For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
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1 Corinthians 9:16-23 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this: Have we no right to eat and to drink? Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk? Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares, or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope. If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ. Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News. But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void. For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News. For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News. For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, that you may win. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
Parallel Translations
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For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.
For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.
For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;
to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.
To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.
Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
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In that I preache the gospell I have nothinge to reioyce of. For necessite is put vnto me. Wo is it vnto me yf I preache not the gospell.
If I do it with a good will I have a rewarde. But yf I do it agaynst my will an office is committed vnto me.
What is my rewarde then? Verely that when I preache the gospell I make the gospell of Christ fre that I misvse not myne auctorite in the gospel
For though I be fre from all men yet have I made my silfe servaunt vnto all men that I myght wynne the moo.
Vnto the Iewes I became as a Iewe to winne the Iewes. To the that were vnder the lawe was I made as though I had bene vnder the lawe to wynne the that were vnder the lawe.
To them that were without lawe became I as though I had bene without lawe (when I was not without lawe as perteyninge to god but vnder a lawe as concerninge Christ) to wynne the that were without lawe.
To the weake became I as weake to wynne the weake. In all thinge I fassioned my silfe to all men to save at the lest waye some.
And this I do for the gospels sake that I might have my parte therof.
Show all 3 translations
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For though I preach the Gospel, I haue nothing to reioyce of: for necessitie is laid vpon me, and woe is vnto me, if I preach not the Gospel.
For if I do it willingly, I haue a reward, but if I do it against my will, notwithstanding the dispensation is committed vnto me.
What is my reward then? verely that when I preach the Gospel, I make the Gospel of Christ free, that I abuse not mine authoritie in ye Gospel.
For though I bee free from all men, yet haue I made my selfe seruant vnto all men, that I might winne the moe.
And vnto the Iewes, I become as a Iewe, that I may winne the Iewes: to them that are vnder the Lawe, as though I were vnder the Lawe, that I may winne them that are vnder the Lawe:
To them that are without Lawe, as though I were without Lawe, (when I am not without Lawe as pertaining to God, but am in the Lawe through Christ) that I may winne them that are without Lawe:
To the weake I become as weake, that I may winne the weake: I am made all thinges to all men, that I might by all meanes saue some.
And this I doe for the Gospels sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
Cross-references (119)
- 1 Corinthians 10:33 (vv18, 19, 22) even as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved.
- Galatians 5:13 (v19) For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.
- Romans 15:1 (v22) Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
- Acts 16:3 (v20) Paul wanted to have him go out with him, and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts; for they all knew…
- 1 Corinthians 9:19 (v22) For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.
Show all 100 cross-references
- Matthew 18:15 (v19) “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your…
- Romans 2:12 (v21) For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
- Romans 1:14 (vv16, 19) I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.
- 2 Timothy 2:10 (vv19, 23) Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal…
- Jeremiah 20:9 (vv16–17) If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my…
- Romans 11:14 (vv20, 22) if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
- Romans 2:14 (v21) (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,
- Galatians 3:2 (v21) I just want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith?
- Galatians 5:18 (v20) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
- Colossians 4:17 (v16) Tell Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfill it.”
- James 5:19-20 (v19) Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his…
- Matthew 20:26-28 (v19) It shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. Whoever desires to be first among you…
- Luke 9:62 (v16) But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
- 2 Corinthians 11:7-9 (v18) Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God’s Good News free of charge? I robbed…
- 1 Timothy 4:16 (v19) Pay attention to yourself and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear…
- Matthew 5:17-20 (v21) “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you,…
- Mark 8:35 (v23) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.
- Acts 4:20 (v16) for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
- Acts 26:16-20 (v16) But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things…
- 1 Corinthians 7:19-22 (v21) Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. Let each man stay in that calling in…
- 1 Corinthians 8:9 (v18) But be careful that by no means does this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to the weak.
- 1 Corinthians 9:20-22 (v19) To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are…
- 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 (v23) Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an…
- Galatians 2:7 (v17) but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for…
- Galatians 6:1 (v22) Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:6 (v18) nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.
- 2 Thessalonians 3:8-9 (v18) neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden…
- 2 Corinthians 4:5 (vv18–19) For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake,
- Amos 3:8 (v16) The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?
- Acts 21:20-26 (v20) They, when they heard it, glorified God. They said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have…
- Romans 15:2 (v19) Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up.
- 1 Corinthians 3:8 (v17) Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
- 2 Corinthians 12:13-18 (v18) For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you?…
- 1 Chronicles 28:9 (v17) You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all…
- Proverbs 11:30 (v19) The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He who is wise wins souls.
- Matthew 10:41 (v17) He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. He who receives a righteous man in the name of a…
- John 13:14-15 (v19) If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example,…
- Acts 9:6 (v16) But rise up and enter into the city, then you will be told what you must do.”
- Acts 9:15 (v16) But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
- Acts 17:2-3 (v20) Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating…
- Romans 15:17 (v16) I have therefore my boasting in Christ Jesus in things pertaining to God.
- 1 Corinthians 7:31 (v18) and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.
- 1 Corinthians 8:13 (v22) Therefore if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.
- 1 Corinthians 9:1 (v19) Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?
- 1 Corinthians 9:6-7 (v18) Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work? What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of…
- Galatians 2:5 (v23) to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you.
- Colossians 1:25 (v17) of which I was made a servant according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you to fulfill the word of God,
- Titus 2:2-12 (v21) that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance: and that older women likewise be…
- Hebrews 3:14 (v23) For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence firm to the end,
- 1 Peter 3:1 (v19) In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of…
- 1 John 1:3 (v23) that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father,…
- 1 Chronicles 29:5 (v17) of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, and for all kinds of work to be made by the hands of artisans. Who…
- 1 Chronicles 29:9 (v17) Then the people rejoiced, because they offered willingly, because with a perfect heart they offered willingly to Yahweh; and David the king…
- Nehemiah 11:2 (v17) The people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell in Jerusalem.
- Psalms 119:32 (v21) I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.
- Isaiah 6:5 (v16) Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have…
- Isaiah 6:8 (v17) I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”
- Ezekiel 3:14 (v17) So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and Yahweh’s hand was strong on me.
- Amos 7:15 (v16) and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
- Acts 16:4 (v21) As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered the decrees to them to keep which had been ordained by the apostles and elders…
- Acts 18:18 (v20) Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers, and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and…
- Romans 3:19 (v20) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Romans 4:2 (v16) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
- Romans 6:14-15 (v20) For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law,…
- Romans 7:22 (v21) For I delight in God’s law after the inward man,
- Romans 7:25 (v21) I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.
- Romans 8:4 (v21) that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
- Romans 13:8-10 (v21) Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not…
- 1 Corinthians 3:14 (v17) If any man’s work remains which he built on it, he will receive a reward.
- 1 Corinthians 4:1 (v17) So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants, and stewards of God’s mysteries.
- 2 Corinthians 2:4 (v23) For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be made to grieve, but that you might…
- Galatians 2:3-4 (v21) But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. This was because of the false brothers secretly…
- Galatians 2:12-14 (v21) For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who…
- Galatians 4:5 (v20) that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
- Galatians 4:21 (v20) Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law?
- Galatians 5:1 (v19) Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
- Galatians 5:13-14 (v21) For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.…
- Galatians 5:22-23 (v21) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things…
- Ephesians 6:1-3 (v21) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise:…
- 1 Thessalonians 2:4 (v17) But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak: not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our…
- 1 Thessalonians 4:1-2 (v21) Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, that…
- 1 Peter 5:2-4 (v17) Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but…
- 1 Corinthians 7:16 (vv19, 22) For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
- Exodus 4:13-14 (v17) Moses said, “Oh, Lord, please send someone else.” Yahweh’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the…
- Jeremiah 1:17 (v16) “You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you…
- Jeremiah 20:7 (v16) Yahweh, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day.…
- Jonah 1:3 (v17) But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of Yahweh. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid…
- Jonah 4:1-3 (v17) But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was…
- Malachi 1:10 (v17) “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,”…
- Matthew 24:25 (v17) “Behold, I have told you beforehand.
- Luke 12:42 (v17) The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at…
- Acts 15:28 (v21) For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:
- Acts 21:25 (v21) But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep…
- Romans 14:15 (v18) Yet if because of food your brother is grieved, you walk no longer in love. Don’t destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
- 1 Corinthians 9:12 (v23) If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (119 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 16. For if I preach the gospel. To show…
16. For if I preach the gospel. To show how very important it was not to deprive himself of that ground of glorying, he intimates what would have happened, if he had simply discharged his ministry — that he would in this way have done nothing else than what the Lord had enjoined upon him by a strict necessity By doing that, he says, he would have had no occasion for glorying, as it was not in his power to avoid doing it. It is asked, however, what glorying he here refers to, for he glories elsewhere in his exercising himself in the office of teaching with a pure conscience (2 Timothy 1:3.) I answer, that he speaks of a glorying that he could bring forward in opposition to the false apostles, when they endeavored to find a pretext for reviling, as will appear more fully from what follows.
This is a remarkable statement, from which we learn, in the first place, what, as to ministers, is the nature, and what the closeness of the tie that is involved in their calling, and farther, what the pastoral office imports and includes. Let not the man, then, who has been once called to it, imagine that he is any longer at liberty to withdraw when he chooses, if, perhaps, he is harassed with vexatious occurrences, or weighed down with misfortunes, for he is devoted to the Lord and to the Church, and bound by a sacred tie, which it were criminal to break asunder. As to the second point, he says that a curse was ready to fall upon him, if he did not preach the gospel Why? Because he has been called to it, and therefore is constrained by necessity How, therefore, will any one who succeeds to his office avoid this necessity? What sort of successors, then, have the Apostles in the Pope and the other mitred bishops, who think that there is nothing that is more unbecoming their station, than the duty of teaching!
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv18, 20, 22, 23 By taking nothing of them to whom I preach…
By taking nothing of them to whom I preach it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv16–23 16 For though I preach the gospel, I have…
16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!
Ver. 16. I have nothing to glory of] My glorying is, that I preach it gratis, and thereby stop an open mouth, 2Co 12:16-18, give them the lie that falsely accuse me that I make a prize of you.
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Yea, woe is unto me] It was death for the high priest to enter the tabernacle without his bells. Preach, man, preach; thou wilt be damned else, said one to his friend. Be instant, or stand over the work in season, out of season, επιστηθι. See Jacob’s diligence, Gen 31:40. And Paul’s, Act 20:20-28, &c., which one rightly calleth St Paul’s trumpet, the voice whereof may be to every minister, like that trumpet in Mount Sinai, that hath both clangorem et horrorem: or as Samuel’s message, making Eli’s two ears to tingle and his heart to tremble. (Barlow.) Let him give good heed to it, and then say with the civilian (Ulpian), Perquam durum est: sed ita lex scripta est. Hard or not hard it must be done, or I am utterly undone. Preach I must, or perish.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv16–23 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing…
For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; though I do preach the gospel, yet I have no reason at all to glory; all that I have to glory in is, that I have preached it freely (which your false apostles and teachers do not); for the preaching of the gospel, considered without that circumstance, I have no reason to glory in that, for I am in it but a servant.
For necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! I am under the necessity of a Divine precept to do that, and exposed to dreadful penalties and woes if I do not do that; there is therefore no thanks I can claim upon that account; all that I can glory in is, that I do it without charge to those to whom I preach it. Some make a doubt, whether there lieth the same necessity upon ministers now to preach the gospel, and they be liable to the same dangers and penalties, if they do it not. I see no reason at all to doubt it; for what necessity lay upon Paul, or any of the apostles, but a necessity of precept, that is, they were obliged to obey the command of God in the case, and liable to such penalties in case of neglect, as men are subject to that obey not the command of God, in fulfilling the duties of their relations? The same necessity, the same danger, is yet incumbent upon every minister; or else we must say, that the precepts commanding ministers to preach concerned the apostles only, or that there is now no such order of men as ministers (both which are indeed said by Socinians). If there be such an ordinance of God as the ministry, ministers are under the precepts given to ministers, one of which is to preach: if they be under the same precepts, there is the same necessity upon them of obeying them, that was upon Paul, and they are, in case of disobedience, subjected to the same woes and penalties. Indeed, every minister is not bound to go up and down the world to preach, his relation is to a particular flock; that travelling to carry the gospel about the world was peculiar to the apostles, for the first plantation of the gospel; but so was not preaching; if it had: Timothy and Titus would have had no such charge as to that work. It is true, ministers are not bound to preach in others’ houses without their leave; therefore we read very little of the apostles preaching in the temple and synagogues, nor without the leave of the Jews. But Paul judged himself bound to preach in the school of Tyrannus, Act 19:9, and in his own hired house at Rome, Act 28:30,31. For the circumstance of numbers, to which they are bound to preach, the Holy Scripture hath no where determined, and ministers are left to be guided by their own prudence according to circumstances; but preach they must, if they be called of God; he hath sent them to it, fitted them for the work, and they have taken it upon them, and woe will be to every minister, so called and sent of God, if he doth not fulfil his ministry, as he hath opportunity and wisdom, considering circumstances, in order to the end which he is to aim at and to act for.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 19 That which the apostle glories in, is not his…
That which the apostle glories in, is not his bare preaching of the gospel, but his preaching of it freely and without maintenance: "For, says he, though I preach the gospel, that has nothing singular in it, others do it as well as myself, and I am bound to do it as well as others; for necessity is laid upon me, by special call and command from Christ, so to do; yea, woe is unto me for my disobedience to Christ in the heavenly vision, Act 26:12-18 if I preach not the gospel.
Now if I do this thing willingly, that is, freely, without demanding any thing of you for my pains, which I might do, I have a reward: that is, a special reward from God, and may glory in it: but if I preach unwillingly, (demanding a maintenance for my pains, and refusing to preach without it,) all that can be said is this, that a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me; and so in preaching I only discharge a trust of which I cannot boast or glory."
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The strength of the apostle’s argument lies here: "No man can reasonably boast of, glory in, or expect an extraordinary reward for, the doing of that under a command from his superior to do, and that under a penalty too."
Now this was his case: necessity was laid upon him to preach the gospel, but no necessity but what he laid upon himself to preach it freely; therefore for him to do it without demanding any reward from them for doing it, this made it matter of glorying to him, which he declares he had rather die than any should take from him.
But was it the apostle’s own glory that he was thus fond of, and concerned for, that he had rather lose his life, than lose?
No, it was the glory of God, the honour of the gospel, that was so inexpressibly dear unto him: the great apostle did, upon pure principles of faith and love from his heart and soul, design the glory of God, pursuant to which he did cheerfully and willingly apply himself to the preaching of the gospel, waiting upon God for his acceptance and reward, without expecting any wages (as he might) from them his Corinthian converts; and this was the matter of his boasting and glorying in the face of the false apostles, who insinuated that he preached the gospel for filthy lucre’ sake.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v19 The apostle takes occasion from what he had before…
The apostle takes occasion from what he had before discoursed to mention some other instances of his self-denial and parting with his liberty for the benefit of others.
I. He asserts his liberty (Co1 9:19): Though I be free from all men. He was free-born, a citizen of Rome. He was in bondage to none, nor depended upon any for his subsistence; yet he made himself a servant to all, that he might gain the more. He behaved as a servant; he laboured for their good as a servant; he was careful to please, as a servant to his master; he acted in many cases as if he had no privileges; and this that he might gain the more, or make the more converts to Christianity. He made himself a servant, that they might be made free.
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II. He specifies some particulars wherein he made himself a servant to all. He accommodated himself to all sorts of people. 1. To the Jews, and those under the law, he became a Jew, and as under the law, to gain them. Though he looked on the ceremonial law as a yoke taken off by Christ, yet in many instances he submitted to it, that he might work upon the Jews, remove their prejudices, prevail with them to hear the gospel, and win them over to Christ. 2. To those that are without the law as without law that is, to the Gentiles, whether converted to the Christian faith or not. In innocent things he could comply with people's usages or humours for their advantage. He would reason with the philosophers in their own way. And, as to converted Gentiles, he behaved among them as one that was not under the bondage of the Jewish laws, as he had asserted and maintained concerning them, though he did not act as a lawless person, but as one who was bound by the laws of Christ. He would transgress no laws of Christ to please or humour any man; but he would accommodate himself to all men, where he might do it lawfully, to gain some. Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles, and so, one would have thought, might have excused himself from complying with the Jews; and yet, to do them good, and win them over to Christ, he did, in innocent things, neglect the power he had to do otherwise, and conformed to some of their usages and laws. And though he might, by virtue of that character, have challenged authority over the Gentiles, yet he accommodated himself, as much as he innocently might, to their prejudices and ways of thinking. Doing good was the study and business of his life; and, so that he might reach this end, he did not stand on privileges and punctilios. 3. To the weak he became as weak, that he might gain the weak, Co1 9:22. He was willing to make the best of them. He did not despise nor judge them, but became as one of them, forbore to use his liberty for their sake, and was careful to lay no stumbling-block in their way. Where any, through the weakness of their understanding, or the strength of their prejudices, were likely to fall into sin, or fall off from the gospel into heathen idolatry, through his use of his liberty, he refrained himself. He denied himself for their sakes, that he might insinuate into their affections, and gain their souls. In short, he became all things to all men, that he might by all means (all lawful means) gain some. He would not sin against God to save the soul of his neighbour, but he would very cheerfully and readily deny himself. The rights of God he could not give up, but he might resign his own, and he very often did so for the good of others.
III. He assigns his reason for acting in this manner (Co1 9:23): This I do for the gospel's sake, and that I may be partaker thereof with you; that is, for the honour of Christ, whose the gospel is, and for the salvation of souls, for which it was designed, and that he and they might communicate in the privileges of it, or partake together of them. For these ends did he thus condescend, deny himself as to his liberty, and accommodate himself to the capacities and usages of those with whom he had to do, where he lawfully might. Note, A heart warmed with zeal for God, and breathing after the salvation of men, will not plead and insist upon rights and privileges in bar to this design. Those manifestly abuse their power in the gospel who employ it not to edification but destruction, and therefore breathe nothing of its spirit.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv16–23 For if I do this thing willingly,.... That is,…
For if I do this thing willingly,.... That is, not freely and without receiving anything for preaching, without seeking any temporal profits and advantages; nor in pure love to Christ, and the good of souls, without any fear of punishment, or hope of reward; but the apostle supposes a case which was not, and his sense is, that supposing no necessity had been laid upon him, or any injunction or command given him to preach the Gospel, but he had entered on it without any obligation upon him, then, says he,
I have a reward; or should have one, or might expect one; so the Jews (q) say, that a reward is given to him, who does anything unbidden:
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but if against my will, or unwillingly,
a dispensation of the Gospel is committed to me; which was his case; the Gospel was committed to his trust, as anything is to the trust and charge of a steward by his lord, who is obliged to take care of it, and is accountable for it, and of whom faithfulness is required; he did not undertake this economy, or dispensation of the Gospel of himself, of his own mind and will, but it was enjoined him by one that had the command over him, and could and did oblige him to take the charge of it; though he made him willing, as well as able to do it: and therefore since this was the case, that it was not at his own option whether he would preach the Gospel or not, but he was obliged to it by one, that had a superior power and influence over him; hence, though he performed it ever so well, and with never so much faithfulness and integrity, he asks in the following verse,
(q) Maimon. apud Hammond in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv17–22 Willingly - He seems to mean, without receiving anything.…
Willingly - He seems to mean, without receiving anything. St. Paul here speaks in a manner peculiar to himself. Another might have preached willingly, and yet have received a maintenance from the Corinthians. But if he had received anything from them, he would have termed it preaching unwillingly. And so, in the next verse, another might have used that power without abusing it. But his own using it at all, he would have termed abusing it. A dispensation is intrusted to me - Therefore I dare not refrain.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv16–23 Verse 16. For though I preach the Gospel] I…
Verse 16. For though I preach the Gospel] I have cause of glorying that I preach the Gospel free of all charges to you; but I cannot glory in being a preacher of the Gospel, because I am not such either by my own skill or power. I have received both the office, and the grace by which I execute the office, from God. I have not only his authority to preach, but that authority obliges me to preach; and if I did not, I should endanger my salvation: yea, wo is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel. As every genuine preacher receives his commission from God alone, it is God alone who can take it away. Wo to that man who runs when God has not sent him; and wo to him who refuses to run, or who ceases to run, when God has sent him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv19–20 1Co 9:19. For though I be free from all…
1Co 9:19. For though I be free from all men — Not bound to do that which seems unlawful, inconvenient, or disadvantageous to myself, to please any man; yet have I made myself a servant unto all — Addicting myself to the most fatiguing duties, that I might advance their happiness; or complying with the persuasions and inclinations of others in things indifferent. The original expression, εμαυτον εδουλωσα, is literally, I have enslaved myself to all; an expression peculiarly beautiful and proper as used here by the apostle. “Slaves wrought for their masters without hire, and were careful to comply with their humours. And the apostle, while preaching the gospel, reduced himself to the condition of a slave, both by serving all men without hire, nay, without requiring a maintenance from them, and by complying with their prejudices in all cases wherein he could do it without sin.” In other words, he acted with as self-denying a regard to their interests, and as much caution not to offend them, as if he had been absolutely in their power, as a slave is in that of his master. Where is the preacher of the gospel who treads in the same steps? That I might gain the more — To true religion and salvation; in which, as he might have added, I have found a noble equivalent for all I could do or bear. By the word κερδησω, translated I might gain, the apostle intimates, that his converting men to Christ was a part of the gain or hire, which he proposed to obtain by preaching the gospel.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv16–23 For though I preach the gospel ... - This,…
For though I preach the gospel ... - This, with the two following verses, is a very difficult passage, and has been very variously understood by interpreters. The general scope and purpose of the passage is to show what was the ground of his “glorying,” or of his hope of” reward” in preaching the gospel. In 1CO 9:15. He had intimated that he had cause of” glorying,” and that that cause was one which he was determined no one should take away. In this passage 1CO 9:16-18. He states what that was. He says, it was not simply that he preached; for there was a necessity laid on him, and he could not help it; his call was such, the command was such, that his life would be miserable if he did not do it, But all idea of “glorying,” or of “reward,” must be connected with some voluntary service - something which would show the inclination, disposition, desire of the soul. And as that in his case could not be well shown where a “necessity” was laid on him, it could be shown only in his submitting voluntarily to trials; in denying himself; in being willing to forego comforts which he might lawfully enjoy; and in thus furnishing a full and complete test of his readiness to do anything to promote the gospel. The essential idea here is, therefore, that there was such a necessity laid on him in his call to preach the gospel, that his compliance with that call could not be regarded as appropriately connected with reward; and that in his case the circumstance which showed that reward would be proper, was, his denying himself, and making the gospel without charge. This would show that “his heart was in the thing;” that he was was not urged on by necessity; that he loved the work; and that it would be consistent for the Lord to reward him for his self-denials and toils in his service.
