Supporting the Man of God
1 Corinthians 9:1-14
I really praise the Lord for the opportunity this morning to share again out of the Word with you; but I have to admit at the very beginning that this is one of the most difficult messages I've ever had to preach. It's difficult for a very unusual reason. Some messages I find very difficult, because the part of the Scripture we're dealing with is complex or because you have to preach on a subject that you're not really having victory on in your own life, and that's convicting. But the reason that this is difficult is because the message this morning deals with six reasons why the preacher should be paid...
So...and I would never choo...in fact, in seven years, I've never preached on this; but it happens to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, so I'm gonna go ahead, since we were in chapter 8 last week; and you can rest assured that we'll be in chapter 10 sometime in the future, as soon as we finish with this subject. But I wanna say at the very beginning, just put a little preface in if I can, that what I say this morning does not have reference to me. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ has been extended abundantly to me through the gifts of the people at Grace Church. I receive far more than I am worthy of and far more than I would ever ask for and far more than I earn or far more than I deserve, so this is not an application to me; and I know some of our first-time guests are gonna say, "You got to church once a year, Martha, and the preacher's speaking about giving him money. That's what I told you. They're hypocrites." You know, and all of that.
So, Martha, try to straighten him out, will ya? This is... this is not the norm. This is what's here in the Scripture. I have a commitment in my heart, and that is that we are to teach the whole counsel of God, and that the Spirit of God has a reason and a purpose for having us talking about certain things at certain times, and I just leave it in His hands.
We're gonna look at verse 1 to 18 this morning and next Lord's Day morning, and it's really incomplete today. I...I say that often to you, but it...to get the whole picture, you have to come back next time, because we have to put all of that together so that it makes sense. But we're gonna be talking about the freedom of not using your freedom; and in reference to that, Paul gives the illustration that we're going to discuss in chapter 9.
Now, you'll remember, we're studying 1 Corinthians, and you remember that, in this letter, Paul is answering questions that the Corinthians asked, at least in the middle section. One of the questions they asked regarded eating meat that had been offered to an idol. In that pagan society, people would sacrifice meats to idols. Now, the meat that wasn't burnt on the altar would wind up in a marketplace somewhere. The priest would take it and sell it, or the people would take it back and sell it, or they would take it back and serve it on their table. So Christians were in situations where they would be eating meat that had been offered to an idol; and some of the Christians were wondering whether this was right or not.
Well, the Corinthian people, the mature ones, the strong Christians were saying, "What's the difference? There are no such thing as other God's anyway. An idol isn't anything, and God isn't really too concerned about food. It isn't what goes in you that defiles you. It's what comes out of you. So it isn't any big deal. Eat up; but some of the brand new baby Christians who had just been saved out of idol worship, and just come to Christ out of paganism, found it very difficult to do that, because that whole thing represented a way of life that was distasteful to them, that they had rejected and turned their back on; and to see some Christians just eating up and having a great old time eating this meat became very offensive to them, because they were so antagonistic toward that way of life from which they had been delivered; and so there were some Christians who had the right to eat. I mean the Bible didn't forbid it. They were right. It was all right; but there were other Christians who were being injured by it. So Paul introduces a principle in chapter 8, which we studied last time, and the principle is this. You may have the freedom to do something, but don't do it if it's gonna hurt somebody else. Don't do it if it's gonna wound somebody else. Don't do it if it's gonna grieve somebody else.
In Romans 14, he uses the illustration of drinking. He says, in effect, there, you know, there's nothing wrong with wine; but if it's gonna make somebody stumble, think less of your Christian faith, if it's gonna cause them to drink, and they can't handle it, and they become drunken, then you have been an occasion to their stumbling. You're better not to do it. So the Christian has a freedom. There are some things that are definitely wrong. The Bible tells us what they are; but in the gray area, you know, the area that the Bible doesn't forbid, we have freedom. We have complete liberty, but love becomes the limiter of our liberty. We don't wanna do something that makes somebody offend or that causes somebody to fall into a sin that they can't handle. Maybe there are some things you can handle that they can't handle. Maybe you could go to a feast and eat meat offered to an idol, and...and you'd just be eating there; but maybe another Christian would go to this little feast, and they'd have meat offered to an idol, and he would get caught in the whole orgy that went with the feast, because he was so weak.
