'Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you, for the seal of my apostleship are you in the Lord.' He begins by asserting his freedom. Support is something he has a right to and he wo... [ Continue Reading ]
PAUL NOW POINTS OUT THAT HE REFUSES TO USE HIS FREEDOM IN ANY WAY THAT WOULD CAUSE YOUNG CHRISTIANS TO BE LED ASTRAY. HIS NEXT EXAMPLE REFERS TO HIS NOT RECEIVING GIFTS FOR HIS MINISTRY AMONG THEM WHICH MAY BRAND HIM AS GREEDY, MERCENARY OR MERELY A PAID ORATOR, AND THUS PROMOTE DIFFICULTIES AND TEN... [ Continue Reading ]
'My defence to those who examine me is this. "Have we no right to eat and to drink? Have we no right to lead about a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have we not a right to forbear working?' The word 'defence'... [ Continue Reading ]
'What soldier ever serves paying his own costs? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and does not eat of the milk of the flock?' This principle of having the right to be provided for in the light of his ministry can be evidenced from everyday life. Is a soldier e... [ Continue Reading ]
'Do I speak these things after the manner of men? Or does the law not also say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God cares? Or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, beca... [ Continue Reading ]
'If we have sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we shall reap your fleshly things?' So the Scripture is here declaring that those who sow spiritual things should be able to reap from the 'fleshly' things that are possessed by those to whom they sow spiritual things, those who are... [ Continue Reading ]
'If others partake of this right over you, do we not yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.' Indeed there are others whom they acknowledge do have the right to receive from them, and does not Paul then have a... [ Continue Reading ]
'Do you not know that those who minister about sacred things eat of the things of the temple, and they who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so did the Lord ordain that those who proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel.' The argument continues. God ordained that the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
'But I have used none of these things, and I do not write these things that it may be so done in my case, for it were good for me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorifying void.' But Paul himself has taken advantage of none of these things. Nor is he writing in order to do so. Inde... [ Continue Reading ]
'For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid on me. For woe is to me, if I preach not the gospel.' But that is not to suggest that he has anything to glory of in doing so. He will not even glory in the fact that he preaches the Gospel. He will not take any credit fo... [ Continue Reading ]
'For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the gospel.' So he is bound to preach the Gospel... [ Continue Reading ]
IN FACT HE PUTS EVERYTHING INTO HIS WORK OF WINNING MEN FOR CHRIST (9:19-26) 'For though I was free from all men, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews. To them who are under the law, as under the law, not being... [ Continue Reading ]
'To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I may be a joint partaker of it.' 'To the weak -.' This ties in with the subject of the previous chapter, the weak who can sti... [ Continue Reading ]
'Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Even so run; that you may attain.' Then he applies his thoughts to the Corinthians. Like he does, they also should put every effort into the race. They should consider that many run in the race but only one receives... [ Continue Reading ]
'And every man who takes part ('strives') in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.' Furthermore let them recognise that all runners or others who strive in the games exercise self-control. They discipline themselves i... [ Continue Reading ]
'I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so do I fight, as not beating the air, but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage, lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected ('rejected after testing').' Indeed they should be like Paul who puts everything into... [ Continue Reading ]