I have nothing to glory of - The force of this would be better seen by a more literal translation. “It is not to me glorying;” that is, this is not the cause of my glorying, or rejoicing οὐκ ἔστι μοι καύχημα ouk esti moi kauchēma. In 1Co 9:15 he had said that he had a cause of glorying, or of joy (καύχημα kauchēma). He here says that that joy or glorying did not consist in the simple fact that he preached the gospel; for necessity was laid on him; there was some other cause and source of his joy or glorying than that simple fact; 1Co 9:18. Others preached the gospel also in common with them, it might be a source of joy to him that he preached the gospel; but it was not the source of his special joy, for he had been called into the apostleship in such a manner as to render it inevitable that he should preach the gospel. his glorying was of another kind.
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For necessity is laid upon me. - My preaching is in a manner inevitable, and cannot therefore be regarded as that in which I especially glory. I was called into the ministry in a miraculous manner; I was addressed personally by the Lord Jesus; I was arrested when I was a persecutor; I was commanded to go and preach; I had a direct commission from heaven. There was no room for hesitancy or debate on the subject Gal 1:16, and I gave myself at once and entirely to the work; Act 9:6. I have been urged to this by a direct call from heaven; and to yield obedience to this call cannot be regarded as evincing such an inclination to give myself to this work as if the call had been in the usual mode, and with less decided manifestations. We are not to suppose that Paul was compelled to preach, or that he was not voluntary in his work, or that he did not prefer it to any other employment, but he speaks in a popular sense, as saying that he “could not help it;” or that the evidence of his call was irresistible, and left no room for hesitation.
He was free; but there was not the slightest room for debate on the subject. The evidence of his call was so strong that he could not but yield. Probably none now have evidences of their call to the ministry as strong as this. But there are many, very many, who feel that a kind of necessity is laid on them to preach. Their consciences urge them to it. They would be miserable in any other employment. The course of Providence has shut them up to it. Like Saul of Tarsus, they may have been persecutors, or revilers, or “injurious,” or blasphemers 1Ti 1:13; or they may, like him, have commenced a career of ambition; or they may have been engaged in some scheme of money-making or of pleasure; and in an hour when they little expected it, they have been arrested by the truth of God, and their attention directed to the gospel ministry. Many a minister has, before entering the ministry, formed many other purposes of life; but the providence of God barred his way, hemmed in his goings, and constrained him to become an ambassador of the cross.
Yea, woe is unto me ... - I should be miserable and wretched if I did not preach. My preaching, therefore, in itself considered, cannot be a subject of glorying. I am shut up to it. I am urged to it in every way. I should be wretched were I not to do it, and were I to seek any other calling. My conscience would reproach me. My judgment would condemn me. My heart would pain me. I should have no comfort in any other calling; and God would frown upon me. Hence, learn:
(1) That Paul had been converted. Once he had no love for the ministry, but persecuted the Saviour. With the feelings which he then had, he would have been wretched in the ministry; with those which he now had, he would have been wretched out of it. His heart, therefore, had been wholly changed.
(2) All ministers who are duly called to the work can say the same thing. They would be wretched in any other calling. Their conscience would reproach them. They would have no interest in the plans of the world; in the schemes of wealth, and pleasure, and fame. Their heart is in This work, and in this alone. In this, though amidst circumstances of poverty, persecution, nakedness, cold, peril, sickness, they have comfort. In any other calling, though surrounded by affluence, friends, wealth, honors, pleasures, gaiety, fashion, they would be miserable.
(3) A man whose heart is not in the ministry, and who would be as happy in any other calling, is not fit to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Unless his heart is there, and he prefers that to any other calling, he should never think of preaching the gospel.
(4) People who leave the ministry, and voluntarily devote themselves to some other calling when they might preach, never had the proper spirit of an ambassador of Jesus. If for the sake of ease or gain; if to avoid the cares and anxieties of the life of a pastor; if to make money, or secure money when made; if to cultivate a farm, to teach a school, to write a book, to live upon an estate, or to “enjoy life,” they lay aside the ministry, it is proof that they never had a call to the work. So did not Paul; and so did not Paul’s Master and ours. They loved the work, and they left it not till death. Neither for ease, honor, nor wealth; neither to avoid care, toil, pain, or poverty, did they cease in their work, until the one could say, “I have fought a good fight, “I have finished my course,” I have kept the faith” (2Ti 4:7; and the other, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do;” Joh 17:4.
(5) We see the reason why people are sometimes “miserable” in other callings. They, should have entered the ministry. God called them to it; and they became hopefully pious. But they chose the law, or the practice of medicine, or chose to be farmers, merchants, teachers, professors, or statesmen. And God withers their piety, blights their happiness, follows them with the reproaches of conscience, makes them sad, melancholy, wretched. They do no good; and they have no comfort in life. Ever man should do the will of God, and then every man would be happy.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23 It is no glory. That is, I have nothing…
It is no glory. That is, I have nothing to glory of. (Challoner) --- If I preach the gospel through compulsion, fear, or mere necessity, having no other means of maintenance, I must not look for a reward in heaven; but now doing it through charity and freely, I shall have my reward from God; and the more abundant the charity, the greater the reward. (St. Augustine, de Op. Mor. i. 5.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv16–23 though I preach . . . I have nothing…
though I preach . . . I have nothing to glory of--that is, If I preach the Gospel, and do so not gratuitously, I have no matter for "glorying." For the "necessity" that is laid on me to preach (compare Jer 20:9, and the case of Jonah) does away with ground for "glorying." The sole ground for the latter that I have, is my preaching without charge (Co1 9:18): since there is no necessity laid on me as to the latter, it is my voluntary act for the Gospel's sake.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv16–23 16-18. St. Paul here declares that a simple preaching…
16-18. St. Paul here declares that a simple preaching of the gospel, as being a duty, on the lower plane of moral compulsion yields no glory; it has not the special higher reward he courts. His reward, the result of renouncing his rights, consists in this very conferring of a gratis gospel, embracing all the good which that is sure to include.
16. For necessity… woe—A divine requisition, enforced by a penalty of woe, obligated him to preach the gospel. But this was upon the level plane of absolute duty, while his holy ambition aspired to a Christian glory from higher self-denial and emprise. Barely to escape the woe did not suffice.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–22 16. necessity is laid upon me] See Act_9:6; Act_22:21.
16. necessity is laid upon me] See Act_9:6; Act_22:21.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv16–23 (16) For though I preach the gospel, I have…
(16) For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of.—Better, For though I preach the gospel, I have no ground of boasting. St. Paul proceeds now to show how his maintenance by the Church would deprive him of his right to boast or glory in his work. The mere preaching of the gospel supplies no ground of boasting; it is a necessity; God’s woe would await him in the judgment-if he did not so. A man can have no ground of boasting in doing that which he must do.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv16–23 Ver. 16. I have nothing to glory of. He…
Ver. 16. I have nothing to glory of. He is desirous to remove all appearance of haughtiness from his tone. There was, he says, no merit involved in his preaching the gospel. He did so from the sense of overwhelming moral compulsion, and he would have been miserable if he had tried to resist it. Necessity is laid upon me. "We cannot but speak". (Act_4:20)
The obligation of preaching.
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The sincerity of the strong emphatic language of the apostle in this passage is not to be questioned. His whole life is a proof that it was with him as he here affirmed. A law, a vow, was upon him; and there was no discharge, no intermission, until his fight was fought and his course was run.
I THE SPECIAL OBLIGATION LAID UPON THE APOSTLE.
1. In what it originated. There is no room for doubt upon this point. Christ himself had met Paul on the way to Damascus, and at the same time that he shed Divine light upon the mind of the persecuting Pharisee Saul, he
2. converted him into the apostle of the Gentiles, and gave him the "marching orders" upon which he was henceforth to act. "Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." The tones of that voice rang in his ears throughout the whole of the ministry which was thus inaugurated.
3. How it was fulfilled. The record makes it plain that the obligation was not only recognized, but practically fulfilled, in a spirit of cheerfulness, gratitude, confidence, and devotion. Such is the explanation of a life so different from the ordinary life of men; a life which Paul himself acknowledged to be one of toil, of privation, of suffering, and persecution. "Necessity was laid upon him." In Asia and in Europe, to Jews and to Gentiles, he offered with warmth and cordiality the unsearchable riches of Christ.
1. The opening which this obligation left for voluntary devotion and sacrifice. Paul says plainly that he had no choice as to preaching; preach he must; woe is to him if he refrains from doing so! Yet his ardent, generous nature desired to do something over and above what was required. This was the explanation of his refusing to receive pay and maintenance from his converts. He had a right to this, even as his fellow labourers; but he put this right in abeyance; he voluntarily declined what he might have claimed, and thus left himself somewhat in which to glory.
II THE GENERAL OBLIGATION LAID UPON THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. The acknowledgment here made by the apostle is one which may appropriately be made by the whole Church of Christ.
1. An obligation of authoritative command. The Lord Jesus, who is the Saviour of the world, is the Monarch of his Church. His order is, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." It is only open to us either to dispute his authority or to obey his direction.
2. A moral obligation of gratitude. Jesus himself has unfolded the law: "Freely ye have received; freely give." If we have a just sense of our indebtedness, first to the love and sacrifice of Christ, and then to the self denying labours of those whom he has sent to labour for our spiritual good, we shall feel the gracious constraint leading us to such efforts as he himself has enjoined.
3. An obligation enforced by many illustrious examples of devotion. They who read of the heroic enterprises of Christian evangelists, and of the noble fortitude of Christian martyrs who have died at the hands of those they sought to save, may well gird themselves to the labours to which they are invited by the spirit of benevolence, as well as commissioned by him whose authority is ever binding and whose recompense is ever sure. T.
Vers. 16, 17.
Compulsory gospel preaching.
I THE TRUE MINISTER BECOMES SUCH NOT BY MERE CHOICE OR PREDILECTION. Preaching the gospel is:
1. Not easy.
2. Often disheartening.
3. Its joys come rather after triumph over natural inclination.
4. Too responsible to be undertaken without authority.
II THE TRUE MINISTER BECOMES SUCH BECAUSE OF:
1. God"s command. Uttered to heart a "Divine call," corroborated by suitability, confirmed by blessing on labours
2. Claims of fellow creatures.
3. Conscientious promptings towards service.
III THOSE CALLED TO THE MINISTRY DARE NOT REFUSE. "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" To refuse would involve:
1. God"s displeasure.
2. The blood of our fellows resting upon us.
3. The nonemployment of gifts, and the consequences of this. H.
Ver. 22.
Soul saving.
The great apostle of the Gentiles was a singular man and lived a strange life. Some looking at him pronounced him to be a fool; others, a madman. He seemed, indeed, strangely destitute of that wisdom which places self interest in the front, and incites to the pursuit of position, power, and the praise of men. When brought to a knowledge of the truth, the future apostle relinquished the course which he had mapped out, and his association with Gamaliel and the great teachers. He commenced with gigantic self sacrifice: why? He desired to save souls. He became a great traveller from city to city, town to town, village to village, he went on untiringly: why? To save souls. He underwent extreme sufferings (2Co_11:24-29) to save souls. He exposed himself constantly to danger and death to save souls. With the Jew he banished from his mind all Gentile tendencies to save the Jew. With the Gentile he severed himself from all Jewish partialities to save the Gentile. He was willing to be anything or nothing, to do this or that, if by any means he might "save some." Soul saving had become a master passion of his soul. He was in the world for it. Everything must be subordinated to it.
I WHY WAS PAUL SO DESIROUS TO SAVE SOULS? He remembered:
1. The value of the soul. Of this he had the deepest conviction. To him the soul of man was the most precious thing in the world. Whilst men were seeking to save all other things, he would seek to save this. All other gain was as loss compared to the gain of a soul.