So, yes, we have liberty in Christ, but our liberty is limited by love. I will not do some things that I have the right to do simply because somebody'd be offended, and...and I've been the cause of somebody stumbling. That's verse 13 of chapter 8, and that's how he closes out the principle. Look at it with me, and we'll just start there. "Wherefore, if food makes my brother offend, I won't even eat...he says...I don't wanna do anything to make him offend. As long as the world stands, I don't wanna make my brother offend. Now this is a super Christian principle that we, as Christians, have a responsibility to other folks to live lives that are not offensive to them. To live lives that don't purposely go about doing whatever we want, because we have the liberty to do it in Christ, no matter how it affects someone.
Now, having stated that tremendously important principle, Paul wants to illustrate it. I told you that he states the principle in chapter 8. He illustrates it in chapter 9 through chapter 10 verse 13, and he applies it from 10:14 to chapter 11 verse 1. So he states the principle, and now he is going to illustrate it. He's great at illustrations, and he wants us to understand what this principle is like, and he gives two illustrations. One is from the life of Israel, and one is from his own life.
The one from his own life makes up chapter 9, so all of chapter 9 is an illustration from the life of Paul of how he had a liberty that he could've used, but he didn't use it, because somebody would've been offended. What is that liberty? What is that right? It is the right to support from the church. He had the right to expect the Corinthian church to pay him money for his ministry, to support him, to underwrite him, to provide his needs. He had the perfect right for that, but he chose not to use that right; and he chose, rather, to make tents all through his ministry and earn his own living; because he felt, in his case, in the early birth of the church, that to demand that right would've become a terrible offense to many people; and he was afraid that some people wouldn't even become Christians because they would see Christianity as some kind of a movement fostered by this man who did it to get people to give him money. So he was so conscientious about how he would come across that, throughout his entire ministry, he never exercised the right he had to ask for support, and he worked with his hands, always earning his own way.
Now, he's gonna tell us about that liberty that he set aside. But, first, he gives in verses 1 to 14, six reasons why the minister is worthy of support; and then he shows in verses 15 to 18 why he didn't choose to use that liberty. Now, we'll see how that all applies to today as we go, and then next week in particular.
Let's look, first of all, at these six reasons why Paul could have asked for support and expected it; and we could kinda title this thing, "Six Reasons to Pay the Preacher." "Six Reasons to Support a Missionary." "Six Reasons to Take Care of the Ministers." That's just what he's talking about. Why is it that a minister of God, a servant of God, whatever ministry he has, is worthy of the support of the people?
Reason No. 1 in Paul's case is that he was an apostle. That's No. 1. He was an apostle. Let's look at verses 1 to 6 where he opens that up to us. Verse 1. Now, you'll notice two questions begin verse 1, and in the...in the original manuscripts, those questions would be reversed. He starts out by saying, "Am I not free? Am I not free?" Now, just think about that a minute. The...the Corinthians have been saying, "Hey, man, we're free to do anything we want. We can go eat meat offered to idols. We can go up to one of the pagan feasts. We don't have to do what they do. We can still eat their food. We're liberated people, man. We can just go out and do whatever we wanna do," and so Paul says, "All right, I'm in your boat, too. Am I not free? Could I not do whatever I want? I'm not just a Christian like the rest of you. Am I not an...what?...an apostle. As a specially appointed apostle by Christ, do I not at least have the liberty that you do, and maybe just more? Am I certainly any less than you in my liberty? Don't I have the same freedom you do?"
And he's about to say, "Hey, I have the same liberty you do; and, yet, I set it aside; and I'm not demanding you to do anything that I haven't done myself. Am I not also free? Am I not even an apostle? And, yet, I set my liberty aside. I set my freedom aside, because I don't wanna offend somebody.
Now, some of them may have said, "Well, I'm not sure you're an apostle, fella." So he says in verse 1, "Am I not free? Am I not apostle?" And then he gives two reasons or two verifications of his apostleship. "Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?"...Now, the qualification for an apostle was that he be appointed by the resurrected Christ. An apostle had to be appointed by Jesus Christ personally, which means he would've had to have seen the resurrected Christ, Paul would've.
