1 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 9.
Paul the Free Servant of Christ. 1 Cor. 9, 1-27.
Defending his Christian liberty: V. 3. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, v. 4. Have we not power to eat and to drink? V. 5. Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? V. 6. Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? V. 7. Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? Who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
Paul now vindicates other rights: Is it that we have not the right to eat and to drink? Does any one question our claim to maintenance? Mark 6, 10; Luke 10, 7; 22, 30. He had the right to expect that the people whom he served should make proper provision for his support, that he might live at the expense of the congregation in whose interests he was laboring.
Another right: Have we not power to take about with us a Christian sister as wife? He maintains his right to be married if he so chooses. It is not only a right of Christian ministers that they may enter holy wedlock, but the apostle even declares it to be a matter of Christian liberty for a traveling preacher, a missionary, to be married and to take his wife along to the various stations. For a congregation to prefer an unmarried pastor because his maintenance will not require such large amounts of money is to impose a condition which cannot be made to conform with Scriptures. The other apostles made use of their right, and their wives usually accompanied them. The brothers (step-brothers, cousins) of the Lord Jesus followed the custom of the Jews in being married, and of Peter it is expressly stated that he had a wife.
Note: The expression, "brothers of the Lord," may be taken literally. For, as one commentator has it, "the statement, 'born of the Virgin Mary,' is an article of the Church's creed; but the question whether she bore children afterwards involves no point of Christian faith."
A final right: Is it that only I and Barnabas have not the power to stop working, to give up manual labor for our own support? Barnabas, who had been associated with Paul in the early labors in Asia Minor, Acts 4, 36; 11,22; 13,14, had disposed of his property in Jerusalem for the benefit of the congregation and had followed the example of Paul in supporting himself, even when on missionary trips, by the labor of his hands, a fact which Paul here openly acknowledges.
Incidentally, this reference to his former colleague shows that their difference of opinion, Acts 15, 37. 38, did not result in a lasting estrangement, but that the two leaders adjusted their difficulty, even though they continued to hold their individual opinion as to their preference in the matter.
Paul insists that they were not under obligation to work for their livelihood while they preached, which implied that they should not misunderstand him, but should rather realize that his intention was not to burden them, 2 Cor. 12, 16. So the three rights which Paul argues for "in fact amount to the one which Paul contends for in the sequel: he might justly have imposed his personal support, and that in the more expensive character of a married man, upon the Christian communities for which he labored, thus sparing himself the disadvantages and hardships of manual toil" (Expositor's Greek Testament, 2, 847).
With three parables the apostle illustrates his right and his power to receive maintenance at the expense of the congregation, the figures being taken from the camp, the vineyard, and the flock: Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who acts as a shepherd to a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock?
In case someone should serve as soldier at his own private charges, in case some one should go to the trouble of planting a vineyard and not use the fruit, in case a shepherd should have charge of a flock and not use the part of the milk which was his portion, he would be doing something out of the ordinary and could boast a goodness which no man demanded of him, for the rule was altogether the other way.
Note that all three figures find their application in the work of a faithful minister: the valiant soldier, fighting the battles of the Lord; the indefatigable vine-dresser, busy with the plants of the Lord's vineyard; the faithful shepherd, feeling the responsibility for every sheep and lamb of the Lord's flock.