Written by: Tim Bedward-Jones
1 Corinthians 9 v 1-7
I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. You people are
all an example of my work in the Lord. If others do not accept me as an apostle,
surely you do, because you are proof that I am an apostle in the Lord.
This is the answer I give people who want to judge me: Do we not have the right
to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to bring a believing wife with us
when we travel as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter?
Are Barnabas and I the only ones who must work to earn our living? No soldier
ever serves in the army and pays his own salary. No one ever plants a vineyard
without eating some of the grapes. No person takes care of a flock without drinking
some of the milk.
Notes
In this passage, Paul seeks to establish his credentials - his CV or resume
for ministry. He is doing this in order to show that he has earned the right
to be properly supported. This was to set a pattern which should be an example
for centuries to come. We find later he preferred to make tents than to exercise
this right.
Paul also uses what appear to be daft obvious questions from the natural so as to bring important truths from the spiritual - a technique he uses well and often throughout his letters.
It’s also always worth noting the three examples Paul uses (verse 7) to make his point. Someone who fights, someone who plants and someone who cares for the flock. It shows us three distinct areas that we as Christians must be aware of.
First of all, we are in a spiritual battle every day and sometimes we have to fight against a very real enemy opposed to God’s purposes for us. Secondly, I believe we are called to be fruitful in all we do. He has given us talents and gifts to use, but we also need to be aware that we need to do some planting and watering of the seeds God has placed within each and every one of us. Finally, we see that we have a responsibility to care for each other as well. We need each other in order to be all we can be.
We are all called to be ministers, whether paid or not. A “royal priesthood” is how God sees us.
Prayer
God, please help me today to be prepared to fight for what you want for my
life. Plant and water the seed within me and care for those you send along
my path today. Amen
1 Corinthians 9 v 8-14
I do not say this by human authority; God’s law also says the same thing.
It is written in the law of Moses: “When an ox is working in the grain,
do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating.” When God said this, was
he thinking only about oxen? No. He was really talking about us. Yes, that
Scripture was written for us, because it goes on to say: “The one who
ploughs and the one who works in the grain should hope to get some of the grain
for their work.” Since we planted spiritual seed among you, is it too
much if we should harvest from you some things for this life? If others have
the right to get something from you, surely we have this right, too. But we
do not use it. No, we put up with everything ourselves so that we will not
keep anyone from believing the Good News of Christ. Surely you know that those
who work at the Temple get their food from the Temple, and those who serve
at the altar get part of what is offered at the altar. In the same way, the
Lord has commanded that those who tell the Good News should get their living
from this work.
Notes
Paul continues instructing the Corinthian church on how they should be looking
after full time church workers. In this passage, Paul who was a student of
the Old Testament, uses scripture to continue to illustrate his point. He
also uses pictures of farming which he would have been quite aware the Corinthians
would be familiar with.
A story springs to mind about a young man and his mum who were so hungry that his mum sent him to market with the family cow to get enough money to eat. He was met halfway by a man who sold him some seed and his mum went ballistic and threw the seeds into the garden, called him stupid and went to bed. Yes, it’s Jack and the Beanstalk, a popular tale. My question is, was Jack stupid? He swapped a family heirloom that was not fit for food or milk and came home with a hand full of potential that enabled him to slay giants!
We may have giants to fight in the future, feel we are bankrupt spiritually, physically or emotionally, but if we have potential - the seed of God; the seed of potential - with the right nurture who knows what we can achieve?
A seed has the potential to reproduce through generations. If we think of the garden of Eden, everything we see today was in the seeds and plants that were there.
The seed God has planted within us does not just change generations and lead to giants being conquered; it can affect eternity!
Prayer
God, please help me to nurture all the potential you have placed within me.
Although today may have its problems and issues, it will also have its opportunities.
Help me to grow into what you intend me to be. Amen#
1 Corinthians 9 v 15-18
But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this now to get
anything from you. I would rather die than to have my reason for bragging
taken away. Telling the Good News does not give me any reason for bragging.