Had Paul ever seen the resurrected Christ? He says, "I've seen the Lord." In Acts 1:22, it says that whoever was to be appointed as an apostle to take up the place of Judas had to be a witness of the resurrected Christ. To be an apostle, you had to see Jesus Christ. Paul had that experience. In Acts chapter 22 in verse 17, he says this, "Came to pass when I was come again to Jerusalem and while I prayed in a temple, I was in a...a trance; and I saw Him saying unto me, 'Make haste and get quickly out of Jerusalem. They will not receive your testimony'...and so forth...and I said, 'Lord.'"
So it was in Jerusalem in Acts 22 that Paul was having a little conversation with the Lord. The Lord appeared to him. In Acts chapter 9, earlier in the Book of Acts, Paul was walking along on the Damascus road, just on his way to persecute a few Christians. The Lord stopped him in his tracks. He fell down. He saw the blazing glory of the Lord and was blinded, and he said, "Lord...what wilt Thou have me to do?" Saw the Lord on the Damascus road. He saw the Lord later in Jerusalem.
There was a third place that he saw the Lord; and, interestingly enough, it was in the city of Corinth. In the 18th chapter of Acts and the 9th verse, when Paul was in Corinth, it says, "Then spoke the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. 'Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee.'" There, a third time, he saw the Lord. He had a vision of the Lord; so he had seen the resurrected Lord three times at least; and he says, "This is proof that He called me into the apostleship. I have seen Him. I am a witness of the living Christ. I am a witness that He has arisen from the dead."...
Now, the second thing that he uses to verify his apostleship is in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, in the last statement of verse 1. "Are not you my work in the Lord?" Not only was the seeing of Christ a verification of his apostleship, but so was the Corinthian church. "If you have any doubts about my apostleship," he says, "look at yourselves. Where do you think you came from? Aren't you the fruit of my labor? Aren't you the...the verification of my ministry?"
Look at verse 2, he further describes this truth. "If I am not an apostle unto others - I mean if you wanna deny me that in other cases, if you wanna say that I'm not really an apostle in other cases, doubtless I am to you. I certainly was a sent one." The word apostle means a sent one. "I certain was a sent one from God, and I brought the message to you, and you are the seal of my apostleship. You in the Lord. The fact that you're saved, the fact that you're in Christ, the fact that you've been born again, the fact that you're in the family of God, that you're a church oughta be proof enough that I'm an apostle, because I brought you the message. You oughta look at your own selves. You're my seal."
You know, in those days, whenever they wanted to accredit anything, they put a seal on it. If you were bagging beans, even, and you were shipping beans out on a boat somewhere, you'd close up your bean bag, and you'd stick a little deal of wax on it. You'd put your seal on it, and that would prove those were genuine beans, you know, or whatever. If you were boxing up a commodity and crating it up, you'd put a deal on that so...so that people would know that was the genuine thing. If you were writing a letter, and you wanted somebody to know that it was an authentic letter, you'd seal it with wax and put your seal in it. A seal was a mark of genuineness. So Paul says, "The mark of the genuineness of my apostleship are you in the Lord. You're a living seal to prove to everyone that I'm a genuine apostle."
Now, "As an apostle," he's saying, "do not I have liberty? Do not I have as much freedom as you and maybe even more?" And, of course, the implication is, "Well, yes." And then in verse 3, you take the two last words, "Is this," and put 'em on the front of the verse, and it'll make more sense. "This is my answer to them that do examine me." The word examine is a legal term. Talks about making an investigation before you make a decision. "So when anybody wants to try to decide whether I'm an apostle, here's the evidence I give them. One, I saw the Lord. Two, look at the results. I'm an apostle," he says.
"Now, as an apostle, I have liberty. I have freedom. I have freedom to do whatever I want; and one of the things that I have the freedom to do," he says, "is ask you for money. Is to ask you to support me." Verse 4. Now watch him. "Have we no right to eat and to drink?" And he's a little bit sarcastic with 'em at this point, just a little bit ironic. He's saying, "Now that you know that I'm an apostle, that's been established, are you saying that I have no right to food and drink?"
Verse 5, "Have we no right to lead about a sister, a wife," and what it really means is, "Have we no right to take a Christian sister as a wife and lead her about." Now, that doesn't mean, you know, a deal through the nose, "Come, Dear." That kinda deal. When it says to lead her about, it means, "Have we no right to take a Christian sister and marry her as a wife and take with us on our journeys? Why, the other apostles do it. The brothers of our Lord do it, and Cephas, or Peter, does it. Are you saying that I only and Barnabas have no right to stop working? Everybody else can receive support, and everybody else can marry a Christian sister and take her on the journey, and the...and the believers will not only support him, but her, as well? But we can't?"
