When Christians grow careless about the things of God, they become the easy prey of Satan, who, we may be sure, is ever quick to detect any deficiency in their armor (Eph. 6:10-1810Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6:10‑18)). A really bad state had developed among the believers at Corinth, as we have before noticed in our study of this epistle. It is not likely that it came about suddenly; rather would it be a gradual thing, for the children of God are not weaned away in a moment from the heavenly food given them in His Word. O, let us all profit by the failure and sin of others, and be careful to keep close to God and His Word!
The low spiritual state of the Corinthian saints, and lack of watchfulness on their part, had been the occasion for the coming in among them of some false professors who were really servants of the devil, but posed as apostles of Christ and acquired much influence in the local assembly (2 Cor. 11:12-1512But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. 13For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:12‑15)). Thus it was that the Apostle Paul came to be spoken against in Corinth where, through his preaching, the gospel was received into thousands of hearts and consciences theretofore without knowledge of the true God.
An apostle, we gather from the first verse, together with Acts 1:21-2621Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. 23And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, 25That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. 26And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. (Acts 1:21‑26), must of necessity have seen the Lord. It does not appear from the Scriptures which tell of Paul’s early life as an enemy of the Lord (Acts 2221And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. 22And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. 23And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, 24The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him. 25And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? 26When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman. (Acts 22:21‑26) and 26) that he ever saw Him in life on earth. Because his calling and ministry were derived from Christ in glory, we conclude that it was when as Saul of Tarsus he was, struck down in his wicked course (Acts 921But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? 22But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. 23And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: 24But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. 25Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. 26And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. (Acts 9:21‑26)), or afterward that he was privileged to see Him.
Paul’s apostleship was not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from among the dead, as he records in the first chapter of Galatians; and the Corinthian saints were his work in the Lord, as they surely knew. If not an Apostle to others, Paul certainly was to the Christians at Corinth, as he tells them: “for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.” He had gone alone to Corinth (Acts 18) after Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea and Athens; there Silas and Timothy came presently and he remained a year and six months teaching the Word of God; evidently leaving only when he believed that for the present his work there was finished. Nowhere else in his missionary travels, up to this time, does the Apostle appear to have remained so long, and if the Corinthian believers were not well established in the Word, it was because of their own allowance of self; they were yet carnal (chapter 3). None the less they were the seal of Paul’s apostleship.
Verses 3-14: Without a shadow of rancor, Paul takes up the challenge of his opponents. Had he not a right to eat and to drink? Had he not a right to take round a sister as wife, as also the other apostles and the brethren (or kinsman) of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter)? Or he alone and Barnabas, had they not a right not to work?
Illustrating his position and that of the other servants of the Lord by reference to things common in the world, the Apostle asks, Who ever carries on war at his own charges? who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? or who herds a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? But a far higher authority than man had laid down the principle of compensation, even for the ox when he treads out the corn (Deut. 25:44Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. (Deuteronomy 25:4). This passage is also cited in 1 Tim. 5:1818For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his reward. (1 Timothy 5:18)).
Is God then occupied about the oxen, or does He in this communicate His mind as to His own servants? asks Paul. For our sakes it has been written, he continues, that the plower should plow in hope, and he that treads out corn, in hope of partaking of it.
Then (verse 11) it is asked, If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? Here is a matter regarding which there is much failure on the part of God’s people. Absorbed in their own circumstances, many lose sight of the duty and privilege of providing for the support of the Lord’s servants. Can it be well with us when those who labor in the gospel and among the saints to the Lord’s glory are but sparsely provided for, are at times almost, if not actually, in want?
Paul had not used the right to support from the saints, choosing instead to pay his own expenses, that he might put no hindrance in the way of the gospel of Christ. Did those to whom he wrote, not know that they who labor at sacred things (or perform the sacred rites) eat of the offerings offered in the temple? they that attend at the altar partake with the altar? Such was the divine provision in the system of sacrifices ordained for Israel, and so also the Lord has ordained to those that announce the gospel, to live of the gospel. Yet Paul had used none of these things, nor did he write about them in order that the saints should support him by their means. It were good for him rather to die, than that any one should make vain his boast (verse 15).
If Paul, or any other saint of God should preach the gospel, he has nothing to boast of, for it is a duty owed to the Lord. Necessity, says the Apostle, is laid upon me, for it is woe to me if I should not preach the gospel. It is the Lord who calls to His service, and gives to His servants fitness for the work to which He has called them; they are not, in the Scriptures, appointed by men at all.
Verse 17. If one preached voluntarily, without the Lord’s sending him into the work, then of course he has a reward; but if it is not of his own will, an administration or stewardship (not, in the present meaning of the word, a dispensation) is entrusted to him. And God looks for faithfulness in stewards, as we noted in the fourth chapter.
What then is Paul’s reward? that in making known the glad tidings of God’s grace he made it costless to others, so as not to have made use, as belonging to him, of his right in announcing it. Abuse, in verse 18, like abusing in verse 31 of the 7th chapter, means not using what is referred to as something to which you have title of possession.
For, being free from all (as he said at the beginning of the chapter), the Apostle had made himself servant (bondman) to all, that he might gain the most possible. To the Jews he became as a Jew, in order that he might gain the Jews; to those under the law, as under law, not being himself under law, in order that he might gain those under law; to those without law, as without law (not as without law to God, but as legitimately subject to Christ) in order that he might gain those without law. To the weak he became as weak, in order that he might gain the weak. To all he had become all things, in order that by all means he might save some. And he did all things for the sake of the glad tidings, that he might be fellow-partaker with them (not, “with you”). What is meant is partaking in the joy of salvation, in seeing souls saved. Truly the Apostle Paul was the pattern servant of the Lord – so like his Master!
Verses 24-27 present an aspect of the truth of God to which the Corinthian Christians had paid little heed. The subject is considered in the early verses of the 10th chapter, also, and it is a searching word for both believers and unbelievers.
“Know ye not that they who run in the race-course run all, but one receives the prize. Thus run in order that ye may obtain. But everyone that contends for a prize is temperate in all things; they then indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore thus run, as not uncertainly; so I combat, as not beating the air. But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest after having preached to others I should be myself rejected.” (JND).
Christians are apt to be occupied with the cares and burdens of life, if not with its pleasures; and we have to be reminded three times in the epistles in terms that suggest the Athenian athletic competitions of many centuries ago, that present things must not be allowed to have an undue place in our lives (2 Tim. 2; Heb. 12:11Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 12:1)). All the athletes participating in a race run, but only one receives the winner’s prize; so run that ye may obtain, is the word addressed to each of us in 1 Corinthians 9:2424Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (1 Corinthians 9:24). And, too, we are to be “temperate,” not at ease, pleasing ourselves in this world, but subjecting ourselves in everything to the call of God.
And what of the unsaved professor? No believer will be lost, but some professors, even preachers of the gospel, will be rejected.