Chapter 9
| 1 Corinthians: -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- |
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| 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work inside of the Lord? 2 If I am not an apostle to others, yet I am to you at least; for you are the seal of my apostleship inside of the Lord. 3 My defense towards those examining me is this. 4 Do we not have the authority to eat and to drink? 5 Do we not have the authority to travel with a sister, or a wife, as the other apostles do, and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? 6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have the authority to work? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who shepherds a flock, and does not drink the milk of the flock? 8 Do I just speak these things according to human thinking? Or does the law not also say these things? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox treading out grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). Does God care only for oxen? 10 Or is He speaking entirely of us? It was written for our sake, because the one who plows, plows in hope, and the one who threshes hopes to partake. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap material things from you? 12 If others exercise authority over you, should not we more? But we have not used this authority. Instead, we cover closely and bear all things so that we should not place any hindrance upon the gospel of Christ. 13 Are you not aware that those working in the temple eat of the sacrifices of the temple and those attending at the altar partake of the altar? 14 Even so the Lord has appointed those who preach the gospel to live out from the gospel [n]. 15 I have made use of none of this, however. Neither do I write these things now to gain something for myself. I would rather die, than to allow anyone to make my boasting empty. 16 For if I preach the gospel, it is not of my boasting, but necessity placed upon me. It would be grief to me if I did not preach the gospel, 17 for if I do this willingly, I have a reward. Yet if I do this unwillingly, I am then entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel freely, I should set forth the gospel without making use of my right in the gospel. • 19 For, being free from all, I myself become a servant to all, so that I might win the more. 20 I become to the Judeans like a Judean, so that I might win Judeans. To those under Law, I become as under law (not being myself under law), so that I might win those who are under law. 21 To those outside the law I become as outside the law (not being outside the law of God, but inside the law of Christ), so that I might win those who are outside of law. 22 I become weak to the weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all men, so that by all, I might save some. 23 And I do all things through the gospel, so that I might become a fellow partaker with it. • 24 Are you not aware of those running in a race, that, though all run, only one receives the prize? Run so that you might seize hold of the prize. 25 Now, everyone who competes exercises self-control in all. But they compete so that they might win a decaying crown; we, however, compete to win a crown that cannot decay. 26 Therefore, I do not run in uncertainty, and I do not fight as flogging the air. 27 Rather, I discipline my body and subdue it, lest having preached to others, I might disapprove myself. |
| Gospel Word | Notes |
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| • Ruling Verse 7: In the celebration of a Victory already won, we run to win. Our prize is the great weight of value that is our brethren inside of Christ. Therefore, we carry our brethren, all whom God has given us, all the way into God. We run to win their fellowship, even as they run to win ours. | n. A Christian minister being supported financially by the congregation is of God and should not be set aside. In this discussion, Paul is speaking of his own stewardship with no intention that it be imposed on others. |