For the Sake of the Gospel

1 Corinthians 9:1-23

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? ^2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

^3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. ^4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? ^5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas^a? ^6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living?

^7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? ^8 Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? ^9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”^b Is it about oxen that God is concerned? ^10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. ^11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? ^12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?

But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. ^13 Don’t you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? ^14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

^15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. ^16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ^17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. ^18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

^19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ^20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ^21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ^22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. ^23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

In order to understand a person’s behavior we always need to get to the motive of the person. For example, I just heard about these three men who did something that had never been done before—they ran 4,000 miles across the Sahara Desert, averaging about 50 miles per day. When I think about this story, one word is burned into my mind—“Why?” Why would anyone do such a thing?

Motives are always important. In fact one of the oldest questions around deals with motives – “Why did the chicken cross the road?”Here are the answers several famous people gave when trying to discern the motives of the chicken.

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken. I invented the road. Therefore, the chicken crossing the road represented the application of these two different functions of government in a new, reinvented way designed to bring greater services to the American people.
 
DR. SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road?
Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes! The chicken crossed the road,
but why it crossed, I’ve not been told!

GRANDPA:
In my day, we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it overcame a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

CAPTAIN KIRK:
To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What do you mean by chicken? Could you define chicken please?

COLONEL SANDERS:
I missed one?

These are silly motives answering a silly question, but when we study important things—especially the Bible—questions about motive are necessary. I don’t really care so much about why three men ran across the Sahara Desert, but I do care why the apostle Paul spent half of his life traveling around the Roman world preaching the gospel all the while enduring beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, starvation and various other sufferings. What would possess a man to do such a thing? The Christians in Corinth also had a question of motive for Paul. Here is the implicit question they asked him. “Why do you work for a living and not rely on gifts and offerings like the rest of the apostles?” They asked him this question because many of them did not think he was a real apostle. And why did they care if he was a genuine apostle? Because he was interfering with their life in a big way. He was forbade them to engage in sexual immorality. He forbade them from attending the temple feasts. Paul was getting under their skin and if they could raise doubts about apostleship, then they could ignore what he said. If he did not possess real authority then they did not have to listen to him. If Doug is driving behind me and begins to make the sound of a police siren and tells me to pull over, do I need to pull over? No, but if a county sheriff or Viroqua officer flashed his lights and sounds his siren, do I pull over? You bet I do because they have the authority to pull me over but Doug does not have that authority. If Paul is not really an apostle then he does not have the authority to tell the Corinthians how to live their lives.

Their question is not written down by Paul but it is implicit in how he responds to them in chapter nine. “Why do you work for a living and not rely on gifts and offerings like the rest of the apostles?” The other apostles that the Corinthians were familiar with all worked full-time in ministry and received their support from other believers, just like most pastors and missionaries do today. But Paul was a bi-vocational missionary. Do you remember his other vocation? He was a tentmaker. We still use this “tentmaker” term today to refer particularly to missionaries in closed countries. For example, missionaries are not permitted access in Saudi Arabia, but if I work there as an engineer on an oil field, I can gain access and perhaps help lead people to Christ. By that definition, everyone is a tentmaker. Paul made tents for a living but his passion was to preach the gospel. In the same way, each of you who have a vocation in the workplace should be tentmakers, that is your vocation is your job but your chief passion should be to share the gospel.

So the Corinthians wanted to dismiss Paul’s authority as an apostle because he was different from the other apostles and worked as a tentmaker. This was their excuse for not wanting to listen to him. But Paul would not let them get away with it. Like a well-trained attorney, in this chapter he presented his defense. He gave no less than nine reasons why he should be allowed to receive support like the other apostles then he explains with great passion why he has elected to not do so.

First he defends his apostleship and his right to receive support, most of which fall along the lines of the principle of sowing and reaping.

