1 Corinthians - Division, Gifts, Marriage, Love, & Resurrection
Session 14 – A Pattern of Self-Denial
(1 Corinthians 9:1-14)

What happens in Corinth…stays in Corinth!

It was an ancient day “Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New York” with all the immorality and debauchery of today.

Map of Greece / Asia Minor (Modern day Turkey):
Corinth
Olympia
Athens
Thessalonica
Philippi
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamos
Sardis
Laodicea

(Halley’s Bible Handbook)
Corinth lies 56 miles west of Athens, on the narrow strip of land (isthmus) between the Peloponnesus and the Greek mainland. Ever since the Golden Age of Greece, Athens had been the leading cultural center, but under Roman rule, Corinth had been made the capital of the Roman province called Achaia (which also included Athens) and was the most important city in the country. Land traffic between the north and south had to pass the city, and much of the commerce between Rome and the East was brought to its harbors.

Paul visited Corinth for the first time on his second missionary journey (Acts 18). He became acquainted with Aquila and Priscilla, fellow Christians and, like himself, tentmakers. During his stay of 1 ½ years he lived at their home. Paul later wrote two New Testament letters to that church and at least two other letters, now lost (1 Cor 5:9) and the severe letter (2 Cor 7:8). Paul also wrote the letter to the Romans while in Corinth (Romans 16:23).

(Chuck Missler – 1&2 Corinthians Commentary 1995)
Occasion of 1 Corinthians
Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church, a letter which apparently perished (1 Cor 5:9). (Some scholars believe it is preserved as 2 Cor 6:14-7:1.) This letter had been misunderstood (1 Cor 5:9-10) and Paul mentions it to clear up a misconception. [Remember: The chapters were not divided up until the 13th century; the verses not until the 16th.] The household of Chloe brought him news of cliques in the church (1 Cor 1:11) and the church wrote him a letter (re: 1 Cor 7:1), presumably brought to Ephesus by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus (1 Cor 16:17) who probably added their own comments. The situation was serious. Paul responded with the letter we know as 1 Corinthians.

The “Painful visit”
The situation worsened. Paul felt it necessary to leave his work in Ephesus and pay a hurried visit in the attempt to set things right. (This visit is implied in passages in 2 Corinthians, which speak of Paul as being ready to pay a third visit to Corinth (2 Cor 12:14; 13:1; his second visit is past, 13:2).

His references to “coming again in sorrow” (2 Cor 2:1) indicate that this visit had been an unpleasant one. It failed to clear up the situation and Paul went away profoundly disturbed.

The “Severe Letter”
Paul determined to write another letter, obviously very severe in tone, and it cost him much to write (2 Cor 2:4; 7:8). Had it not been successful it might conceivably have meant a final rupture between Paul and this church he had founded. This letter seems to have been lost. (Many scholars feel part of it is preserved in 2 Cor 10-13.) The letter was apparently taken by Titus, who was to return via Macedonia and Troas. Paul was impatient to know how it had been received. When he eventually catches up to Titus, he learns that all is well (2 Cor 2:12-17; 7:5-7, 13). Out of his great relief and joy, Paul wrote the letter we call 2 Corinthians. Almost certainly he visited the church soon afterwards.

Three Visits:
1) When church was founded;
2) The “painful” visit;
3) A visit after 2 Corinthians had been sent.

Four letters:
1) The “Previous Letter”;
2) 1 Corinthians;
3) The “Severe Letter”;
4) 2 Corinthians.

Authorship
There is no doubt that Paul is the author. He is cited as the author in 1 Clement 47:1, a first century letter, and freely quoted by Ignatius and Polycarp; plus subsequent frequent references.
The church at Corinth is the “carnal church.” Spiritual babes, immature and undeveloped spiritually. Unseparated from the world. They have only a minimum of doctrine; what they have is mostly practical, conduct-related.

Paul addresses the following:

Discipline, Chapter 5;
Going to Law, Chapter 6;
Marriage and Divorce, Chapter 7;
Christian Liberty, Chapters 8, 9, 10;
Lord’s Table, Chapter 11;
Tongues, Chapters 12-14;
Resurrection, Chapter 15.

Contrast:
1) Exciting speech of men vs. the Spirit filled preaching of Paul.
2) Wisdom of the world vs. the wisdom of God.
3) The spirit of the world vs. the Spirit of God.
4) The natural man vs. the spiritual man.

In Roman times Corinth was a city of wealth, luxury, and immorality – with a growing population that reached more than 300,000 free citizens and 460,000 slaves in the 2nd century A.D. The theater in Paul’s day seated 14,000 spectators. In the past, more than 1,000 hierodouloi – temple prostitutes – had been active in pagan worship rites, but these practices probably had ceased by Paul’s time, although the memory of that era was still fresh. “To live like a Corinthian” meant to live a life of sexual immorality and drunkenness. This was the Temple of Aphrodite. The Isthmian games, held every two years, made Corinth a great center of Hellenic life. (The Olympian Games were held every four years at Olympia, some 100 miles west of Corinth).

