1 Corinthians 9
ButlerChristian conscience above the claims of Christian liberty: “Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” F. W. R.
1. AM I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye 2 my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for 3 the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me 4 is this, Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sis- 5 ter, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I 6 only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working? Who goeth a warfare any 7 time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or 8 who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? 9 or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not 10 muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? 11 or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he 12 that plougheth should plough in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be par- 13 taker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we 14 shall reap your carnal things? If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we 15 rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should 16 hinder the gospel of Christ. 17 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the tem- 18 ple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord 19 ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But I have used 20 none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto 21 me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. 22 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; 23 yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! For if I do this thing willingly, I have a 24 reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me. What 25 is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of 26 Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free 27 from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And 28 unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the 29 law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are 30 without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) 31 that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might 32 gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And 33 this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not 34 that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may 35 obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they 36 do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as 37 uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and 38 bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself 39 should be a castaway.
A good asceticism belongs to Christianity; the same which the apostle describes when he says, “I exercise myself to have a conscience void of offense.” By which he means that he puts himself to it by the direct training of his will. In this good asceticism we take ourselves away purposely, when it seems to be needed, from society, from gain, and from animal indulgence, that we may assert, with more emphasis, the principle of self-subjection to God, or gird ourselves anew to the divine keeping. Christianity takes in this element. Filling us with great inspirations, it puts us to a stout self-discipline also, that we may get position for still greater and a still more victorious liberty. Over against this good asceticism, there is also a false and a bad. It makes a virtue of self-torment, contrives artificial distresses to move on God’s pity, or pacify his resentments, or purchase his favor. It macerates the body to make the soul weak and tender. It dispenses, in fact, with faith itself, and even thinks to square its account with God by a due contribution of bodily pains and privations. This bad asceticism we exclude, the good we accept. And in this we shall train ourselves, sometimes even naturally, by a fast. If we are mortified by the discovery that the body is getting uppermost, if our Sundays are choked, our great sentiments stifled, by indulgences of the body we meant not to allow, we shall turn upon it in this good asceticism, and say to it with a meaning, “I keep under my body.” H. B.
PAUL had laid down the principle that it was good to avoid all injury to the scruples and conscientious superstitions of weaker brethren. When Christian liberty permits indulgence, very often Christian love says, Abstain. This was Paul’s principle. But does the apostle practice what he preaches? The whole of the ninth chapter is an assertion of his own consistency. He shows that he submitted himself for love’s sake to restriction, to which he was not in absolute duty bound. In verses 1-14 he proves his right to certain privileges, and there declares his salutary abstinence from many of them. F. W. R.—He enforces the previous counsels by a fearless reference to the self-abnegation which he had practiced during his own residence at Corinth. Let the members of the Church follow him, who had not sought his own profit, but followed Christ, “who pleased not himself.” The whole passage beautifully combines the Christian exemption from petty scruples, with Christian regard and tender consideration for all brethren in the Lord. D. F.
1-6. The privileges to which he had a right were domestic solaces and ministerial maintenance. Have we not power to lead about a sister-wife, that is, a wife who was one of the Christian sisterhood? Have we not, Barnabas and I, power to forbear working? The right to the first of these privileges he proves by the position of the other apostles: Cephas and others were married men. His right to the second—that of maintenance—he proves by his apostleship: “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free?” that is, not compelled to labor.
7-15. The apostolic or ministerial right he bases on these arguments: 1. By a principle universally recognized in human practice. A king warring on behalf of a people wars at their charge—a planter of a vineyard expects to eat of the fruit—a shepherd is entitled to take of the milk of the flock. All who toil for the good of others derive an equivalent from them. Gratuitous devotion of life is nowhere considered obligatory. 2. By a principle implied in a scriptural particular enactment, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” Did God, in this, take special care for oxen? or was it a great general principle—human, not confined to a single isolated case, but capable of extension to the plower and the sower? The ox was proprovided for, not because it was an ox, but because it was a laborer. 3. By the law of the Temple-service, the priests were supported by a special provision; animals sacrificed to God belonged partly to them. The whole Jewish ritual—the institution of Levites and priests—implied the principle that there are two kinds of labor—of hand and of brain; and that the toilers with the brain, though not producers, have a claim on the community. They are essential to its well-being, and are not mere drones. By all these arguments he proves his right. The apostle waived the right for himself; but he did this under special circumstances. He felt peculiarly bound, as specially and wonderfully saved. He had a peculiar gift qualifying him for celibacy. He lived in peculiar times, when it was necessary to have unmistakably clean hands, to be above all suspicion of mercenary motives. F. W. R.
10. Paul takes the plower as a representative character. He would teach us that even in worldly matters God had so linked labor with its reward, that every man who wisely and diligently pursues his work may reasonably hope for an auspicious result. The spiritual no less than the natural husbandman has ample reason to go on with his work in hope. In doing the divine will, whether in a public or private station, whether on a broad or a humble scale, whether in the way of action, of suffering, or of silent waiting, we have ground to hope for a beneficial result. It is, under God, one of the great secrets of success, this “ploughing in hope.” We may take heart from the triumphs of others, from the promises of Scripture, and from the rewards of eternity. Honestly endeavoring to make the most of life, let us “hope on, hope ever,” and we will live to some purpose. H. A. B.
