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Living by the Gospel
1 Corinthians 9:1-13
June 24, 2018
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
Download the bulletin.
Download the Kids’ Korner.
The sermon starts at 15:35 in the audio file.
Or, The Rhetoric of Refraining from Using Your Rights
If a man wanted to prove his strength, he might set up an opportunity for everyone to watch. Let’s say that he decides to knock over a wall in front of others. He could construct a wall made out of Lego bricks, but of course this wouldn’t really prove his strength at all, though it would perhaps say something about his sense of theatrics (or lack thereof). A serious man would build a tall, thick wall of concrete blocks. To knock that wall down, everyone agrees, would be a strong man’s work.
1 Corinthians 9 is sort of like the wall. Paul builds up a case only to knock it down. The analogy breaks down somewhat, since there is a sense in which the wall in chapter 9 stands on its own. The principles that Paul uses to prove the rightness of providing for those who proclaim the gospel do not actually get torn down. But he gets them to agree that providing is right, clearly right, lawfully right, and only then does he show that he refrains from using this right.
It’s an illustration of refraining, really renouncing the use of a right for sake of something else. This is exactly the call for all Christians in chapter 8, and Paul finished that chapter by claiming that he would never eat meat again if it caused a weaker brother’s conscience to be destroyed. The key verse in this section is verse 14: “those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” Paul argues with his own life that he is living by the gospel by not taking their money though he had every right to do so.
He uses over seventeen rhetorical questions in the first fourteen verses of chapter 9 (as translated in the ESV). The questions have obvious answers, some Yes and others No, and they pull the Corinthians in to realize something they may not have connected before. Paul wasn’t taking their money. He shows them that of course it was right for him to do so, but that he wasn’t asking them to give up something (meat in chapter 8) that he wasn’t willing to do himself (money in chapter 9).
Apostolic Freedom to Eat (verses 1-2)
The chapter break is fine, but remember that this immediately follows his vow not to offend a brother (8:13). But surely, as an apostle, he had the freedom to eat, right?
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? These all expect positive answers. Yes he is free, yes he is an apostle, yes he saw Jesus. The freedom that he’s speaking of goes beyond Christian freedom, it includes his authority as one called directly by the Lord Himself. In Paul’s case he was called by the risen Lord on the road to Damascus.
His apostolic credentials are in order, and their existence as a church proved God’s use of Paul. Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. They were his workmanship, the result of his labor. So also they were a seal, official documentation. This isn’t an Arminian proof text about man’s abilities, it’s proof that God’s sovereign ministry has personal means. So they knew that he was an apostle, even if other churches didn’t because he was the human reason they existed as a church at all.
How would he use his freedom? And why?
Apostolic Right to Support (verses 3-14)
Having made a general case for his freedom to eat whatever he wanted, now he makes a more particular case for his right to be supported financially by them. The key word is “right,” used in verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, and again in verse 12. There are even more rhetorical questions, and more arguments that build his case.
Right from Everyday Life (verses 3-7)
Some translations take verse 3 as re[...]
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By Trinity Evangel Church1 Corinthians 9:1-13
June 24, 2018
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
Download the bulletin.
Download the Kids’ Korner.
The sermon starts at 15:35 in the audio file.
Or, The Rhetoric of Refraining from Using Your Rights
If a man wanted to prove his strength, he might set up an opportunity for everyone to watch. Let’s say that he decides to knock over a wall in front of others. He could construct a wall made out of Lego bricks, but of course this wouldn’t really prove his strength at all, though it would perhaps say something about his sense of theatrics (or lack thereof). A serious man would build a tall, thick wall of concrete blocks. To knock that wall down, everyone agrees, would be a strong man’s work.
1 Corinthians 9 is sort of like the wall. Paul builds up a case only to knock it down. The analogy breaks down somewhat, since there is a sense in which the wall in chapter 9 stands on its own. The principles that Paul uses to prove the rightness of providing for those who proclaim the gospel do not actually get torn down. But he gets them to agree that providing is right, clearly right, lawfully right, and only then does he show that he refrains from using this right.
It’s an illustration of refraining, really renouncing the use of a right for sake of something else. This is exactly the call for all Christians in chapter 8, and Paul finished that chapter by claiming that he would never eat meat again if it caused a weaker brother’s conscience to be destroyed. The key verse in this section is verse 14: “those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.” Paul argues with his own life that he is living by the gospel by not taking their money though he had every right to do so.
He uses over seventeen rhetorical questions in the first fourteen verses of chapter 9 (as translated in the ESV). The questions have obvious answers, some Yes and others No, and they pull the Corinthians in to realize something they may not have connected before. Paul wasn’t taking their money. He shows them that of course it was right for him to do so, but that he wasn’t asking them to give up something (meat in chapter 8) that he wasn’t willing to do himself (money in chapter 9).
Apostolic Freedom to Eat (verses 1-2)
The chapter break is fine, but remember that this immediately follows his vow not to offend a brother (8:13). But surely, as an apostle, he had the freedom to eat, right?
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? These all expect positive answers. Yes he is free, yes he is an apostle, yes he saw Jesus. The freedom that he’s speaking of goes beyond Christian freedom, it includes his authority as one called directly by the Lord Himself. In Paul’s case he was called by the risen Lord on the road to Damascus.
His apostolic credentials are in order, and their existence as a church proved God’s use of Paul. Are you not my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. They were his workmanship, the result of his labor. So also they were a seal, official documentation. This isn’t an Arminian proof text about man’s abilities, it’s proof that God’s sovereign ministry has personal means. So they knew that he was an apostle, even if other churches didn’t because he was the human reason they existed as a church at all.
How would he use his freedom? And why?
Apostolic Right to Support (verses 3-14)
Having made a general case for his freedom to eat whatever he wanted, now he makes a more particular case for his right to be supported financially by them. The key word is “right,” used in verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, and again in verse 12. There are even more rhetorical questions, and more arguments that build his case.
Right from Everyday Life (verses 3-7)
Some translations take verse 3 as re[...]