The subject in this chapter is ministry, specially that of the Apostle Paul. He was an apostle called of God, not of men, neither by man (Gal. 1:1). His appointment was from Christ in glory, from whence all true ministry comes.
Some false teachers had influenced the Corinthians to question his apostleship. His answer is, “Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.” He had called them his beloved children whom he had begotten through the gospel (chap. 4), and this questioning of his authority leads us to see the liberty and maintenance of the true servants of God in their path of service.
His answer to those who questioned him was, “Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister as wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or, I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?” Here we get a little light on the labors of others in the liberty of the Spirit, and untrammeled by the rules of men. His defense is, they are sent, and they do not go to war on their own charges. They eat of the fruit of the vineyard in which they labor; they drink of the milk of the flock of God which they tend.
Verse 8. Is this his own invention, or saith the law the same also? It is written in the law of Moses, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care of oxen? (Yes. He does. Jonah 4:11), or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” (Gal. 6:6; Rom. 13:25-27).
Verse 12. “If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.”
Verse 13. It was also God’s way in the temple: they which ministered about holy things lived of the things of the temple, and they which waited at the altar were partakers with the altar. Even so hath the Lord appointed that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
Verse 15. “But,” says the apostle, “I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me; for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.” He had nothing to boast of in preaching the gospel. The Lord had committed its administration to him. He was called and sent, and he carried it out under the power of that divine obedience wrought in him, and that precious love of God his soul had drank into, the love of God to sinful lost men, so that he said further “Woe is me, if I preach not the gospel.”
This was not fear of eternal judgment—Paul was eternally secured from that—but it was the deep sense of the privilege and responsibility of the mission God had given him as His ambassador, and his reward was, that when he preached the gospel, he made it without charge, with nothing in it for self. He was entirely at liberty from all men. “Yet,” he says, “have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.” He accommodates himself to every mind in order that thereby he might bring out to them their lost condition, and show to them the love of God in providing a Savior for them; thus it was, to the Jew he became as a Jew, that he might gain the Jews. He could show them how he had proved the emptiness of their religion.
To them that were under the law, as under the law (not being himself under law. See N. T.), that he might gain them that were under the law, and well could he do this also, as we see in Romans 3:20; 10:3, 4, and how he was delivered from it by the death of Christ (Gal. 2:19, 20; 3:10-13).
To them that were without law, as without law, not being lawless to God, but duly subject to Christ (see N. T.), that he might gain the lawless.
1 John 3:4 should read, “Every one that practices sin, practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.” Those under law transgressed, but all have sinned against God, and so are declared guilty before God (Rom. 3:19). There was no law from Adam to Moses, but there was much sin, and judgment fell upon it: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23).
Verse 22. “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak,” and well could the apostle unfold that man was not only a guilty sinner, but also that he was without strength. This was a hard lesson for Paul to learn, and indeed it is hard for the most of us to learn that we can do nothing to make ourselves better, or to help to save ourselves. Paul’s endeavor therefore, no matter what state he found the sinner in, was to show him his lost condition, and to present to him the risen, glorified Savior who gave Himself for our sins, and is now crowned with glory and honor at God’s right hand, ready to welcome the vilest who will trust in Him. And he adds, “This I do, for the gospel’s sake,” that I might share in their blessing.
Verse 24. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” But the believers have entered the path of eternal life, and are sure of the prize. (2 Tim. 4:6-8). Paul here has in view some who have professed Christianity, but have not been born anew. They have not started right, they cannot run right. “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.” A man cannot live Christ until he knows Christ as his Savior. He may be a preacher, and not a Christian. And so Paul here says, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body.”
How could he keep under his body? Do those who punish their bodies with penances and fastings and other privations, do they keep their bodies under, or is that not trying to improve the flesh, and make them feel better, seeking to be religious? Is it not bringing the death of Christ to bear upon ourselves, and thus reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God? (Rom. 6:6-12). Is this not keeping the body under? And this is how Paul lived (Gal. 2:19, 20). Paul was fully assured of his salvation; not a fear, not a quiver of uncertainty about him, but he transfers the figure to himself as a preacher, to show professors their danger of being even preachers and yet not Christians, whose end will surely be everlasting woe—castaway forever.
This is what it means; it is not a question about whether a true child of God can be lost. We know that is an impossibility, the Lord Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” (John 10:28, 29, and 5:24).
One may say that he is saved, and yet not be a saved man, nor is it a question of a Christian losing his reward, and yet he himself be saved (1 Cor. 3:15). This is still more serious. It is the case of a man professing to be a Christian, and he might be morally blameless but is not born again, he does not know his sins put away by the atoning death of Christ, and therefore the things that accompany salvation are not, cannot be, seen in him (Heb. 6:9). A true Christian may fall into a slothful condition, like 2 Peter 2:9, and he needs the exhortation, “Make your calling and election sure:” that is, to his own soul, for a poor walk leads to doubts, for such an one does not enjoy happy communion, and is spiritually losing much.
How terrible is the state of one who thinks he is all right, yet who has never found out his lost condition by nature and by practice, and so never knew the joy of knowing his sins all forgiven, and in the end finds out that he was entirely mistaken—that his trying to be good was not keeping his body under, but was only filthy rags of the works of the flesh. We cannot keep the body under till we realize that in Christ’s death we have also died. The foolish virgins (Matt. 25) found out when it was too late, that the lamp of profession was no use without oil in their vessels with their lamps. They were castaways.
Do not rest, dear reader, till you know that your sins are all forgiven you for Christ’s name’s sake.