READ (All) 1 Corinthians 9:1-14

In the previous chapter, Paul exhorts the Corinthian Christians to lay down their liberty so that the “weaker” Christians would not stumble. Now here in Chapter 9 Paul uses himself as an example of what it means to do this.
A. Paul declares his rights as an apostle.
1) (1 Corinthians 9:1-2) Paul defends his apostleship.
[1-2] Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
a) Am I not an apostle? Remember the context: Paul addresses the Corinthian Christians about their “right” based on “knowledge” to eat meat sacrificed to idols in a temple restaurant.
i) Paul asks them to let go of their “right” to eat meat sacrificed to idols, even as he has let go his own rights as an apostle. But Paul will also use the occasion to defend his apostolic position before the doubting Corinthian Christians.
b) Am I not an apostle? We might think that this is obvious, but there were, apparently, some Christians in Corinth that denied that Paul was an apostle.
i) The requirements of an apostle is that, one, they witnessed the post-resurrection Lord Jesus Christ and, two, is commissioned by the Lord.
ii) The Call of Saul (Paul) to Apostleship: Acts 9:1-19.
iii) Paul’s Witnessing and Commissioning by the Risen Lord: Acts 26:12-18.
iv) Paul Taught by Jesus Himself: Galatians 1:12-17.
1 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV), “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.”
c) Am I not free? Paul was under the authority of Jesus Christ alone, and other Christians were under the authority of the apostles. Additionally, Paul was a freeman and a Roman citizen (See Acts 22:27-28).
d) If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you: As a former persecutor of the church, it then makes sense that some would doubt his apostleship.
i) How can our previous behavior (the old life) cause some of our friends and family to doubt the sincerity of our new Christian walk? How do we overcome their doubts?
2) (1 Corinthians 9:3-6) Paul asserting his rights as an apostle.
[3-6] My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?
a) My defense: Paul will now assert his rights as an apostle, as if he were a lawyer arguing a case. The words defense (apologia) and examine (anakrino) are both legal words, taken from the Roman law court. Paul feels like he’s on trial, or that he has already been “found guilty” by the Corinthian Christians.
b) Do we have no right to eat and drink: Paul is saying that they have the right to eat and drink at the expense of the churches. This is NOT an illusion to Chapter 8 regarding eating things offered to idols.
c) Do we have no right to take along a believing wife: The Corinthian Christians did not mind that the apostles brought along their believing wives, but rather that they did not want to have to support both of them.
i) Is there any reason why you feel that the church should not support the pastorate?
d) As do the other apostles: Most of the other apostles were married, and their wives traveled with them as they did ministry.
e) Brothers of the Lord: James and Jude, half-brothers of Jesus, wrote two of the books of the Bible.
Matthew 13:55-56 (NKJV), “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man geta all these things?”
f) Cephas: Peter (Cephas=Aramaic). This is interesting concerning Peter, who is obviously married, yet still considered by the Roman Catholic church to be the first pope, in contradiction to the principle of mandatory celibacy.
Matthew 8:14-15 (NKJV), “Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.”
g) Or is it only Barnabas and I: Paul and Barnabas were unique regarding support from the churches, in that they chose to work and support themselves, this way no one could accuse them of preaching for money.
3) (1 Corinthians 9:7-14) The minister is right to be supported by the people.
[7] Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
a) Who ever goes to war at his own expense? God’s people are often portrayed as an army, a vine, and a flock. Soldiers are provided for by the army that enlists them. You don’t have to bring your own ship to the navy.
b) Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? A farmer gets to live from the proceeds of his own labor.
c) Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? A shepherd also would live from the supply of the flock. Therefore, it seems appropriate for Paul to insist on his right to be supported by the people that he is ministering to in Corinth.
i) It is interesting that the analogy is appropriate for the work of the gospel (warfare, seed-sowing, shepherding).
ii) Is it better for pastors to work and minister or just minister and be supported by their church?
[8-10] Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
d) Does not the law say the same also? Paul is not only appealing by logic, but also by Scripture.
i) In Deuteronomy 25:4, God commanded that You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. This is the humane way of treating animals in those days. As it would be cruel to muzzle the ox while they walked around in circles, so too it would be unfitting to do the same to the preachers.
e) That he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partakers of this hope: Hope is the absolute expectation of coming good. A person that “plows away” at ministry should expect good things to come his way.
i) How can a pastor grow weary of the work of the ministry?

[11-14] If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
f) If we have sown spiritual things: Paul makes it plain, it is right for God’s ministers to be repaid with material support by the people that he is ministering to at church.
g) If others are partakers of this right: It was already the custom of the Corinthian Christians to support others, so it should not be unusual to support Paul.
h) Those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple: This is the Old Testament practice that the priests would partake of a portion of the sacrifices brough to the altar.
i) Nevertheless we have not used the right… lest we hinder the gospel of Christ: Here is Paul’s heart. Paid or unpaid, it didn’t matte to Paul. What matter most to Paul was that the gospel would be preached unhindered in any way.
i) THE POINT: So, Paul was willing to deny himself a very important right for the good of the Corinthian Christians, then they should also deny themselves the “right” to eat meat sacrificed to idols for the same good.
j) The Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel: This command from the Lord means that anyone who preaches the gospel has the right to be supported by those he is preaching to in the churches.
Philippians 2:14-17 (NKJV), “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”

k) The Lord commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel: The modern minister should work hard for the sake of his church and his Lord.
i) Should the modern day minister assert or release their right to be supported by the church?