No, what he's saying is, "I have a right to support from you, and if I wanted to...he wasn't married at this time. His wife had most likely died...if I wanted to, I could take a Christian sister as a wife and expect that you would support her, as well. That's my liberty. That's my right to ask of you." Now this is interesting. He is saying that the church has the responsibility to support its leaders, its pastors, its evangelists, its missionaries; and I believe that. One of the reasons when we receive an offering here at Grace Church that we always say, or most always, "If you're a guest and a visitor with us, please don't feel any coercion to give. We would feel very, very badly if you felt that you had to give. That's for us to take care of. That's for us to share. That's the joy that we who know the Lord and who are a part of this family and this fellowship, that's our joy. That's our privilege, and, in addition, a great privilege of ours is to have you as a guest, and don't take that privilege from us. Be our guest. We don't wanna make the Gospel chargeable to the world; but the church does have the responsibility and the man of God does have the right to ask the church for support."
Now, I add a footnote, please, I'm not asking for more money. Don't give me more money, please...That...that is not the point. I'm already far, you know, and beyond whatever could be expected, and I praise God and thank Him; and it puts on me the responsibility being a steward for what you generously give; but I'm merely stating the principle, that the man of God has the right to be supported by the church in which he ministers.
Now, the sad thing, that just the...the heartbreaking thing, is that so many abuse this, and there...there are charlatans, and there are religious phonies, and there are people in the ministry for money. Believe me, there are; and there will always be abuse of this thing; and I think that the abuse of it is what tends to make us very restrictive in how we really operate; and we have to find a balance.
So Paul is saying, "As a...as an apostle, I have liberty. I have the right to ask for food and drink." That would be daily necessities, sustenance. "I even have the right to ask you to support my wife." Isn't it interesting in verse 5 that he says to take a sister as a wife? And what he means by sister is a Christian sister. There was never any other conception in the mind of a Christian in the early church. If a Christ was gonna marry, he would marry only a what? A Christian sister. I mean there wasn't any other thought. There would never be a mixed marriage, a marriage between a believer and an unbeliever. That was foreign to them. In...in chapter 7:39 says the same thing. "Marry only in the Lord."
So he says, "If I wanna take a Christian sister along with me, you should be able to support that sister, as well." And I think what you have there is a verse that affirms the right of a minister to have an unemployed wife. That's practical, isn't it? I mean that's not up there in the foggy theological area. That's just saying, "Pay the preacher so that his wife doesn't need to work." Doesn't need to have employment. That's a tremendous truth. So many churches, I don't think, see the vision of that, and instead of paying the man of God so that he may support his whole family, they expect the wife to work when the Bible says he has a right to ask support even for the Christian sister he's taken as his wife. Not only to support her, but to take her along with him; and you know something? The apostles apparently took their wives. The other apostles, the brothers of our Lord who would be James and...and Jude and other brothers of Jesus Christ, half-brothers, of course, children of Mary and Joseph, but not of virgin birth as Jesus was. And Peter...Peter took his wife along with him. I...you ever know Peter had a wife? Sure, he did. His mother-in-law got sick, so if you got a mother-in-law, you got a wife...I'd like to meet Mrs. Peter. She must have been some lady...must be...she must be the living example of patience.
But, anyway, Paul says, "You know, the other apostles are taking their wives with 'em," and that's super. You know, I think the church has the responsibility to recognize this, even with missionaries, with anybody. You know, I...I...I feel like so many times someone will ask me to speak someplace, and they'll say, "You know, we want you to fly, for example, to Cleveland, Ohio, and there's a tremendous opportunity for a Bible conference here, and we'd like you to come, and we'd like to bring your wife as our guest, as well." You know, I really appreciate that, because me and my wife are one flesh, you know? And when she's with me, I'm a lot better off. I really am. I'm happier, easier to get along with. I can concentrate better on what I'm doing in ministry, and she can be supportive of me, and we share our life together, and that's an important thing.