1. Other apostles do it—Don’t we have the right to food and drink [and] to take a believing wife…as do the other apostles? (4-5)

2. Soldier—Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? (7)

3. Vineyard—Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? (7)

4. Shepherd—Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? (7)

5. The Law—“Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain. (9)

6. The Farmer—When the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. (10)

7. Spiritual harvest—If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? (11)

8. Temple/altar—those who work in the temple get their food from the temple. (13)

9. Jesus commanded it—The Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. (14) Paul is referring to Jesus’ instructions that he gave to traveling preachers in Luke 10:7: “Stay in that house eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.”

Paul hammered home these reasons to defend his right to receive material support which was also proof of his apostleship. But we still have not answered the big “why” question. Since Paul spent more than half of this chapter defending his right to receive material support, why then did he choose not to receive it? Part of the answer to this “why” question comes in v. 12. “But we did not use this right [the right to receive material support]. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.” We don’t know fully why, but foe some reason Paul thought that if he did not support his own ministry through tentmaking he could possible hinder the gospel. He was obviously not commanded to work as a tentmaker, because none of the other apostles did so and he had a clear instruction from the Lord Jesus to receive material support. But in the context of his ministry to pagan unbelievers, Paul was convinced that he should not receive material support. His chief concern was with the purity of the gospel.

Most missionaries throughout the centuries have not followed Paul’s example in this way, but some did. Most notably is the great missionary to Ireland, St. Patrick. When St. Patrick’s Day comes up in a two weeks, try to remember this quote from him.

When I baptized so many thousands of people, did I perhaps expect form any of them as much as half a scruple? Tell me and I will restore it to you. Or when the Lord ordained clerics everywhere…if I asked any of them as much as the price of my shoes, speak against me and I will return it to you. On the contrary, I spent money for you that they might receive me. I went to you...in many dangers…where nobody had ever come to baptize, or to ordain clergy, or to confirm people.[1]

Patrick baptized over 120,000 converts in his lifetime. Clearly St. Patrick loved the Lord and loved the gospel and we do him an enormous disservice to turn his holiday into an excuse for drinking green beer!

So how does this apply to us today? Except for me, no one else here gets paid for preaching the gospel, so that part doesn’t apply to you. The application is tied up with Paul’s chief desire that the gospel not be hindered in any way. Here is another question to help us get to Paul’s motive. Which was Paul’s greatest motivation—his love for lost people or his love for Christ and his gospel? Most of the time we talk about evangelism we begin with the premise that we need to love the lost and perishing people around us. The logic goes like this: if we truly loved lost people we would want to tell them about Christ. I agree that our love for lost people is necessary in order to share our faith, but I strongly believe that Paul’s greatest motivation was not a love for lost people per se but a passionate love for Jesus Christ and his gospel. For Paul, the gospel was a priceless and precious gift. He loved the gospel that miraculously saved him and he loved the Savior who purchased his salvation on the cross. Love for the Savior and love for his salvation message—the gospel—are inseparable. You cannot love one without the other and Paul was madly and passionately in love with Jesus Christ and his gospel. The gift was so precious to him that he was willing to endure working night and day as both a tentmaker and a church planter so that the gospel was not hindered in any way. Paul had every Biblical, theological and practical right to receive material support for his preaching ministry, but he laid aside his rights out of his love for Christ and his gospel. This is the answer to our “why” question. Why did Paul refuse support? He refused support because of his passion for Christ and his gospel.

Here is how I describe this principle: Our passion for lost souls will never exceed our passion for Christ and his gospel. How can I love the lost unless I am first passionate about Christ and his gospel? Paul also said, “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” Do you know what a “woe” is in Biblical terms? A “woe” is basically a curse. Therefore Paul was calling down a curse upon his head if he did not preach the gospel. The gospel did not simmer within the heart of Paul like calm pot of tea. Rather the gospel rolled and boiled within his heart—like a tempest in a teapot—until his heart exploded with joy and unending devotion to the gospel. You will never understand the book of Acts until you understand Paul’s exploding heart for the gospel. You will never understand any of his epistles until you understand his passionate heart for Christ and his gospel.

