul seems to describe his life where he was consummately free but chose to consummately make himself a servant to others (and their ways) as a means to win them over to faith in Christ Jesus.

The approach is so beautiful but it has largely been missed by many Christians over the years who, as visitors and strangers on earth, have decided that the world and its citizens must conform them and their ways rather than the reverse.

The principle is something I have been chomping on for a few months – that the scripture is clear for believers –

This is NOT our world.
We are visitors, aliens, foreigners, strangers . . . that our Kingdom is NOT of this world, that we have a residence above.

This being said, we are therefore visitors here. Now when we have people over to our homes, and we are hospitable to them, and open our lives and hearth to them, we would hope that they would be respectful.

How would we feel if we invited people into our home and all they did was criticize it, mock our way of living, and condemn us for the way we cleaned or cooked or whatever, right?

Isn’t that what we do as Christians on earth? We demand that people change their ways and conform to ours, acting like this is OUR right and home.

But its not! We are the guests – and I suggest that as such WE conform ourselves to fit with the world around us.

Not in a sinful, fleshly manner – but culturally, and socially, and in our tolerances of how the citizens of this world understand and live their lives.

This is what Paul is saying here. In fact, he goes on at verse 20-23 and lays it out without much obscurity.

Lets read the four passages together and then discuss their content, which is fantastic as he says:

20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

In this example, he gives us four examples out of the world in which he lives – examples where he actually says that “he became as”

as Jews
as “Those without the law,” and
as the weak
and then as “to all men”

We will see what these groups respectively were as we consider the full verses surrounding them, but right off the bat Paul is telling us that as Christians, we do not have to worry about such associations – nor is our approach to them imperialistic – meaning that we demand that in order to have friendships and associations with others we do NOT have to demand that they see and comply with our standards or demands.

Again, all in an effort or hope that we might “save some.”

In Paul’s day the saving of some included the ability to save them from the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, as well as some people who were headed to a visit to sheol or hell and others who were headed to their part in the Lake of Fire.

So, he says, “I will become what I will become as a means to save . . .

First, Jews, as he says in verse 20:

20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

To me Paul is saying that he “complied with their rites, customs, prejudices, as far as he possibly could. He did not needlessly offend them nor attack and oppose their views.

All we have to do is look to the book of Acts (16:3; 18:18; 21:21-27; 23:1-6) to see that this was true.

“To those under the Law,” he says, I was “as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law.”

When we are on live television we would get calls and emails of people complaining because I would tell people

“Attend the LDS temple wedding this week, attend the baptism, go to sacrament meeting, show support for your family – it doesn’t matter” and religious zealots would freak out on the advice.

Admittedly, others would complain that I was NOT complying with LDS culture when I would get on television not looking LDS.

But there was a reason for this – and this reason remains – I know my audience, those who I have made myself look-like.

I can relate interpersonally with conservatives and the well-appointed, but my call has always been to those who are on the fringes – always has been – and in this case I have become all things . . . to them.

Paul goes on and says:

21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

In this case Paul seems to be speaking of the Gentile nations – those who are “without the Law of Moses” in their lives and the people to whom Paul was called.

“To them that are without law, as without law,”

What is interesting is he gives us a parenthetical qualifier after saying, “To them that are without law, (I became) as without law,” as he adds

(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)

In other words, when I was in and about the Gentiles, I was as I was not under the Law of Moses. “I dressed and ate as they ate and did as they did,” but he lets us know this did not mean when they broke God’s laws he did the same by saying:

(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)

Meaning, in these engagements and relationships I did NOT regarding myself as being absolutely without any law or as being freed from obligation to obey God.

Even in these associations I endeavored so to live according to His moral law. So where they were living it up with each others bodies I kept myself bound by the law to God.

The fact that Paul says this proves to me at least that there WERE opportunities to break God’s moral laws written on Paul’s heart during these times but he simply chose to not participate in such fleshly acts.

Interestingly, though, he puts it this way, saying:

(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,)

In other words, I wasn’t without God’s law and His Law was manifested in me “under the Law of Christ” (which we know is love).

It’s a fantastic prescription for believers when conducting themselves with the citizens of the world.

We’re handed a mirror with a line of heroin on it?

“Ohh, thank you so much. Trying to cut down on that stuff. Makes me CRAZY!”

Hit on by a homosexual?

“I must say its VERY flattering that you would find me attractive but I’m married or not that way or whatever.”

We become as those without the Law by and through the Law of Christ!

And if we are obeying His commands and we are following His instructions, and we are seeking to honor Him and yielded to His will, we will respond in love.

Remember, the ONLY people Jesus was aggressive toward were not the Jews under the Law, nor was it to the Gentiles nor those who were sinful – He was only sharp with religious LEADERS who used God and the Law to manipulate others.
Then,

22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak:

In Romans 15:1 Paul says:

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

All through this chapter and book Paul has talked about the weak but remember his meaning of the word is not what we might typically assume.

For Paul, someone weak is someone who is not strong in the faith and therefore gets offended by the opinions and actions of those who are strong in faith.

Remember?

I am strong in the faith and so I allow myself to drink Tequila without any condemnation. I am not weak in the faith through what I allow, according to Paul, but strong.

In scripture from Paul the weak are those offended by a believer drinking Tequilla.

They have not gotten to the place where they see that Jesus victory has overcome all things.

Well in Romans 15 his advice is sound as he says:

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”

We covered this principle a few weeks ago.

Well as one strong in the faith, Paul here now speaks to what he becomes in the presence of the weak, saying:

22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak:

I didn’t mock them and their ideas – I embraced them – even evidenced them in my associations with them, with again, the hope to gain the weak in the Gospel of Christ.

He adds to this his fourth example found in verse 22 by saying, in a voice I hear:

Look! Listen –

“I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

If this is possible in you and your walk, there is complete justification for it and it is between you and God. For with good conscience (and this is key) are all believers allowed to “become all things to all people” as a means to save some.

To the conservative I speak conservatively.
To the liberal, I am liberal.
To the punk I talk punk, to the disco lover, I’m singing YMCA.

If this is your heart, and you are not weak in the faith, live your life directed by His Spirit – freely, but in utter bondage to Him and His love.

Paul wraps it all up by saying:

I become all things to all men . . . (verse 23) And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

Paul’s heart was to participate in the faith with all who were willing to receive it. He longed to save the Jew (who he called his brethren), Gentile (whom he was called to serve) and everyone in between.

This he did, so much so he denied himself many rights he possessed as an apostle in order to more effectually fulfill his call.

Comments/Questions
Prayer