2. The fate of the lost soul He saw the unsaved soul going down, getting further and further from God, becoming viler, ripening for hell. The fearful words of his Master rang loudly in his ears. He believed them, he did not refine them down until they meant nothing. He saw the souls "cast out;" he heard the dread "Depart;" the "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" sounded in his heart; and he resolved that, as an instrument in the Divine hand, he would do his utmost to "save some.
3. The future of the saved soul.
(1) In this life. Tending upwards; becoming purified; increasing in joy, peace, usefulness; indissolubly united to God.
(2) In the next life. "With Christ." The fulness of joy. Every soil of sin removed. All powers becoming developed. The "higher ministry" commenced and continuing.
4. The glory of Christ. This was supreme in the apostle"s mind. The Master was first. Paul was pre-eminently a "Jesus Christ"s man." Soul saving redounded to the honour and praise of his Lord. Christ had come "to seek and to save that which was lost." The purpose of the Master became the all absorbing desire of the servant. Paul saw that his Master was glorified by the victories of the cross. So in season and out of season the apostle preached "Jesus Christ and him crucified" that he might "save some." He lived, laboured, suffered, for the clay when "the multitude which no man could number" should sing to the praise of Christ the sweet stanzas of the "new song." The love of Christ constrained him.
II NOTE SOME WAYS IN WHICH PAUL SOUGHT TO SAVE SOULS.
1. He used all means at hand.
(1) Preaching. He had a definite object in preaching.
(2) Conversation. He could preach well to a congregation of one.
(3) Writing. What a gift he had for "Epistles"! Letter writing with a view to saving souls is an excellent means, but it requires dexterous use. Paul could not "drivel," or be "goody goody," or "talk cant." Many religious letter writers can. Hence the contrast between ancient and modern epistles.
(4) Prayer. He "bowed his knees." Stiff kneed preachers often have stiff necked people.
(5) Living the truth. Here, perhaps, lay the transcendent power of Paul. He not only prayed, wrote, talked, preached, he was. Satan is more afraid of the gospel in the concrete than of the gospel in the abstract.
2. He complied with prejudice and prepossession. It we would make others like ourselves in things essential, we must first make ourselves like them in things indifferent. Paul tells us that to the Jew he became a Jew remembered Jewish feeling, looked at things from a Jewish standpoint, accorded with Jewish observances. To the Gentile he became a Gentile accommodating his utterance, manner, form of thought, mode of presenting the truth, to Gentile predilection. You can talk to a man more easily if you stand on the same platform with him. To the weak Paul became as weak; not insisting upon his liberty or ruthlessly running counter to imperfect conceptions. In fact, he asserts that he became "all things to all men" in order to realize his supreme object. Personal predilections must be sacrificed, and unpleasant restraints submitted to, if we would do effectively the greatest work under heaven. An unbending preacher will preach to unbroken hearts. An insistence upon our rights and privileges is a short method, often adopted, of ruining all hopes. A spirit of holy compliance, a disposition to stand just alongside the one we would gain, these are potent. We often bar and bolt the very door that we are trying to unfasten. Often we forget that we are speaking to very imperfect men, and that we are very imperfect ourselves. Compliance must, of course, not be unlimited.
(1) We must exercise discretion. We must abide in the realm of "the lawful," and select what will be truly "expedient." Sound judgment need be exercised. We must look to probable results.
(2) We must never sacrifice the right. Paul was most compliant in things indifferent, but most unyielding in things essential. When he yielded he not only confined himself to things indifferent, but made it to be understood that the things were indifferent. When they were regarded as essential he refused to comply. This is strikingly illustrated in his permitting the circumcision of Timothy, but resisting that of Titus.
3. He practised great self sacrifice. He did not think of himself, but of those he sought to gain. We have seen how willing he was to sacrifice his personal predilections. He went further.
(1) In some instances he sacrificed his maintenance, supporting himself by the labour of his own hands.
(2) He sacrificed his personal ease and comfort.
(3) He sacrificed much of his freedom he made himself "servant unto all" (ver. 19). A man who is prepared for illimitable self sacrifice can do much. No sacrifice is too great for the attainment of Paul"s life object. Christ laid down his life for it. He who bore the great cross spoke of crosses for his followers. His ministers often have heavy ones, but it is worth while to carry them, if by doing so we become instrumental in saving souls. Souls saved will be our "joy and crown" at last. What vast possibilities life presents, when we think that in it we may be the means of saving souls! This applies to all Christians. Every saint should toil for the salvation of men. All the sorrows endured and sacrifices made will seem like "the dust of the balance" when we see our spiritual children welcomed home. H.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Ver. 16.
Compulsory service.
The apostle here affords us a passing glimpse of his own state of mind in reference to his high calling as a "preacher of the gospel." The revelation of the secret workings of an earnest human spirit must needs be deeply interesting to us, and most of all in the case of a man of such noble nature as Paul, and in reference to a matter of such supreme moment. We could scarcely have a finer view of the ministry of the Word, a finer model of right thought and feeling about it, than is presented in these simple but lofty words. Chiefly three elements of feeling are here expressed.
I A SENSE OF THE DIGNITY OF THE PREACHER"S OFFICE. The preaching of the Word is evidently regarded here as a fixed and permanent institution of the Church, a work to which men are divinely called to consecrate themselves, and from which they may draw the necessary support of their life (ver. 14). And the fact that Paul disavows all self glorying on account of it, implies that there is that in the office which might lead a man unduly to exalt himself. But what is the real nature of its dignity? It is very different from that which belongs to social rank or any kind of worldly distinction. Much mischief springs from losing sight of this difference. Ever since the time when a halo of worldly glory began to be thrown around the witness for Christ, and the ideas of social elevation, priestly supremacy, large emolument, luxurious ease, came to be associated with it, it has been degraded by the intrusion of false motive, and by being made the prize of a purely carnal ambition. The dignity Paul recognizes in it is that which is inherent in all high and holy service; the honour he would have paid to it is that which is due to a faithful discharge of sacred responsibility. The dignity of the preacher"s function lies in such facts as these:
1. It brings a man, more than any other office does, into habitual contact with the mind of God and with the realities of the invisible world. Not that he who sustains it has in this respect a privilege denied to others. Every path of human life may be thus gilded and gladdened by the heavenly glory. But it is his special business, by habits of thought and prayer, to become mere deeply conversant than other men with the revelations of God and the things unseen and eternal. And the fact that his work demands that mind and heart should be ever dwelling in such a high spiritual region, imparts a greatness and dignity to it surpassing that of all others.
2. It brings him into a purely spiritual relationship with his fellow men.
Other human relations are more superficial. The world recognizes no bonds of union but such as grow out of the passing interests and experiences of this present life. To the preacher of the gospel, as such, the secular aspect of the position men occupy is nothing as compared with the spiritual. He "knows no man after the flesh." He has to do with the nobler, the immortal part of them, "to watch for their souls as one that must give account.
3. It leads on to eternal issues. All the grandeur of the endless futurity overshadows it. None of our earthly businesses have reference merely to the issues of time. Lines of moral influence are connected with them that stretch out into the great hereafter. But this is specially the case with the work of the Christian teacher, It must have infinite developments. It is the seed sewing for an eternal harvest. It is to every man "none other than the savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.
II THE SENSE OF PERSONAL UNWORTHINESS. "Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of." The conscious dignity of his office is coupled with deep humility. "Who is sufficient for these things?". (2Co_2:16) Paul"s humility, indeed, was not that of the man who is always doubting his right to the position he occupies, and fitness for the work he is doing. He knew that he bore the stamp and seal of a Divine commission.. And every true preacher of the Word must in a measure share this feeling. If a man has no conscious or acknowledged fitness for the work, he has no business to undertake it. But it must needs be that, in hours of calm reflection, in the solitude and silence of the night, he will often lie
Contemplating his own unworthiness.
Many things will serve to humble him.
1. The thought that he is but an instrument in the hands of God. (1Co_3:5-7)
2. The fact that, in proclaiming the mercy of God to sinners, he has to look upon himself as the foremost of those who need that mercy. (1Ti_1:15, 1Ti_1:16)
3. The light the Word he preaches continually sheds on the evils of his own heart and life.
4. The sense of the subtle spiritual dangers that beset his sacred calling.
5. The fear "lest that by any means, having preached to others, he himself should be a castaway" (ver. 27).
III A SENSE OF MORAL CONSTRAINT. "Necessity is laid upon me," etc. The apostle felt that he had been invested by the risen Lord with a very solemn stewardship, and That he dared not be unfaithful to it. The heaviest of all "woes," the woe of a remorseful conscience, the woe of a spirit that has fallen from the height of a glory that might have been its own forever, would fall upon him if he did. His would be the misery of being basely untrue to himself as well as to iris Divine Master. There are two kinds of moral "necessity the necessity of an external force and that of an internal: the necessity of an outward law, backed by some form of outward penalty; and the necessity of an inward impulse, backed by the sacred fear of inward shame and loss. It was this latter kind of necessity of which he was supremely conscious. It was consistent with perfect moral freedom, because it was of the nature of a resistless force in the depths of his own soul, the decision of his own will, the impulse of his own heart. The will of God had imposed this stewardship, this "dispensation of the gospel," upon him. he had been separated unto it from his very birth. (Rom_1:1; Gal_1:15) And God"s will had become his will, God"s purpose his purpose. The manifested love of Christ had become a constraining power within him, leading his whole being into captivity, drawing forth every energy of his nature in a holy and joyous service. This kind of "necessity" is the loftiest principle by which any human spirit can be actuated. Never is a man so great, so free, so royal, so divinely blessed, as when he is intelligently conscious of it. This is the true inspiration of gospel ministry. The harvest is great. May the Lord of the harvest "send forth labourers" thus inwardly constrained to serve him! W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv17, 20 For if I do this thing willingly I have…
1Co_9:17-19
For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward.
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Purity of motive required in every Christian minister
I. Wherein it consists.
1. A willing service.
2. Without respect to fee or reward.
3. He may receive but must not bargain for it.
II. Its importance.
1. If pure, Christ will reward him.
2. If impure, his service is merely professional and has its reward.
III. Its present recompense.
1. Freedom from all imputation of mercenary motives.
2. The free dispensation of the gospel.
3. The consciousness of his own integrity. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
Aspects of St. Pauls ministry
His preaching was no ground of boasting (1Co_9:16). If he preached willingly, i.e., if it were optional with him to preach or not to preach, then it would be a ground of boasting; but if he did it unwillingly, i.e., if it were not optional with him (as was in fact the case), he was only discharging an official duty, and had nothing to boast of. That Paul preached the gospel willingly, that he esteemed it his highest joy and glory, is abundantly evident (Rom_1:5; Rom_11:13; Rom_15:15-16; 1Co_15:9-10; Gal_1:15-16; Eph_3:8). The difference, therefore, here expressed between willing and unwilling, is not the difference between cheerfully and reluctantly, but between optional and obligatory. He says he had a dispensation or stewardship committed to him. Stewards were commonly slaves. There is a great difference between what a slave does in obedience to a command, and what a man volunteers to do of his own accord. And this is the difference to which the apostle refers. So Paul was commanded to preach the gospel, and he did it with his whole heart; but he was not commanded to refuse to receive a support from the churches. The former, therefore, was not a ground of boasting, not a thing for which he could claim the reward of special confidence; the latter was. He could appeal to it as a proof, not only of his obedience, but of the purity of the motive which prompted that obedience. A physician may attend the sick from the highest motives, though he receives a remuneration for his services. But when he attends the poor gratuitously, though the motives may be no higher, the evidence of their purity is placed beyond question. Pauls ground of glorying, therefore, was not preaching, for that was a matter of obligation; but his preaching gratuitously, which was altogether optional. He gained something by it. He gained the confidence even of his enemies. But as preaching was not optional but obligatory, he did not gain confidence by it. The principle on which the apostles argument is founded is recognised by our Lord in Luk_17:10. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Ministers and wealth
Rev. T. Hancocks, of Chatham, formerly a Pastors College student, relates the following reminiscence of Mr. Spurgeon, introduced by the late president into one of his lectures to his students, and which is particularly interesting in the light of his last will and testament: Men sometimes say, Spurgeons making a good thing of it. To which I reply, You are perfectly right, for I serve a Master who is no niggard, but who rewards me daily with both hands. But if they mean that I am saving money--well, they will know when Im gone. I give away all I can get, and could wisely use more.