Telling the Good News is my duty—something I must do. And how terrible
it will be for me if I do not tell the Good News. If I preach because it
is my own choice, I have a reward. But if I preach and it is not my choice
to do so, I am only doing the duty that was given to me. So what reward do
I get? This is my reward: that when I tell the Good News I can offer it freely.
I do not use my full rights in my work of preaching the Good News.
Notes
From verse 1 Paul seems to have been building a case that church workers should
be supported properly, but here he waives all rights to that support for
himself. He was, in my opinion, teaching the church for further generations
and not seeking personal gain.
The Message puts verse 15 like this: “ I’d rather die than give anyone the ammunition to discredit me or impugn my motives.”
The key to this is motives. Paul is at pains to point out if he was doing this because he had to, he would be entitled to a wage, but he felt his reward was the joy of preaching the gospel.
A friend told me a story about a man in his church who felt called to work in schools on behalf of the church. The thing was, the church could not afford to pay him, so he got a job cleaning planes. He would go into the schools in the day, have tea and work till the early hours making sure the plane was clean enough to take off, then grab a bit of sleep, then into the schools again.
Both he and his pastor were at a conference and the pastor overheard someone ask this plane cleaner what he did for a living. He answered he was a children’s evangelist. The pastor was a little concerned at what he thought was a slight untruth so he challenged him on the matter. The answer the man gave was profound: “I speak to children about God for my living; I just clean planes for money!”
Prayer
God, help me to get my motives right, to serve you today not for what I get
but for the joy of what I can give. Amen
1 Corinthians 9 v 19-23
I am free and belong to no one. But I make myself a slave to all people to
win as many as I can. To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews. I
myself am not ruled by the law. But to those who are ruled by the law I became
like a person who is ruled by the law. I did this to win those who are ruled
by the law. To those who are without the law I became like a person who is
without the law. I did this to win those people who are without the law.
(But really, I am not without God’s law—I am ruled by Christ’s
law.) To those who are weak, I became weak so I could win the weak. I have
become all things to all people so I could save some of them in any way possible.
I do all this because of the Good News and so I can share in its blessings.
Notes
For me this is one of the greatest verses in the Bible to help us win people
to Christ. For some reason in life people feel comfortable when they can
put others in a category to define them, or secure in the box they are labelled
in. All our lives we are put in boxes until we die, and yes, we are then
physically put in a box. Quite ironic, really.
Whether it’s star signs, football teams, dress sense, music style, race, our sex, our age, our religion or our job, society seems to label people. The problem is, when we are branded or boxed we can conform to the behavioural stereotype. The hoodie/yob culture is nothing new, it’s just a new name. The term “teenager” arrived after the Second World War to describe all these young people who liked all that guitar music, and labelling young people was here to stay (we now call these particular people grandparents!).
Paul is saying here that he is prepared to cross into other people’s boxes in order to reach them. In our culture the challenge is: are we willing to get into the world of an AIDS sufferer, a drug addict, that person bullied at school, the person failing at college, missing the mark at work, or never going out due to loneliness? We could go on, but the question remains, and a danger: that if we get into a “Christian box” or “bubble” these people will never get to know Christ for themselves.
We need to look at these boxes and be all things to all people so we may win some! If we don’t go, who will?
Prayer
Help me to be all things today that I may reach into someone else’s world.
Please give me that opportunity today. Amen
1 Corinthians 9 v 24-27
You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize.
So run to win! All those who compete in the games use self-control so they
can
win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time,
but our crown will never be destroyed. So I do not run without a goal. I
fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air. I treat
my body hard and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified
after I have preached to others.
Notes
Even 2,000 years ago, Paul picked up that there were people living their lives
in a similar way to an athlete turning up to race in a snorkel and flippers!
If they turned up without training and overweight due to a fast food diet,
you would wonder if they were really serious contenders. The main difference
is that the reward for sport - whether a belt, a medal or a trophy - only
lasts a short time, but the effects of the Christian race are eternal.
