But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 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! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To the
Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became
as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win
those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law
(not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win
those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I
have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do
it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:15-23
Having the money to do something, and having an
objective view that the thing to do is lawful, is not enough to inform the
decision whether or not to do it. To adopt Paul’s earlier point, there is
nothing to gain by knowingly eating food sacrificed to idols but everything to
lose; there is nothing to be gained by living in homes larger, more luxurious
and expensive than needed, in driving unnecessarily expensive cars, in dressing
in a particular way, in eating at ‘good’ restaurants and the rest. This is not
to say that Christians do not have the ‘right’ or ‘freedom’ to enjoy these
things; it is to say that this is not the issue!
Paul waived
his rights as an Apostle and Christian minister for two reasons: to receive a reward
and to ‘win’ more people. We know from passages such as Acts 20:32 and 1 Peter
1:3-4 that Christians have an inheritance, or reward, that is ‘imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading’ and kept in heaven for us; but we also know from
passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21 & Ephesians 5:1-6 that indulging
certain lifestyle choices can annul it. Paul was not trying to earn a reward or
inheritance: rather, he did not want to risk losing the one God had already reserved
for him. He was called to preach the Gospel and so to preach it was simply his
duty and he wanted to go beyond duty in serving his Lord to be worthy of the
reward.
Paul lived as
a Jew among the Jews, as a Gentile among the Gentiles and he observed the
concerns of ‘weak’ Christians so ‘that by all means I might save some’. His
lifestyle choice was to do all he could to help people see that Jesus is Lord
and to live as his disciples. Everything else was secondary.
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Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright
© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
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Handling
money and dealing with debt can be complicated and neither the author nor
anyone else involved in the production of these Reflections is responsible for
any action you take, or fail to take, based on what is written here.