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.--
True ministerial independence
I. Its nature. Freedom--
1. As far as possible from personal obligation.
2. In the declaration of Divine truth.
3. In the conscientious discharge of duty.
II. Its use. In the service of all--
1. By patient toil.
2. By forbearance.
3. By Christian compliances.
III. Its motive.
1. Christs honour.
2. In the gain of souls. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The highest service of man earth
The services of men on earth embrace a large variety. There is the service of the agriculturist, the mechanic, the mariner, the merchant, the scientist, the legislator, the king, &c. Men esteem these services as differing widely in respectability and honour; but the service referred to in the text stands infinitely above all. Four thoughts are suggested concerning this service.
I. It is a service for the gaining of men. That I might gain the more. The more what? Not the gaining the more wealth, fame, or pleasure; but the gaining of men. Christ says, Thou hast gained thy brother. There is a way of winning a man. Morally man is lost. No work in the universe is higher than this--to gain a man, to recover him to the true spirit and mission of life.
II. It is a service independent of men. Though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all. Oh, how this high service has been degraded by the crowds of craven and mercenary souls that have pushed themselves into it! I am free from all men, says Paul. I made myself servant. I was not made by human authority, I was not pushed into it by others, I made myself. A man by Gods grace must make himself for the work.
III. It is a service for universal man. Unto all. All men, not to any particular tribe, sect, or nation, but to all, rich and poor, high and low, cultured and rude. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv16–23 16. For though I preach * * * I…
16. For though I preach * * * I have nothing to glory of. He preached because he was Christ's servant. He was therefore under necessity, as a servant. Nay, “woe was upon him” if he obeyed not. In this, then, he had no right to boast. But if he refused a support from the churches when he had liberty to receive it, that might make a ground of boasting.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v23 1Co_9:24.—His own salvation is at stake as well as…
CRITICAL NOTES
1Co_9:24.—His own salvation is at stake as well as that of his hearers. He must do all these things, not only as expedients which for his hearers’ sakes may make him a successful soul-winner, but because to do everything he can to ensure success is to discharge faithfully his “stewardship” (1Co_9:17), and is thus one condition of his final acceptance when he comes to the goal. The comma after “run” in the A. V., and, still more, the “even so run” in the R.V., makes it clear that the reading should not be carelessly taken to be, “Run so that ye may,” nor, “So run as that ye may.” “So” looks not forward to “that ye may obtain,” but backward, to the way racers run who know that they are competitors, the success of one of whom means the failure of all the others. This is not a maxim standing alone and meaning, “Do you run your Christian course in such a manner as to ensure that you will win the prize.” It is a picture gathering up the scene on which Paul and his hearers are gazing. “See the sustained straining, and the concentration of energy; see how nothing diverts attention from the Prize; see the fierce eagerness of competition; remember the long, self-denying training for that moment of supreme effort. That is the way to win your Crown. Run your course like that—so—thus—if you mean to attain.”
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1Co_9:25.—Racing, boxing, wrestling, all kinds of athletic contests “for the mastery.” See the rendering. The Olympic games were in Paul’s time still celebrated, and survived the Isthmian, which, however, were more familiar to the Corinthians, and at the time were more important. Nero contended in them, with “an agony to succeed” (Stanley). Ten months’ preliminary training—dieting, etc.—was obligatory on every competitor. [The metaphor of the foot race is found not only in Php_3:12; Php_3:14; 2Ti_4:7-8 (Heb_12:1); but in briefer phrases—Act_12:25; Act_20:24; Gal_2:2; Php_2:16; Gal_5:2; 2Th_3:1; perhaps Rom_9:15-16. (See Dean Howson, Metaphors of St. Paul.)] A corruptible crown.—At the Isthmus this was of Grecian pine leaves; because these were so valueless intrinsically, the more to be admired was the eagerness of the competitors.
1Co_9:26. Uncertainly.—With no definite goal, keeping to no particular track. Beating the air.—As if fighting a shadow, or merely “lunging about” for practice to the muscles. “It is no ‘practice,’ but the serious contest, I am engaged in.”
1Co_9:27.—See Homiletic Suggestions. Buffet for “keep under.” Lit., by derivation, “Give it a blow that bruises it under the eye—to keep it in its place, as servant, not master.
HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—1Co_9:23-27
The Minister’s Care for his Own Salvation.—We see him:
I. In Conflict. Then
II. Crowned. Or
III. Castaway.
I. In conflict.—
1. 1Co_9:23 is transitional. A new thought is introduced, out of which this paragraph grows. The preacher of the Gospel hopes to be, needs to be, a “partaker of the Gospel along with” those to whom he preaches it. He is himself vitally interested in its truth and its success. He may be an apostle; but he is first a sinner, lost and in bondage, and himself needing to hear the “joyful sound” of release and recovery. The trumpet of Jubilee which he is set to sound, proclaims an “acceptable year of the Lord,” in whose happy issues he too hopes to share. He has heard the Gospel, and is rejoicing in its salvation; but if he is to retain his status, he must be faithful to his duty as a preacher, set to “save as many souls as he can.” If he fail personally, he will be a failure officially; no man will succeed in the ministry who does not keep his personal life right. Conversely, if he fail officially, through neglect or unfaithfulness, he will fail personally, His unfaithfulness is sin. (See this and some after points expounded in Separate Homily, “An Apostle’s Peril,” 1Co_9:27.)
2. A racer, putting all his energies into the race; making no play of his ministry, but most serious and arduous and even exhausting labour. A boxer, matched with a busy, active, dangerous antagonist in his very “body”; finding here again that it is no play to deal with himself. His nature every moment waits to render him secure, and then in his security to gain an advantage over him. Indolence, love of ease and comfort, and even natural weariness, need to be watched, lest they deal deadly blows at his life. He must be ready to return rebuke for suggestion, blow for blow. [“Get thee behind Me, Satan!” said Christ to Peter, who had revolted against the idea of the shame and the bodily suffering of the cross. “Do not think of such a thing, Lord! That be far from Thee! Be propitious to Thyself (lit. Greek); be kinder to Thyself than that!” Had the Master just passed through conflict in anticipatory presence of the cross? And now, with mistaken kindness, His friend, Peter, makes the very suggestion, which, quite innocently, His own holy body may have been making. “Shun the pain!” (Mat_16:22).] There are dangers of the couch, the arm-chair, the hospitable table, the glass, the pipe, the cycle, many (literal) body-dangers besetting, buffeting, the Christian “boxer.” [Make the very body come obediently “to heel.”] [As there are also dangers in the study,—of dilettante reading and work, known to, condemned by, nobody outside; dangers of success; dangers in days of what seems “failure”; dangers of the infection of the “secular” temper—for the minister may do his work in as thoroughly “secular” a spirit as any business man in the market or the shop.]
3. He is in constant training for his running. He must never suffer himself to get “out of condition.” Things allowable if he were not running a race, or if he were not in the ministry, and bound to “fulfil it” [Col_4:17; cf. the R.V. in Rev_3:2 : “No works of thine fulfilled before God; many things purposed, begun, half done, nearly finished, but “not fulfilled”], are not permissible to him. He must keep himself free, pure, not entangled nor self-ensnared, in the best order of body, mind, heart, to do his work and accomplish his “course.” [“Temperate in all things.” See Separate Homily.]
II. Crowned.—[Rev_3:11 is a warning to an official life that its official “crown” may be given over to, passed on to, worn by, some other who has done more faithfully and effectually work which was allotted to the uncrowned man. Rev_2:10 is the personal reward of the personal life. And notice] the “crown” of a successful, faithful life is “Life.” “Uncorruptness” in teaching (Tit_2:7, where notice the displaced reading, which was significant in its reiteration of idea), and in that love (Eph_6:24) which is the very element of the Christian walk, thus leads up to “life and incorruption” (2Ti_1:10). The purifying of the nature from all that belongs to “death” at last made complete; the life which sprang here from “incorruptible seed” at last developed into eternal, indefectible perfection of all its features and capacities; whatever of added happiness “Heaven” may include,—happiness ab extra, dependent upon surroundings, companionships, appointed employments; all this in perfection, with nothing of transitoriness to dim, even as a possibility, the enjoyment of the present; with no remotest possibility of an end, to cloud over as with the gradual closing in of an eternal Night, the Divine glory of the eternal Day of that world’s life;—this “Life” is Paul’s “crown.” The spiritual life here was all the work of Christ in the soul; and to His heart also that after-life which is the expansion, the fulness, the sequel as well as the successor of this, is the crown of this. Finis coronat opus Christi, et Pauli. [What crown is there of all for which men in the “natural” realm “strive for the mastery,” which is incorruptible? E.g. how much of the knowledge acquired by a lifetime of study and self-denying, enslaving labour is merely relative! It is modified, supplemented, made obsolete, almost before the man who won it and wore it is cold in his grave. Or, how distance of time dwindles and “corrupts” away the mere crown of fame and honour given by contemporaries, and not unworthily, to the majority of the famous people of any one century or nation! How unsatisfying the best reward of mere secular labours! How many a hot-browed athlete has found his crown begin to wither and perish almost as soon as it has been placed upon his head!] Or, unhappy alternative:
III. Castaway.—(See, again, below.) Of all the “lost,” is the rejection of any man more pathetically painful to imagine than that of the preacher, who has set others to run, who has directed their training and their running, who has enheartened them in their days of faintness or discouragement, who has seen them take the one last step which bears them in death over the line that marks the goal attained; and then himself presents himself to the Judge for “approval” and for crowning, only to be thrust away “reprobate” “castaway”?
SEPARATE HOMILIES
1Co_9:24-27. “Temperate in all things.”—(May be made the basis of a Temperance Sermon.)
I. Christian religion honours the body.—Only one that really does. Such religion as Corinthians knew took no account of it; bodily sins and lusts were reckoned things indifferent.