We need to be correctly equipped (see Ephesians 6), correctly instructed (2 Timothy 3 v 16-17) and not running carrying extra weight (Hebrews 12 v 1).
Life is like a race. We have a certain distance to go, lots of obstacles and times of achievement mixed with tiredness, sweat and tears. Two old sayings are very true: “Life is not a sprint but a marathon”, and “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish”.
Just look at the two Sauls in the Bible. King Saul was head and shoulders above everyone else in Israel and an anointed leader of the people, yet in 1 Samuel 26 v 21 he said he was like a fool who had “erred” greatly. In other words, he started well but made a cat’s ear of it. The other Saul, who later became Paul our writer, was a murderer of early Christians and against all God was doing. Yet in 2 Timothy he used the same athletic example when he said: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy, 4 v 7, NIV). He started badly, but finished well. God can change our past, whatever it holds, so we can have a gold medal-winning life!
Prayer
God, help me to run to win today and motivate others to do the same. Amen
1 Corinthians 10 v 1-5
Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who
followed Moses. They were all under the cloud and all went through the sea.
They were all baptised as followers of Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.
They drank from that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was
Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, so they died in the desert.
Notes
Paul here looks back into Israel’s Old Testament history to use some
very strong pictures that illustrate Christ: the manna (bread from heaven)
was the food, the drink was water from the rock, and there was the rock itself.
John 6 v 35 tells us Christ himself is the bread of life, John 4 v 13 tells
us he has water that we can drink and we will never thirst again, and we hear
Christ mentioned throughout the Bible as the Rock of our salvation. The nation
Israel grumbled despite God’s miraculous provision and died in the desert,
never seeing the Promised Land.
We need to ensure we rely on God for our spiritual food. Spiritual fast food is all around; it’s easy and tasty, but in the long run it doesn’t do us all that much good. Also, we need to allow God to refresh us through his Holy Spirit every day. So many spiritual drinks are imitations and you can taste the difference. In God, we have the “real thing”, we can truly “live life to the max”, and yes, “it’s all in the taste”. Finally, Luke 6 talks about a wise man and a foolish man who built their houses on rock and sand. We can build our lives on Christ, a sure foundation in a storm, or on the sand.
Prayer
God, please give me all I need to live today: my spiritual food and refreshment
as I make Jesus the foundation of my life. Amen
1 Corinthians 10 v 6-10
And these things happened as examples for us, to stop us from wanting evil
things as those people did. Do not worship idols, as some of them did. Just
as it is written in the Scriptures: “They sat down to eat and drink,
and then they got up and sinned sexually.” We must not take part in
sexual sins, as some of them did. In one day twenty-three thousand of them
died because of their sins. We must not test Christ as some of them did;
they were killed by snakes. Do not complain as some of them did; they were
killed by the angel that destroys.
Notes
Paul is referring back to Exodus 32 when a nation got it wrong. Aaron, Moses’ brother,
crafted a gold cow which everyone worshipped. This led to an orgy of food,
drink and sex. The consequence was that God judged their actions. Now, God
is a loving, gracious and just God, but the Bible is clear that judgement and
consequences follow our sin. It’s good in our daily life to confess our
sin to him and come under his judgement and care now rather than leave it to
chance and deal with it later!
In our lives, we can often look at all the things we do wrong and know that we all fall short of God’s standards (Romans 3 v 23), but often these things are the symptoms and not the cause.
Here in Corinthians, all the wrongdoing is the result of one thing: idolatry. This is not bowing to a statue; it really means putting anything in front of God in our lives. In this day and age, our TVs, computers, cars, bikes, families, social lives, etc, are all good things, but we need to make sure they don’t take the place of God.
One test I do to find out what is at the centre of someone’s life is look at what they spend the most time doing, spend the most money on, spend the most energy doing, and what they talk about the most. It gives us a reality check. Now, I am not talking a 24/7 fanatical approach, but we do need to ask where God figures in our lives. The further down the table he is, the more issues we could face as a result.
Prayer
God, whatever the cost, I need you to be the centre of my life. Help me to
open my heart to allow you to take your place. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text
taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright
1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes