The apostle answers, in 1 Cor. 9, to charges brought against him about his apostleship and preaching, and as to extorting money for his maintenance, etc. He asserts his perfect freedom in the Lord, and as to a proof of his apostleship, with regard to them, they were the seal of his apostleship in the Lord. A blessed answer to confound his accusers! Was he not free to eat and drink and carry about a wife, as Cephas and others, or to forbear to work altogether? (ver. 7). But if he did work, he proves from natural similes that he had a right to reap the fruits of his labour. He refers to the law of Moses to prove this. An ox was not muzzled who trod out the corn. It was right for a preacher who sowed spiritual things to reap carnal things, (ver. 12). Nevertheless as to them he had not used this power, he had not asked any money. He gloried in preaching the gospel without charge, though, referring again to the law, it was quite right that they that preached the gospel should live of the gospel. As for himself, he made himself a servant of all, that he might gain the more. To the Jew he became a Jew, that he might gain the Jews; to those under the law, as under the law, that he might gain them that were under the law; to them that were without law, as without law, that he might gain those that were without law; not that he was without law to God, but lawfully subject to Christ. To the weak he became as weak, to gain the weak: he became all things to all men, that he might by all means save some.
Lastly, he has a word of warning for those preachers who were judging his liberty. He was running a race to win a prize, and he exhorted those others, as they ran in the Isthmian games, so to run that they might obtain. He had one object to win, and that was Christ in glory ( Phil. 3). Every thing else he laid aside as dung and dross. Those in the earthly games, ran for a corruptible crown; he for an incorruptible. He ran not as uncertainly; he had not a doubt as to the result. He fought not as one that beateth the air, but he kept his body under and brought it into subjection, lest by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a reprobate. An awful warning for those preachers who professed so much, and knew so much, and yet were puffed up! He put himself with them in order to test them, as to whether they were doing what he did. The warning he gives to preachers, he gives to the whole company of the professing saints, in the beginning of ch. 10. There is no question here as to the final perseverance of the elect. It is not a question of becoming a Christian, or continuing to be one, but of the path and responsibilities of the servants of God. Paul as simply a servant might be reprobate, as a child, he could not be, but that is not the subject here. He is testing preachers, and, in the beginning of the next chapter, the professing Assembly at Corinth. This gives a meaning to the large address at the beginning of the Epistle, to those who in every place call on the Name of the Lord, both theirs and ours. (Cp., as to preachers, Matt. 7:21-2321Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:21‑23), &c.)