1. Some to-day make almost a religion of bodily exercise. Athletics the god which gets their best devotion. Read nothing else in the paper; can talk on no other topics. That an exaggeration. [Body not everything. Some giants very poor creatures in mind. Dwarfs have done great things. Two most wonderful figures in Europe at end of seventeenth century were two commanders of large armies: William III., an “asthmatic skeleton”; Luxembourg, “the princely hunchback” (Macaulay).] 2 As real an exaggeration to make teetotalism the only devotion, the only religion, the only remedy for human ill. [Easy to understand the “intemperance of temperance people”; not difficult to excuse, or even justify, it. Man who sees most of the wide extent, and dire results, of intemperance; lives in midst of its woe and wreck; finds all efforts, hopes, prayers, defeated by it; finds the thick moral induration of the drunkard-habit turn edge of keenest sword, or most pointed arrow; finds the work of years of painful recovery blighted by outburst of old, mad passion again; may be excused if he feel or speak with “undue” strength. May be forgiven his “madness” when he sees wife, child, friend, minister, dragged down to the slough of the sin and shame of drunkard-life. No doubt, too, if we could make drunken England into part of sober England, we should cut tap-root of nine-tenths of English ills, and solve many a social and economic problem. No doubt total abstinence the only remedy for large percentage of misery and sin; the most practical remedy, as things are to-day. Yet it is exaggeration.] It is not all. Some appeals to the intemperate are only less liable to become mischievous than drink itself. E.g. appeal too strongly to the saving of money effected; may cast out devil of drink by putting in covetousness. Appeal too exclusively to self-respect or strength of will; may make reclaimed drunkard a Pharisee in pride of self. May sometimes only have cured physical mischief by inoculating with moral poison—Be temperate even in your remedy fôr intemperance. True way of regarding question is to make it part of the Christian honour of the body, as an instrument through which Christ is to be served. Highest purpose of education is to make mind a fit instrument for serving Christ. And so too the body is His; He bought it; bought all of the man—body and soul. It is to be kept in best possible order for Him, and His use. Therefore, in mind and body,—temperate in all things.
II. What is temperance?—
1. See driver of ancient chariot, or modern four-in-hand; his strong bit; still more, his firm, skilled hand. That perfect control of his team is temperance. Man, boy, drives team of three bodily appetites; mettlesome horses, powerful, sometimes turbulent, in their strength; but they have their work to do. Temperance is having the team well in hand, making them do their work, but no more; do it, at the man’s will; or leave it alone, at his will. Horses must not be allowed to run away with chariot, with man. “Be temperate, lest team carry you over the precipice of ruin here and hereafter.”
2. See chorus on the orchestra, how built up of four classes, masses, of voice. Conductor makes each do its part, but no more. Too much bass, too much treble, equally spoil the music. If tenors (or even one voice) over-assert themselves, they spoil balance and harmony. Conductor makes each do its part, loud, soft, everything, as he will. Mind, body, pleasure, work, intellect, heart, will,—in the perfect harmony of Life, all take their part; no more, no less; nothing dwarfed or stunted; nothing exaggerated or over-grown. Be the conductor in full authority over your choir of gifts, powers, passions; make all temper to a happy balance and wholeness. Drunkard lets one voice out-shout the rest and ruin the music of the life.
3. Intemperance means not having oneself perfectly in hand, having something a man cannot say “no” to. [“Never so let yourself go that you cannot ‘pull up’ at will. Find cannot say ‘no’ easily? Then put foot down, say ‘no’ absolutely. Body wants to be master? Give it a buffet under the eye—that is Paul’s word—to keep it under. Make it know you will be master, the grace of God helping you. Body and mind are partners in business of life; neither is a sleeping partner; but not equal partners; body has some stake in concern, but must not have the management, especially in drinking. Mind—you—must be master. That is temperance.”] “In all things.” Rule for ancient athletes, and for Christians now, for everybody who wants even to win the prizes of life. Nothing really worthy in being a teetotaler, and yet an impure man; a hard worker, yet intemperate in relaxation after hard work. Not too much reading, music, sleep, anything. Every single thing in measure, all in balance.
III. In many things—not drinking only—this may mean total abstinence. As to drinking:
1. For every drunkard, or man or woman in danger, a necessity. Such must abstain, or they cannot be Christ’s.
2. For Christians it may become expedient (see Homily on 1Co_8:9-13). In England, in last century, may not have been. May not be on Continent to-day. Are things, however, coming, or are they come, to such a pass in England, that Christian people must stand clear of what is cursing England as never before?
3. For young people, safety. No guarantee “worth a rush” except conversion; even that sometimes overborne No strength but God’s in them absolutely to be trusted; but total abstinence a safeguard.
IV. If not, will not win the prize.—Happily public opinion is beginning to say intemperate people (in every sense) shall not. Also inevitable working of “natural law” forbids. Boys and men handicap themselves physically by any exaggerated or sinful excess. Success even in business means clear head, sober hand, healthy body. Highest work demands body and mind at their best. So Christ’s work demands it. Also if some intemperate men seem to “win,” they lose themselves and are cast away (cf. Luk_9:25; 1Co_9:27). [Our forefathers bore with intemperate Pitt, and too-convivial Scott, and the sinner Nelson. But, a little later, they would not give Byron his place in Westminster Abbey. To-day not all the witchery of their Shelley or our Swinburne must permit them to take first rank in our national devotion. Day coming when Christianised society will refuse, and say that neither an intemperate man nor an impure man shall lead the national life: “We won’t have it!”]
1Co_9:26. Christian Progress.—Compare the progress suggested by (a) Running with that suggested by (b) Growth. Four Contrasts.
I. (a) Progress, in the outward aspects of it: the life of action and of conflict, of speech, of work.—Every detail of life a step forward towards the goal or backward towards the starting-point, or out of the prescribed course altogether. (b) Progress in the inner life; in strength of character and of principle, greater simplicity and directness of motive; greater abundance in the fruits of grace, in loveliness and Christ-likeness. “Every detail a step.” Then how important every smallest detail. There is nothing which “does not matter.” Everything “matters.” And, further, why fear dying? It is but one more step, to be taken in the same strength as that next preceding and all preceding; the one step which carries the runner over the line which marks the goal attained; but, except for that, perhaps not intrinsically so difficult or so important as many another preceding. Let every detail of life have its right direction, and carry us forward.
II. (a) Progress in a definitely marked-out course.—The runner is kept right by rules and bounds imposed from without. (b) The thing that grows is kept right in its progressive development from within, according to the “law” of its very life. The plant or the body obeys the ideal of its kind or order. The oak, the moss, unfold themselves and assimilate and dispose into their structure new material, in obedience to the life within them. No need to watch or take pains that in pattern or kind the leaves shall grow those of the moss or the oak. So the new life in the soul has its ideal and its laws. It will naturally show a developing progress, the features characteristic of the Christ-life appearing of themselves. But the Racer is only kept right as he keeps within bounds prescribed; he may go wrong at any point. On this side stand God’s “Thou shalts”; on the other His “Thou shalt nots.” Within these lies the one, only path to the goal and the prize. If in his advance the racer has not submitted to the direction or the restraint of these, he runs “unlawfully” and “uncertainly.” He may not be surprised if he find himself, after all, “cast away” as the result of the Judge’s verdict. If all other indications of the course fail, the steps of Christ are the supreme summary of all direction. What He did, and, above all, the principles of His words and acts—these are His “steps.” They show the path in which alone progress can be made.
III. The progress of growth is solitary; that of running is in company.—The one palm will grow as well solitary in an oasis as in a grove of palms. No tree helps the next to grow. The children in a family grow hearty or weakly independently of each other. As there is a spiritual life which must be lived, and progress which must be made, alone. A man might be, if need were, a great saint in a great solitude. It would be one-sided sainthood. No Christian fellowship or united worship can do the work of the closet and the searched Word. But the progress of Running is progress in company; all the helpfulness of companionship and sympathy is brought into use. The runners in training for athletic contests will secure a friend to run by their side during the last “lap” of the course; by the fresh and unexhausted vigour of the friend to help themselves over the strain of the last portion of their path. The sloth or eagerness of one Christian’s progress will affect the pace of a fellow-runner. His steady pursuit of the prize may decide some feebler, wavering soul just feeling the first strain after the eagerness of the start is over, and beginning to wonder whether, after all, the prize is worth such an effort to win.
IV. Growth speaks of a steady, quiet progress; not to be measured from moment to moment, but palpable enough in accumulated results. We see that the plant has grown, or the body, but not the actual growing. Racing puts forward the continuous, eager, straining effort, and the concentration of it upon the one thing—the crown. Our life is no “walk-over” the course; no lounging parade towards the goal; but “racing,” with all the eagerness of competition, where the racers are companions, but not competitors. There is no turning aside to examine the beautiful sculptures and altars by the side of the course; no stopping to exchange greetings with the friends amongst the spectators. [“This one thing I do” (Php_3:13) is well illustrated by the last words shouted by the “coach” to the men in the trial eights on the river: “Now then, keep your eyes in the boat; look at the shoulder of the man in front of you; don’t think of anything but the time and the stroke.”] The racer’s progress is possessed by one idea: “The prize,” “the crown.” He sees nothing but that. From head to foot, from the finger-tip of his outstretched hand to the extremity of the foot, which barely touches the ground from one step to another as he strains along, and flies rather than runs—every inch of him, ever muscle in his frame, says, “The Crown!” Everything is made to bend to that; everything in life which will not help progress is discounted or dismissed; all must help to win the goal and the Judge’s award. The Christian man knows what he wants, and makes that the serious, ruling business of his life. [In Heb_12:1 are the added ideas of training away all superfluous “weight” every ounce which is not bone or muscle, which will help in running, and of stripping off all encumbering, “clinging” (= “easily besetting”) garments.] Look at the runners. So run, as they do, that ye may obtain. It is not never-ending progress leading to no definite issue; an endless seeking and never finding; an unending effort which attains to no prize. [Edward Irving exclaims, “Probation does not lead to probation, but to issues!” (Divine Judgments, vii.); to “crowning” or “cast away.”] “A great deal of trouble to make Christian progress!” Certainly. But see Pro_14:4 : “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean; but,” etc. Nothing is easier than have a clean stable, and to escape the “trouble” of cleansing it; but the indolent man must be content to forego the “increase which is by the strength of the ox.”
1Co_9:27. An Apostle’s Peril.—Both words, that for “preach” and that for “castaway,” are, themselves or their cognates, so common in St. Paul that we need not overpress the derivational meaning of even the former, or necessarily regard them as saturated with suggestion springing from the imagery of a racer. The herald who has called others and induced them to enter for the prize, who has announced the conditions of the competition and even seemed to be joining in the race himself, comes to the judge’s seat for the crown. “No crown for you; you have not yourself submitted to the rules, have not contended ‘lawfully’ ” (2Ti_2:5). And he turns away from the judge’s seat filled with the beginnings of the disappointment of an eternal failure. Probable; suitable to the context; true; but not certainly to be got out of the words.