This past week someone in our church called me to ask if we could hold some training in evangelism. A day later another person mentioned to me that he would like to increase his intentionality in witnessing to others. I have to tell you that these two conversations warmed my heart to know that at least two people were thinking more deeply about evangelism. I agreed that we should have some training in evangelism because we have not had any formal training since I first came six years ago. I was glad to hear of this interest but I must say that I was also discouraged because of two burning questions:

1. If we did hold an evangelism training, would more than 2-3 people actually attend?

2. Do we as a church have a sufficient passion for Christ and his gospel?

Here is a summary of the church health survey we took last year. Church planting is our lowest factor because we are not likely to plant another church in Viroqua or Westby, and if we did, it would be the result of a major church split! So if we take out church planting then “fruitful evangelism” is our lowest factor. Objectively this survey demonstrates that this is our weakest area of ministry and subjectively I doubt anyone would disagree with this low score. The natural reaction would be to start doing more outreaches and hold an evangelism training seminar. If we are not “doing” evangelism then the solution is to start “doing” evangelism, right?  I don’t think that is true because what I am arguing and what I believe Paul’s point here is that our passion for lost souls will never exceed our passion for Christ and his gospel. That is, we don’t share the gospel because we don’t love the gospel. We would never call down a curse on our heads for not sharing the gospel because we don’t love the gospel that much. We will never love lost people until we love the gospel.

Don’t think that I cannot relate to this struggle. While I was still in seminary fourteen years ago I first sensed God calling me to plant a church. I was somewhat surprised by this calling because up until then I was very unclear about a specific future ministry. I wanted to explore this sense of calling further so I dropped in to see the professor who was in charge of the church planting program at the seminary. I explained this seed of my calling to him and he only asked me one question? “Are you regularly sharing your faith?” That was a fair question, don’t you think? If I was to plant a church that depended on evangelistic growth, then one would assume that I was already sharing my faith. Unfortunately my sheepish answer to this professor was, “Not really.” There I was, 29 years old, spending all of our savings on a seminary education, thinking I was called into church planting and I was not even regularly sharing my faith! Admit it—that is pretty pathetic! Now fourteen years later by God’s grace I am becoming one who loves the gospel more with each passing year and I have seen how this impacts my evangelism as well.

If you haven’t already, most of you will be hearing about this man, William Wilberforce. A film about his life was released on Friday, which was the 200^th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in Great Britain. Wilberforce was a member of British Parliament and labored for 46 years to abolish slavery. After forty six years of effort the final law was passed abolishing the slave trade. Wilberforce did three days later having completed his life’s purpose. As hard as he worked on this issue, he was not a single-issue politician. One of Wilberforce’s biographers informs us that “At one stage he was active in sixty-nine different initiatives.”[2] But as a foundation to all of his work for social justice, Wilberforce was an evangelist

The same biographer writs “He anonymously visited in prison a famous infidel named Richard Carlile who was imprisoned for his blasphemous writings. When Wilberforce took out a small Bible, Carlile said, “I wish to have nothing to do with that book; and you cannot wonder at this, for if that book be true, I am damned forever!” To which Wilberforce replied, “No, no, Mr. Carlile, according to that book, there is hope for all who will seek for mercy and forgiveness; for it assures us that God hath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.”[3]

Remember at the beginning we said that motivation was the key to understanding? When you look at the amazing life and work of a man like Wilberforce, the first question you should ask is “why?” The simple answer is that Wilberforce was radically converted and he loved Christ and his gospel. He wrote “If we would…rejoice in [Christ] as triumphantly as the first Christians did; we must learn, like them to repose our entire trust in him and to adopt the language of the apostle, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Jesus Christ.”

I think Wilberforce would agree with the fact that our passion for lost souls will never exceed our passion for Christ and his gospel.

Rich Maurer

February 25, 2007