1Co.08-1

Learning to live selflessly isn’t only about setting aside our pride as we talked about last week. It’s also about choosing to set aside certain rights for the good of others. Setting aside our rights paints a much broader stroke across our lives and affects more than just our eating habits. 

Our lives reflect back on who Jesus is. If we want to imitate him—who gave up all of his rights as God to save us—we’ll also have to make sacrifices for others. But if we don’t, we show non-Christians that following Jesus doesn’t really change all that much about our lives. And that simply isn’t true. 

At first glance, 1 Corinthians 9–10 might seem like it derails what Paul’s trying to say. Keep in mind, though, that chapters 8, 9, and 10 form an entire argument about eating food sacrificed to idols. As we walk through 9 and 10 this week, we’re going to discover that Paul’s getting at something much deeper than what we discussed in chapter 8. The big idea for chapters 9 and 10 in her teaching. She said it’s all about laying down our rights— about giving up the things we feel like we’re owed so that other people can thrive. But what exactly does that look like?

Paul spends the first half of chapter 9 answers that question.

As you read 1 Corinthians 9:1–18, look for how Paul describes giving up rights.

1 Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? Isn’t it because of my work that you belong to the Lord? 2 Even if others think I am not an apostle, I certainly am to you. You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord’s apostle.

3 This is my answer to those who question my authority. 4 Don’t we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals? 5 Don’t we have the right to bring a believing wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers do, and as Peter does? 6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?

7 What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk? 8 Am I expressing merely a human opinion, or does the law say the same thing? 9 For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? 10 Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.

11 Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? 12 If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.

13 Don’t you realize that those who work in the temple get their meals from the offerings brought to the temple? And those who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrificial offerings. 14 In the same way, the Lord ordered that those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it. 15 Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge. 16 Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!

17 If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust. 18 What then is my pay? It is the opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never demand my rights when I preach the Good News.

1 Corinthians 9:1–18 (NLT)

Paul could have made different decisions during his life. He could have taken a wife. He could have charged money for people to hear him speak. He could have asked the Corinthian church to support him— there are biblical grounds for taking a salary while in ministry. But Paul didn’t. He abdicated his rights so people could hear the gospel without being distracted by his life or financial burdens. 

Re-read the verse in 1 Corinthians 9:12.

Why would charging people money to hear the apostles teach hurt the spread of the gospel? Who would be getting the glory if the apostles had people pay to hear them speak? Who’d get the glory if they didn’t? 

Paul was concerned with exalting Jesus through his ministry. He isn’t worried about where the money for his next meal will come from. He simply wants people to hear the gospel, encounter Jesus, and become disciples. If he asked people to pay to hear him preach, he’d become the main focus of his ministry instead of Jesus.

Paul’s life and teaching show us we can let go of control over our lives. There’s an underlying fear in all of us that says if we don’t take care of ourselves, no one else will. But there’s a different way—the self-giving way Jesus lived out and asks us to imitate. Paul gave up his right to control where his salary came from for the sake of God’s mission and God’s people. He gave up control. 

Think about one area of your life that you like to keep under your control. Maybe it’s your budget or your schedule or your children. Picture what it could look like to control those things for the rest of your life.

What’s one tangible step you could take today to give control over to God? 

Text your response to the above prompting questions to your group and/or share it as a comment below