In his first letter to the church at Corinth the Apostle Paul presents a spirited defense of his apostolic ministry. Stung by derisive remarks made by false apostles in the church, Paul stakes his claims to apostolic ministry, raises the issue of his apostolic rights, and challenges the false apostles to refute them.
In 1 Corinthians 9:1-3, Paul asks no less than 17 questions! These questions are the basis of this study. It should be noted that the church at Corinth was the result of Paul’s ground-breaking ministry, which gave him the right to address matters, a right that his successors did not have. Likewise, this entitlement belongs today only to pioneers of a local church whose ongoing relationship with it is challenged by uninterested successors in the church or envious members who have little or no idea as to the spiritual, mental and physical demands faced by apostolic ministers.
Paul’s first four questions relate to himself, and include his apostolic call, his freedom to follow that call, the fact that he has seen Christ, and the evidence of his apostolic work in the lives of the Christians at Corinth. Note Paul’s stress on “I” and “my”: both of which are personal pronouns.
“Am I not an apostle?” (Acts 9:15) Paul begins most of his epistles with a statement that he is “an apostle of Jesus Christ” or that he was “called (to be) an apostle”. In Galatians, he adds, “not of men”, because of the unique nature of his apostolic call. The exceptions are the church at Philippi (with which he had a special relationship), Philemon (a personal letter to a special friend), and the church at Thessalonica (a persecuted church that never questioned his apostolic ministry).
“Am I not free?” The false apostles had flaunted their freedom (8:9). How much more free was Paul who was not only a Christian but also an apostle to the nations. (Paul returns to this subject later in his letter (9:19).
“Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” This was a necessary requirement for the first apostles (I Corinthians 15:8). The false apostles at Corinth (2 Corinthians 11:5-15) used against him the fact that he was not one of the original apostles of Christ (Acts 1:21, 22). But Paul had seen the risen Lord on the Damascus Road.
“Are you not my work in the Lord?” Not the false apostles but the main body of the church. Paul had himself “planted” the church, and they were the lasting evidence of his apostolic work.
Having established his personal bona fides, Paul now switches to the plural, “we”, almost certainly because his next three questions include the needs of Silas as well as himself.
“Have we no right to eat and drink?” Surely the church could provide Paul and his fellow workers with the basic necessities of life! (Not to mention a little extra for clothing and a decent bed at inns along the way!)
“Have we no right to a believing wife?” Should we have to leave our wives at home and be deprived of our emotional and sexual needs?
“Is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to cease from secular work; why should we not be supported full-time, as others are?” Good question! Why were the ministries of these “others” more acceptable than Paul’s?
Paul’s next three questions are couched in the less personal “who”, which suits their rhetorical emphasis.
“Who goes to war at his own expense?” No one! The soldier who is prepared to sacrifice his life in battle should not have to sacrifice his income! How much more the apostle who fights for Truth on spiritual battlefields!
Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit?” On the contrary, he is entitled to partake of it first (2 Timothy 2:6).
“Who tends a flock (of goats) and does not drink of the milk of the flock?” If a goat herder is entitled to this small benefit, how much more those who oversee God’s flock? Pastors claim this right, but it is the apostle’s right as well.
Paul quotes the scriptures as the authority for his next four questions and expounds a Bible verse that relates to care for hard-working oxen in pressing his case for apostolic acceptance and support.
“Do I say these things as a mere man?” Meaning: a natural unsaved person, with no understanding of spiritual principles and practices. Apostles are not “mere men”! (1 Corinthians 3:3)
“Does not the Law (of Moses) say the same?” Paul quotes from a source that all would-be yoke makers of the time loved to quote — religiously. But Paul extracts a spiritual principle from a minor law concerning animal care. If a working ox is permitted to eat a portion of the grain it threshes, how much more reward should a hard-working apostle receive for his efforts!
“Does God care for oxen?” Well, yes, and sparrows too. So then, would Almighty God who cares for working farm animals neglect equally hard-working apostles? “Or was this written with us in mind?” As a principle that would apply not only to oxen but also to apostles.
Paul’s final three questions are based on the natural cycle of giving and receiving.
“If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?” The basic law of the harvest is that the one who sows the seed reaps the harvest. Paul had a right to food, drink, and hospitality – Jesus Himself had commanded it (Matthew 10:10). Invite back to your local church the apostle who founded it, and publicly recognize his pioneering efforts by blessing him financially!
“If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more so?” Other ministers had a part in the church at Corinth, but without Paul’s ministry, the church would not have existed!
“Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?” (Leviticus 6:16, 26 & 7:6, 31). The priests of Israel lived off the offerings brought to the Temple by those who worshipped, and suffered from food shortages in times of religious apathy, idolatrous abandonment, and spiritual decline.
“What? Support an apostle in the local field? But we have an Overseas Mission program!” Yes, but what about the rapid decline of apostolic developments on the home front? It is good that ministries in the developing world are strongly supported by churches in the western world, but those same churches are unable to reach their own society because money is designated “Where most needed” or “For those who have never heard the Gospel!”
Have church boards failed to notice how secular our society has become? In splitting the church’s giving between Overseas Missions and Local Charities they forget their very own apostles, who find it hard to exist in the financial wasteland that exists in between.
The Lord once led me to honour publicly a missionary who had gone unrecognized for most of his life. This man had dug miles of deep, wide water channels by hand and built two bible colleges. On his return to Borneo from Australia, the Lord led the native people he had served for most of his life to honour him as we had.
Apostles sitting restlessly in the local church need to be recognized, and sent out with local church support! The very best thing a local church can do for an apostle is to tell him to get out – and report back to the elders when a particular mission is completed. The local church needs to back its words with an unbreakable promise of ongoing financial support. Not just now and again but for as long as he is out there or as many times that he is sent!
(I wrote this article more than a decade ago, not because of any lack of support for Lorraine and myself. My reason for reposting it is the many prepared people in local churches who are being called to go out by the Lord but who lack financial support. These folk are very much on my heart. So, if a proven ministry is sitting in your church doing little or nothing, why not discuss with the elders as to how the church can send out that person with initial and ongoing support. Lorraine and I have been supported for decades by individual Christians at home and abroad, without once asking others for help or by posting requests for ‘prayer support’, and to God be the glory! It is to those called by the Lord but overlooked by the church that this post is addressed. )