I. An official application of the words.—Pauls peril is from his body.—He “keeps his body under.” Must take this precisely for what he says: not the “flesh,” but the “body,”—a narrower and very definite source of danger. Sin in Gentile life ran most frequently into physical excess. All heathenism, all natural human life, gravitates sooner or later into indulgence of the three physical appetites. Mere human wisdom and morals have no sure reason why these should not be indulged; the tendency is always to treat bodily sins as venial, or even indifferent actions. Strangely enough, also, the same temperament which makes some men, some ministers, seem highly receptive of the Spirit’s enduement of power, appears to expose them to the assault of physical temptation. From high spiritual exaltation to bodily excess is not an uncommon fall. Paul seems to have been by temperament and by special grace in little peril in one particular direction. [1Co_7:7, as usually interpreted, but the inference is by no means so certain as is generally assumed]. And he may be in some degree identifying himself with his readers, and the “I” not be entirely personal, but rather representative. A real danger to a minister arises from the frequent association with women in the work of his life, whether as grateful and attached hearers, or busy helpers, or the objects of his labours. There are dangers at the hospitable tables of his congregation. Dangers of indolence fostered by the sedentary nature of his work in the study. Nowadays ministerial athletics may become a peril. Paul is in danger from his body; and, further, in two particulars in this very chapter does he give the body a check. “Paul’s refusal of maintenance, and the bodily toil resulting thereupon, and his refusal to eat meat which might injure a weak brother, were blows against the spiritual power of his own body, and tended to make the body more and more a servant of the spirit within” [Beet, in loco. We may add also]: All the physical dangers and suffering which he not only submitted to, but accepted and gloried in (2Co_4:10; 2Co_6:5; 2Co_11:23-27), as the accompaniments of his work for his Master, became, through his persistent, voluntary pursuit of a career which made him run the gauntlet of so many blows upon his body, really in effect his own buffetings of his body. All the exhausting physical toil of the modern ministry; long walks, wearying pastorising; the contact, so repugnant to all the training and instincts of a gentleman, with physical squalor, dirt, disorder, and disease in the fulfilment of his labours; unwelcome exposure to all weathers;—all may be sanctified into blows which “keep the body under.” Asceticism, ingeniously, gratuitously, inventively prescribed, is uncalled for. In the direct application of the possible figure (above), official defect, and condemnation of his official life and work, are most prominent. But not apart from personal unfaithfulness and failure, and a personal rejection. [He regards it as quite possible for a teacher to lose his life’s superstructure and building, whilst himself being saved because on the one foundation (1Co_3:14-15).] Personal unfaithfulness is by far the commonest cause of ministerial and official failure. Not the apostle only, but the man, has to take account of the liability to be at the last a “castaway.” So then:
II. An application of the principle to the personal life.—
1. Every Chris-tion may become a “castaway,” and miss the crown. [The thought, but not the same (original Greek) word, in Luk_9:25.] All safety is of God’s grace, with which the man must co-operate; [and the co-operation is in the strength of grace also]. The grace must go all the way, for the peril goes all the way. [To the last the Christian soldier is not on the parade-ground, but on the battle-field. He must hold himself ready for fighting or sudden attack at any moment. No “standing at ease”! Danger never far away.]
2. No man is exempt because of high honour, long service, or great success in the work of God; Paul had all these. Nor because of great gifts or grace at one time enjoyed; Paul had these. Through these, indeed, fatal temptation may reach the soul; e.g. if a man thus honoured and endowed become proud, self-satisfied, self-reliant to the exclusion of dependence upon God’s grace.
3. Each man should know his own liability, his own vulnerable point. Perhaps, safe everywhere else, he may, like Achilles, be in danger at the heel; the lowest part of his nature, that wherein he touches the earthly most nearly, may be the point of attack, rather than the heart or the exalted intellect.
4. Each man should “exercise” himself [Act_24:16; the physical training of the combatant in the games]. Keeping himself well in hand; taking care that the spiritual is always the dominant element in his life. Yet the self-distrust, the watchfulness over oneself, the fear of the sad possibility of after all missing the prize, must not be so dwelt upon as to become a morbid dread, or a haunting terror, overshadowing with gloomy clouds the “joy of the Lord.” The case of a “castaway” is by God’s grace a very rare one, though a possible one. Moreover, dwell also upon the grace for the faithful, patient, successful running of the course until we say, “I have finished my course” (2Ti_4:7). [There is yet a Greater Runner than Paul Who is proposed for our contemplation (Heb_12:1-2): “Looking at (as well as unto) Jesus,” who has won His prize. Did He, may we not say, “keep under His” very “body”?] Leading up to the temple of Neptune at Corinth, close by the Isthmian race-ground, Pausanias the traveller saw two hundred statues of victors in the games, ranged in honourable array on either side of the path. What an inspiration to after-competitors! We, too, have our array of victors. Amongst the most distinguished stands the figure of Paul. No “castaway” after all! And the grace which kept him and crowned him may keep and crown any of us!
HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS
1Co_9:24. Six Earnest Counsels on the Race of Life. (A Sermon to the Young.)
I. Trifle not; the business is earnest.
[“Each word we speak hath infinite effect;
Each soul we pass must go to heaven or hell;
And this our one chance through eternity;—
To drop and die like dead leaves on the brake,
Or like the meteor-stone …
Kindle the dry moors into a fruitful blaze.
Be earnest, earnest, earnest,—mad, if thou wilt!
Do what thou dost as if the stake were heaven
And that thy last deed ere the judgment day.” (Kingsley, Saint’s Tragedy.)]
II. Delay not; the opportunity is short.
III. Err not; the path is narrow. [“Narrow!” Yes; as the railway lines make a “narrow” track for the engine and its train. But the “narrow” grip of the rails upon the wheels is safety for the travellers. “Liberty” from their compulsion to keep the track is danger, disaster, ruin. Plenty of liberty to run forward, in the only safe direction, with all prudent speed.]
IV. Divide not your attention; the work is difficult. [“The children of this world are, in (for the aims and purposes of) their generation, wiser than the children of light.” The “Jack-of-all-trades” danger of some characters.]
V. Relax not your efforts; he only that endureth to the end shall be saved.
VI. Faint not; the prize is glorious.—[J. L., in part.]
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv16–23 16. In this verse he certifies that he deserves…
16. In this verse he certifies that he deserves no credit simply for preaching the gospel, because he does it under a woe, involving the forfeiture of his salvation in case of delinquency; but he does deserve especial credit for supporting himself by tent-making while preaching the gospel, in consideration of the fact that he has a right to his material support, as he has so clearly above shown from the Word of God.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv16, 19 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians
THE SIN OF SILENCE
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1Co 9:16 - 1Co 9:17.
The original reference of these words is to the Apostle’s principle and practice of not receiving for his support money from the churches. Gifts he did accept; pay he did not. The exposition of his reason is interesting, ingenuous, and chivalrous. He strongly asserts his right, even while he as strongly declares that he will waive it. The reason for his waiving it is that he desires to have somewhat in his service beyond the strict line of his duty. His preaching itself, with all its toils and miseries, was but part of his day’s work, which he was bidden to do, and for doing which he deserved no thanks nor praise. But he would like to have a little bit of glad service over and above what he is ordered to do, that, as he ingenuously says, he may have ‘somewhat to boast of.’
In this exposition of motives we have two great principles actuating the Apostle-one, his profound sense of obligation, and the other his desire, if it might be, to do more than he was bound to do, because he loved his work so much. And though he is speaking here as an apostle, and his example is not to be unconditionally transferred to us, yet I think that the motives which actuated his conduct are capable of unconditional application to ourselves.
There are three things here. There is the obligation of speech, there is the penalty of silence, and there is the glad obedience which transcends obligation.
I. First, mark the obligation of speech.
No doubt the Apostle had, in a special sense, a ‘necessity laid upon’ him, which was first laid upon him on that road to Damascus, and repeated many a time in his life. But though he differs from us in the direct supernatural commission which was given to him, in the width of the sphere in which he had to work, and in the splendour of the gifts which were entrusted to his stewardship, he does not differ from us in the reality of the obligation which was laid upon him. Every Christian man is as truly bound as was Paul to preach the Gospel. The commission does not depend upon apostolic dignity. Jesus Christ, when He said, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature,’ was not speaking to the eleven, but to all generations of His Church. And whilst there are many other motives on which we may rest the Christian duty of propagating the Christian faith, I think that we shall be all the better if we bottom it upon this, the distinct and definite commandment of Jesus Christ, the grip of which encloses all who for themselves have found that the Lord is gracious.
For that commandment is permanent. It is exactly contemporaneous with the duration of the promise which is appended to it, and whosoever suns himself in the light of the latter is bound by the precept of the former. ‘Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world,’ defines the duration of the promise, and it defines also the duration of the duty. Nay, even the promise is made conditional upon the discharge of the duty enjoined. For it is to the Church ‘going into all the world, and preaching the Gospel to every creature,’ that the promise of an abiding presence is made.
Let us remember, too, that, just because this commission is given to the whole Church, it is binding on every individual member of the Church. There is a very common fallacy, not confined to this subject, but extending over the whole field of Christian duty, by which things that are obligatory on the community are shuffled off the shoulders of the individual. But we have to remember that the whole Church is nothing more than the sum total of all its members, and that nothing is incumbent upon it which is not in their measure incumbent upon each of them. Whatsoever Christ says to all, He says to each, and the community has no duties which you and I have not.
Of course, there are diversities of forms of obedience to this commandment; of course, the restrictions of locality and the other obligations of life, come in to modify it; and it is not every man’s duty to wander over the whole world doing this work. But the direct work of communicating to others who know it not the sweetness and the power of Jesus Christ belongs to every Christian man. You cannot buy yourselves out of the ranks, as they used to be able to do out of the militia, by paying for a substitute. Both forms of service are obligatory upon each of us. We all, if we know anything of Christ and His love and His power, are bound, by the fact that we do know it, to tell it to those whom we can reach. You have all got congregations if you would look for them. There is not a Christian man or woman in this world who has not somebody that he or she can speak to more efficiently than anybody else can. You have your friends, your relations, the people with whom you are brought into daily contact, if you have no wider congregations. You cannot all stand up and preach in the sense in which I do so. But this is not the meaning of the word in the New Testament. It does not imply a pulpit, nor a set discourse, nor a gathered multitude; it simply implies a herald’s task of proclaiming. Everybody who has found Jesus Christ can say, ‘I have found the Messiah,’ and everybody who knows Him can say, ‘Come and hear, and I will tell what the Lord hath done for my soul.’ Since you can do it you are bound to do it; and if you are one of ‘the dumb dogs, lying down and loving to slumber,’ of whom there are such crowds paralysing the energies and weakening the witness of every Church upon earth, then you are criminally and suicidally oblivious of an obligation which is a joy and a privilege as much as a duty.
Oh, brethren! I do want to lay on the consciences of all you Christian people this, that nothing can absolve you from the obligation of personal, direct speech to some one of Christ and His salvation. Unless you can say, ‘I have not refrained my lips, O Lord! Thou knowest,’ there frowns over against you an unfulfilled duty, the neglect of which is laming your spiritual activity, and drying up the sources of your spiritual strength.
But, then, besides this direct effort, there are the other indirect methods in which this commandment can be discharged, by sympathy and help of all sorts, about which I need say no more here.
Jesus Christ’s ideal of His Church was an active propaganda, an army in which there were no non-combatants, even although some of the combatants might be detailed to remain in the camp and look after the stuff, and others of them might be in the forefront of the battle. But is that ideal ever fulfilled in any of our churches? How many amongst us there are who do absolutely nothing in the shape of Christian work! Some of us seem to think that the voluntary principle on which our Nonconformist churches are largely organised means, ‘I do not need to do anything unless I like. Inclination is the guide of duty, and if I do not care to take any active part in the work of our church, nobody has anything to say.’ No man can force me, but if Jesus Christ says to me, ‘Go!’ and I say, ‘I had rather not,’ Jesus Christ and I have to settle accounts between us. The less men control, the more stringent ought to be the control of Christ. And if the principle of Christian obedience is a willing heart, then the duty of a Christian is to see that the heart is willing.
A stringent obligation, not to be shuffled off by any of the excuses that we make, is laid upon us all. It makes very short work of a number of excuses. There is a great deal in the tone of this generation which tends to chill the missionary spirit. We know more about the heathen world, and familiarity diminishes horror. We have taken up, many of us, milder and more merciful ideas about the condition of those who die without knowing the name of Jesus Christ. We have taken to the study of comparative religion as a science, forgetting sometimes that the thing that we are studying as a science is spreading a dark cloud of ignorance and apathy over millions of men. And all these reasons somewhat sap the strength and cool the fervour of a good many Christian people nowadays. Jesus Christ’s commandment remains just as it was.
Then some of us say, ‘I prefer working at home!’ Well, if you are doing all that you can there, and really are enthusiastically devoted to one phase of Christian service, the great principle of division of labour comes in to warrant your not entering upon other fields which others cultivate. But unless you are thus casting all your energies into the work which you say that you prefer, there is no reason in it why you should do nothing in the other direction. Jesus Christ still says, ‘Go ye into all the world.’