And I feel, as a church, when we ask someone to come and speak here, it would be the thing to do to say, "Would you like to bring your wife? We'd be more than happy to support the coming of your wife so she could share these days with you." It's a question of generosity. It's a question of having the right attitude, and when somebody has asked us for support for some ministry or some mission or something, it oughta be with that kind of generosity and concern that, not only his needs are met, but those of his wife, so that they may minister together. I think a reason that you have divorces among people even in the ministry so many times is because you got one of 'em running around all over the place, never paying any attention to the other. And I don't think it's a question always of counseling. It may be a question of dollars so that the wife could go along.
This is really important. Well, so he says, "I have a right to food to drink, and I have a right to take my wife with me if I had a wife, which I don't, and I don't want one, 'cause I have the gift of celibacy." That's the last chapter or 7th chapter. But there's a principle here anyway, okay?
Now, verse 6, he says, "You're certainly not saying that everybody can do it but Barnabas and me. We have to work. That what you're saying?" Well, they couldn't say that. I mean they had liberty. They could ask of...of the church and expect to get money. Barnabas was his buddy. They had been co-pastors in Antioch; and when the call of the Lord came to go as missionaries to the Gentile world, Barnabas went with Paul. Two of 'em, and he's saying, "You're sure not gonna say that we're the two that have to work while everybody else is supported by the church." No.
So reason No. 1, Paul, said, "That I have the liberty to ask for support is I'm an apostle." Now watch reason No. 2 in verse 7. Reason No. 2 is it's the usual custom. It's the usual custom. "Who goes to war at any time at his own expense?" Did you ever know a soldier who fought the war all day and then went to work at night to earn his living? No, if a guy's in the Army, they're gonna pay him. Not a lot, but they're gonna pay him enough. They're gonna sustain him and get him food, lodging, and whatever clothing he needs, and they're gonna give him a little bit of money. Nobody goes to war and pays himself. In other words, it is human custom that a man earns his living by his work. That's all he's saying.
Next one, "Who plants a vineyard and eats not its fruit?" I mean if a guy plants a vineyard, he doesn't work as a farmer all day long and then go to...to work at night to earn a living. He gets his living from his farming. Out of that labor comes his living.
Third thing he uses is, "If somebody feeds a flock, doesn't he drink the milk?" Sure. He just uses three illustrations: a soldier, a farmer, and a shepherd. All three were cared for out of their occupation, and his conclusion is, "So why not the servant of God? Why shouldn't the servant of God be equally cared for out of his occupation?"...It's just human custom, as well as apostolic right.
But let's go to a third principle. A third reason is in verse 8. In fact, verse 8 through 11, and this is really interesting. "Say I these things as a man?" In the Greek ques--the form of that question in the Greek implies a negative answer. "No, I'm not just talking in human terms. I gave you the illustration of human custom in verse 7, but I'm gonna go beyond that. I'm not just saying these things as a man, or saith not the law...and he means the law of God...the same thing? Is thus just human reasoning, or does God's law say the same thing?" And the second question has implied in it a yes answer. Greek, the way they form a Greek question in the Greek language will give you an idea as to whether it's to be answered yes or no. This second question has a yes answer. "Do I say these things as a man?" No, "or doesn't the law say the same thing?" Yes, God's law, "For it is written...verse 9...in the Law of Moses." Yes, there is something in the Law of Moses. This isn't just a human analogy or human reason. God has something to say. You say, "What did he say?" Well, he quotes the Law of Moses. God's Old Testament, Deuteronomy 25:4, he quotes, "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain." Now, you say, "What does that have to do with anything? What is he talking about? Muzzling an ox."
The Egyptians, that's a quote from Deuteronomy 25:4, and it was an Old Testament principle. Now, the Egyptians had an interesting custom that the Israelites picked up. Whenever they wanted to separate the grain from the husk, they would throw all of the stuff on a great floor, a great flat area, and they would get oxen, and they would tie to the oxen a great big, round, flat stone, and the oxen would just walk all over that grain, dragging that stone, crushing the husks and releasing the grain out of it. That's the way the separated it, and the law said, "Don't muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads the grain." You wanna have one frustrated ox, you just muzzle him and make him tread that grain. You'll really frustrate him. That would be inhumane. That would be unjust. If the ox is gonna drag that rock around all day, he oughta be able to take a few bites now and then. That's the point, see.