16, 17. Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel! He was bound to do it. But he turned his necessity to glorious gain. That was his “reward,” that is, made him rewardable—by forfeiting pay he got reward; and in doing freely what he must do, he became free. When “I must” is changed into “I will,” you are free. And so in a profession you dislike, an alliance which is distasteful, a duty that must be done, acquiescence is Christian liberty. It is deliverance from the law. F. W. R.
20-23. Considering how uncompromising was Paul’s maintenance of God’s truth, what an infinite dislike of temporizing and dissimulation, what a strong love of plain speaking and plain dealing discovers itself in his character and conduct, it is surely very remarkable how he accommodates himself, not only to the general habits of thought, but even to the innocent prejudices of those whom he desired to win to Christ.
22. The one great aim which the Christian minister must ever have in view is nothing less than the salvation of souls—“That I might by all means save some.” His object in pursuing any secular branch of knowledge may not legitimately be other than that to which at ordination he vows to devote his life. But how is all secular knowledge turned into the fine gold of the altar when the pursuit of it receives the consecration of an holy intention! In the day when the chief shepherd shall appear, what an honor shall we account it, an honor almost overwhelmingly great for flesh and blood, to have said a single word, or to have written a single line, whereby the Word of God shall have been vindicated against skeptical assaults, and the mind, which was tottering in its fundamental religious convictions, planted securely upon the rock of faith! E. M. G.
24-26. Among the localities of Corinth, our special attention is demanded by the Poseidonium, or sanctuary of Neptune, the scene of those Isthmian games from which Paul borrows some of the most striking imagery of his Epistles, and especially of those to the Corinthians. It stood at a short distance northeast of Corinth, on a platform above a ravine, along the edge of which ran the fortifications of the Isthmus, here at its narrowest width. To the south of the temple may still be seen the “stadium,” in which, says the apostle, all the foot-racers run, but one receives the prize; and to the east those of the theatre, the probable scene of the pugilistic contest, the image of his own earnest fight with evil; and the coast is still fringed with the small green pinetrees that furnished for the victors that “corruptible crown,” the symbol of the “incorruptible” promised to the Christian athlete who keeps his body under and brings it into subjection. S.
24. But one receiveth the prize.** It is quite otherwise in the Christian race. There may be a great disparity among the candidates, but every one who endureth to the end shall be saved. He who is faithful over a little shall be as certainly rewarded as he who is faithful over much; each shall receive a crown as large as he can wear. They who run in other races have nothing but toil and labor till they obtain the prize; but in the Christian race the exercise itself carries part of the reward in its bosom: “Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” R. W.
In verse 25, “striveth for the mastery” should be “contendeth in the games.” In verse 27 the word rendered “keep under” signifies to bruise, to beat black and blue: “chastise” would be perhaps the nearest English. A.
The design of this passage is plainly to recommend the great Christian duty of being “temperate in all things,” that is, of obtaining an entire command over our passions, or, as it is expressed a few verses after, of “keeping under our bodies, and bringing them into subjection.” Poor as the reward was in those games, they who strove for the mastery in them were content to exercise the strictest discipline and abstemiousness, to renounce every pleasure and every indulgence that tended to weaken the body, and voluntarily to undergo many hardships in order to prepare themselves for the contest, and “to run so that they might obtain.” Will not the Christian contentedly give up a few trivial indulgences and transient gratifications in order to secure a prize infinitely more glorious; a crown incorruptible, felicity commensurate to the existence and suited to the capacity of an immortal soul? P.
26. To fight wisely is not to fight at a venture, but with a definite aim. “So fight I,” says the apostle, “not as one that beateth the air.” In which words he is drawing an image from the boxing-match, and declares that in the spiritual combat he does not wear out his strength by vain flourishes of his hands in the air, but plants each blow certainly and with a telling aim. E. M. G.—The Christian conflict can not be imitated. The soul must not merely speculate about it, nor gaze upon others’ record of it, but engage in it, each soul for itself. The closest watching of the Christian pilgrimage, the most accurate acquaintance with its theory, will be of no avail without this. G. B. C.
27. The fighting here alluded to is that pugilistic encounter with the cestus, or boxing-glove, which formed one of the Greek games held in honor of the god Neptune at the Isthmus of Corinth, and which, therefore, the apostle’s Corinthian converts had frequently witnessed. His body he regards as his antagonist in a pugilistic encounter, and accordingly employs a peculiar word, which, literally translated, signifies, “But I cover my body with bruises.” E. M. G.—Paul describes himself as one who by unremitting effort makes his body, the organ of sanctification intrusted to him, serviceable to himself as the servant of Christ. This conflict with the body of sin, inasmuch as the whole outward life of man manifests itself in the body, designates in general the entire conflict still to be waged by the spiritual against the fleshly man, by the new man against the old; and this in the case even of a Paul. N.—Perseverance is not only the duty but the privilege of all who set themselves in good earnest to run for
heaven; and though the law of God obligeth them, and the new nature habitually inclines them, “to keep under the body, and to bring it into subjection,” yet they have far better security than any efforts of their own. Omnipotence is their guardian, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. R. W.