Then some of you say, ‘Well, I do not much believe in your missionary societies. There is a great deal of waste of money about them. A number of things there are that one does not approve of. I have heard stories about missionaries being very idle, very luxurious, and taking too much pay, and doing too little work.’ Well, be it so! Very probably it is partly true; though I do not know that the people whose testimony is so willingly accepted, to the detriment of our brethren in foreign lands, are precisely the kind of people that should talk much about self-sacrifice and luxurious living, or whose estimate of Christian work is to be relied upon. I fancy many of them, if they walked about the streets of an English town, would have a somewhat similar report to give, as they have when they walk about the streets of an Indian one. But be that as it may, does that indictment draw a wet sponge across the commandment of Jesus Christ? or can you chisel out of the stones of Sinai one of the words written there, by reason of the imperfections of those who are seeking to obey them? Surely not! Christ still says, ‘Go ye into all the world!’
I sometimes venture to think that the day will come when the condition of being received into, and retained in, the communion of a Christian church will be obedience to that commandment. Why, even bees have the sense at a given time of the year to turn the drones out of the hives, and sting them to death. I do not recommend the last part of the process, but I am not sure but that it would be a benefit to us all, both to those ejected and to those retained, that we should get rid of that added weight that clogs every organised community in this and other lands-the dead weight of idlers who say that they are Christ’s disciples. Whether it is a condition of church membership or not, sure I am that it is a condition of fellowship with Jesus Christ, and a condition, therefore, of health in the Christian life, that it should be a life of active obedience to this plain, imperative, permanent, and universal command.
II. Secondly, a word as to the penalty of silence.
‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’ I suppose Paul is thinking mainly of a future issue, but not exclusively of that. At all events, let me point you, in a word or two, to the plain penalties of silence here, and to the awful penalties of silence hereafter.
‘Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.’ If you are a dumb and idle professor of Christ’s truth, depend upon it that your dumb idleness will rob you of much communion with Jesus Christ. There are many Christians who would be ever so much happier, more joyous, and more assured Christians if they would go and talk about Christ to other people. Because they have locked up God’s word in their hearts it melts away unknown, and they lose more than they suspect of the sweetness and buoyancy and assured confidence that might mark them, for no other reason than because they seek to keep their morsel to themselves. Like that mist that lies white and dull over the ground on a winter’s morning, which will be blown away with the least puff of fresh air, there lie doleful dampnesses, in their sooty folds, over many a Christian heart, shutting out the sun from the earth, and a little whiff of wholesome activity in Christ’s cause would clear them all away, and the sun would shine down upon men again. If you want to be a happy Christian, work for Jesus Christ. I do not lay that down as a specific by itself. There are other things to be taken in conjunction with it, but yet it remains true that the woe of a languid Christianity attaches to the men who, being professing Christians, are silent when they should speak, and idle when they should work.
There is, further, the woe of the loss of sympathies, and the gain of all the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life. And there is, further, the woe of the loss of one of the best ways of confirming one’s own faith in the truth-viz. that of seeking to impart it to others. If you want to learn a thing, teach it. If you want to grasp the principles of any science, try to explain it to somebody who does not understand it. If you want to know where, in these days of jangling and controversy, the true, vital centre of the Gospel is, and what is the essential part of the revelation of God, go and tell sinful men about Jesus Christ who died for them; and you will find out that it is the Cross, and Him who died thereon, as dying for the world, that is the power which can move men’s hearts. And so you will cleave with a closer grasp, in days of difficulty and unsettlement, to that which is able to bring light into darkness and to harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul. And, further, there is the woe of having none that can look to you and say, ‘I owe myself to thee.’ Oh, brethren! there is no greater joy accessible to a man than that of feeling that through his poor words Christ has entered into a brother’s heart. And you are throwing away all this because you shut your mouths and neglect the plain commandment of your Lord.
Ay! but that is not all. There is a future to be taken into account, and I think that Christian people do far too little realise the solemn truth that it is not all the same then whether a man has kept his Master’s commandments or neglected them. I believe that whilst a very imperfect faith saves a man, there is such a thing as being ‘saved, yet so as through fire,’ and that there is such a thing as having ‘an abundant entrance ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom.’ He whose life has been very slightly influenced by Christian principle, and who has neglected plain, imperative duties, will not stand on the same level of blessedness as the man who has more completely yielded himself in life to the constraining power of Christ’s love, and has sought to keep all His commandments.
Heaven is not a dead level. Every man there will receive as much blessedness as he is capable of, but capacities will vary, and the principal factor in determining the capacity, which capacity determines the blessedness, will be the thoroughness of obedience to all the ordinances of Christ in the course of the life upon earth. So, though we know, and therefore dare say, little about that future, I do beseech you to take this to heart, that he who there can stand before God, and say, ‘Behold! I and the children whom God hath given me’ will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of those who saved themselves, and have brought none with them.
‘Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all came safe to land.’ But the place where they stand depends on their Christian life, and of that Christian life one main element is obedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles and missionaries of their Lord.
III. Lastly, note the glad obedience which transcends the limits of obligation.
‘If I do this thing willingly I have a reward.’ Paul desired to bring a little more than was required, in token of his love to his Master, and of his thankful acceptance of the obligation. The artist who loves his work will put more work into his picture than is absolutely needed, and will linger over it, lavishing diligence and care upon it, because he is in love with his task. The servant who seeks to do as little as he can scrape through with without rebuke is actuated by no high motives. The trader who barely puts as much into the scale as will balance the weight in the other is grudging in his dealings; but he who, with liberal hand, gives ‘shaken down, pressed together, and running over’ measure, gives because he delights in the giving.
And so it is in the Christian life. There are many of us whose question seems to be, ‘How little can I get off with? how much can I retain?’-many of us whose effort is to find out how much of the world is consistent with the profession of Christianity, and to find the minimum of effort, of love, of service, of gifts which may free us from obligation.
And what does that mean? It means that we are slaves. It means that if we durst we would give nothing, and do nothing. And what does that mean? It means that we do not care for the Lord, and have no joy in our work. And what does that mean? It means that our work deserves no praise, and will get no reward. If we love Christ we shall be anxious, if it were possible, to do more than He commands us, in token of our loyalty to the King, and of our delight in the service. Of course, in the highest view, nothing can be more than necessary. Of course He has the right to all our work; but yet there are heights of Christian consecration and self-sacrifice which a man will not be blamed if he has not climbed, and will be praised if he has. What we want, if I might venture to say so, is extravagance of service. Judas may say, ‘To what purpose is this waste?’ but Jesus will say, He ‘hath wrought a good work on Me,’ and the fragrance of the ointment will smell sweet through the centuries.
So, dear brethren, the upshot of the whole thing is, Do not let us do our Christian work reluctantly, else it is only slave’s work, and there is no blessing in it, and no reward will come to us from it. Do not let us ask, ‘How little may I do?’ but ‘How much can I do?’ Thus, asking, we shall not offer as burnt offering to the Lord that which doth cost us nothing. On His part He has given the commandment as a sign of His love. The stewardship is a token that He trusts us, the duty is an honour, the burden is a grace. On our parts let us seek for the joy of service which is not contented with the bare amount of the tribute that is demanded, but gives something over, if it were possible, because of our love to Him. They who thus give to Jesus Christ their all of love and effort and service will receive it all back a hundredfold, for the Master is not going to be in debt to any of His servants, and He says to them all, ‘I will repay it, howbeit I say not unto thee how thou owest unto Me even thine own self besides.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv16–23 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing…
For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; for woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel .
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv21–22 The expression is peculiar and might be literally rendered,…
without
The expression is peculiar and might be literally rendered, " not lawless toward God, but inlawed to Christ." See "Law (of Christ)," Gal 6:2; 2Jn 1:5. It is another way of saying, "not under the law, but under the rule of grace." Rom 6:14.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv16, 19 His boasting is not of his preaching:
His boasting is not of his preaching:
v. 16. For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel!
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v. 17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me.
v. 18. What is my reward, then? Verily that, when I preach the Gospel, I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the Gospel.
Paul here again obviates a possible misunderstanding. He was far too humble to feel himself worthy of preaching the Gospel, much less would he have his preaching made a subject of boasting: For if I preach the Gospel, that is no reason for me to boast. His advantage lay in this, that he renounced his right to support and preached without remuneration. For in the matter of preaching necessity was laid upon him, he was pressed into the service of the Gospel, the sovereign will of God determined his apostle-ship and, in addition, he was under immeasurable obligations to the Lord for His pardoning grace. But if service is rendered under such conditions, there can be no question of boasting. And more: For woe is me if I do not preach the Gospel! He was bound in the spirit, he was pledged, as a servant of Christ, and to the limit of his powers and abilities, to praise God through the ministry of the Gospel. And he must expect the judgments of the Lord to fall upon him if he ventured to disobey the heavenly call. Paul’s attitude was utterly unlike that of many preachers and teachers in our days that welcome every excuse to leave the service of the Lord.
The apostle explains his attitude: For if willingly I perform this, if I am engaged in this work of my own free will, I have reward. The very fact that a person is engaged in the glorious ministry of teaching and saving souls for Christ makes it worthwhile and constitutes a reward; but, in addition, there is the reward of grace, Mat 19:28-29, which the Lord has intended for them that abide faithful in the performance of their office to the end. But if, on the other hand, he does his work unwillingly, under constraint, he has yet been entrusted with the stewardship. The steward occupied a position of trust in the master’s house; but no matter what his attitude toward his work was, it was chosen for him, and faithful obedience was expected of him. See 1Ti 1:12-13. He could expect no reward of merit for work faithfully performed, for that would never go beyond his duty, but he might look for punishment in case of failure. Incidentally, the thought seems included, as one commentator has it: "Christ’s bondman, I claim no hire for my stewardship; God’s trust is enough for me."
Paul explains wherein his reward consists: Since this is the situation, what is my reward, the reward of mercy, the reward that makes the work worthwhile at all times? And he answers: That, in preaching the Gospel, I may set the Gospel forth free of charge. The gratification which he feels at rendering a real service and the satisfaction of giving this service free of charge, of offering salvation without money and without price to all whom he addresses, that in itself is a reward. And he does this in order not to abuse his right in the Gospel, that right which is connected with proclaiming the Gospel. It was a matter of joy and honor to him, not only to be counted worthy of preaching the Gospel, but also to do this work free of charge. The Corinthians have spent nothing on him, but he spent everything, including himself, on them. Such an attitude of unselfish devotion to the cause of Christ may well inspire all pastors and all Christians at all times.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv17, 19, 21 if I do this willingly
if I do this willingly
"if I preach willingly" or "if I preach because I want to"
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But if not willingly
The words "I do this" are understood from the previous phrase. AT: "But if I do this unwillingly" or "But if I do this even though I do not want to" or "But if I do this because I was forced to do it" (See: Ellipsis)
I still have a responsibility that was entrusted to me
This can be stated in active form. AT: "I must do this work that God trusted me to complete" (See: Active or Passive)
What then is my reward?
Paul is preparing them for the new information he is going to give them. AT: "This is my reward." (See: Rhetorical Question)
That when I preach, I may offer the gospel without charge
"My reward for preaching is that I can preach without receiving payment"
offer the gospel
"preach the gospel"
so not take full use of my right in the gospel
"so not ask people to support me as I travel and preach"
translationWords
reward
preach
good news
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 18, 19 9:16 compelled by God to do it: Acts 22:14-15;…
9:16 compelled by God to do it: Acts 22:14-15; 26:16-18.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.