1 Corinthians 9:15-27

In the first half of chapter 9, Paul established his authority as an apostle to expect financial support. But with verse 15, he transitions with this statement: “But I have used none of these things.” Paul had rights as an apostle, the right to demand support, but he had not used that right. And this passage was not a subtle attempt to ask them for it. Paul had laid aside those rights—even beyond that, Paul made many sacrifices and acts of self-abasement that were not strictly necessary. He did things he did not have to do and refrained from things that were not absolutely wrong. Verse 18 says that Paul did not abuse his power in the gospel. The word abuse can mean 'use to the full extent'. The NET Bible says that Paul did “not make full use of my rights in the gospel.”

Why? Paul gives three answers in this passage. 

Paul gives the first answer in verses 15b-18. This is a very complex passage, and there isn't a clear consensus on what precisely Paul means. I am going to give you my best explanation.

I'm sure everyone remembers how Paul became a Christian. Paul was traveling to Damascus when Jesus knocked him off his feet and hit him square in the face with some truth. In addition to revealing Himself, Jesus also gave Paul this commission, as Paul explained later: “But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.” (Acts 26:16)

That is how Paul ended up where he did. This is why he was an apostle and a missionary—not because he decided to, not even necessarily because he wanted to. This was given to him directly by Christ. Barclay comments: “He had not chosen the work; it had chosen him.” That is what Paul means here when he says that a necessity was laid upon him, that the ministry of the gospel was committed unto him against his will. 

If a master tells his slave to do something, generally speaking, the slave is going to do it. Even if the slave hates his master or the job, he will do it because he knows he will be punished if he doesn't. And the master doesn't have much gratitude or admiration for the slave doing the task because that's what he expected of him. It is the bare minimum you expect in that relationship.

But suppose that one day the master has no pressing work to be done and so gives his slave the afternoon off. And suppose that this slave, for whatever reason, truly loves his master and wants to please him. And so he spends his afternoon doing some task for the master—this was not something he was ordered to do, not something he would be punished for not doing—this is a free gift given out of love.

Paul frequently refers to himself as a slave of Christ and I think that is a rough analogy for what Paul is saying here. Jesus had directly and specifically given him the task of preaching the gospel. If he had rejected that call, he would have been punished. “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” But Paul didn't serve Jesus simply because he was afraid of going to Hell. He loved Christ and wanted to show his love and gratitude in some way, and so he did it by giving up the support he could have claimed in order to help the church. That was his glory, his pride and joy, something that he would die rather than give up. Others received a reward—Paul's reward was to work without a reward, financially speaking.

And the other side of this is that no one could claim he was motivated by greed. Weymouth translates verse 18: “What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.” As he said earlier in the passage, back in verse 12, he did not use his authority “lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.” There were many people then, as now, who used the guise of a teacher or preacher as a means of swindling people of money. And Paul, to make doubly sure no such suspicion could attach to him, refused to ask for support.

 

This ties into the second part of this passage. Paul was willing to give up his right to financial support. But Paul was willing to go farther than that. 

Remember verse 1 where Paul is making statements about his position. There he said that he was free. He repeats that here in verse 19—he was a free man, and yet he had chosen, in many ways, to act the part of a slave. He was willing to give up many of his rights in order to serve others. Matthew Henry comments: “He behaved as a servant; he laboured for their good as a servant; he was careful to please, as a servant to his master; he acted in many cases as if he had no privileges; and this that he might gain the more, or make the more converts to Christianity. He made himself a servant, that they might be made free.”

What exactly does that mean? It means that Paul was willing to put aside his own personal preferences and meet people where they were. He molded his conduct by how it would affect others and not merely what he wanted. This is shown in the next few verses. When Paul was working with the Jews, with those who still regarded and followed the ceremonies of Moses, Paul was willing to do the same, even though he denied that these were necessary for salvation. We see this in Acts 16:3 when Timothy joins Paul's ministry. “Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek.”

Yet, when working with the Gentiles, he was equally willing to meet them on their own terms. I don't think that means he tried to hide or lie about his Jewish heritage. But he didn't bring that to the forefront. For an example, look at Paul's address at Athens. When speaking to that Gentile population, he used ideas and concepts that would be familiar to the Greeks, even quoting from Greek writers.

And when working with the weak—with those who had less faith or were less knowledgeable—Paul was willing to act weak. He was willing to adjust to the idiosyncrasies of his hearers. No doubt, he tried to strengthen the weak, but he didn't do it for a position of superiority, even though that position would have been valid. He came alongside men where they were.

That is the summation at the end of verse 22: Paul was willing to become all things to all men that he might by all means save some. Paul would do whatever it took, with whomever he was, for the chance to make a convert. Paul was willing to put aside his rights and humble himself if that would be a means of winning others. He did all this for the sake of the gospel.

However, he makes clear in passing, that there is a limit to this. He was flexible in many things, but he still had a solid core—he was under the law to Christ. His loyalty was to Christ. That was what informed his decisions—not his own inclinations and not the opinions of others. For the sake of others, he would give up his own rights but not his fundamental loyalty. And in this, he was like his master—who was called the friend of sinners and was yet without sin.

Paul wanted to save others. But there was someone else Paul wanted to save—himself.

In verses 24-27, Paul draws a picture from athletics. In Paul's day, Greece—much like our modern world—was obsessed with sports competitions; one of the significant sites of these competitions was near Corinth. These were things anyone in Greece would have been familiar with. This is another case of Paul being like a Greek when dealing with the Greeks. Paul uses this imagery to make a point about how a Christian ought to live and, more specifically, about how Paul lived.

In verse 24, he speaks of racing. In a foot race, there are many runners. But only one can be the winner—only one can be first place. That is why runners have to train carefully and put all their strength and skill into running because there is so much competition. No matter how good you are, you have to push yourself to be better because you may not be good enough. Merely showing up at the race does not guarantee the prize. There's many a slip 'twixt the starting line and the winner's cup. (Insert joke about participation prizes here.)

And that may seem very disconnected from Christianity. The Christian race is not a competition. God will not award eternal life only to the first to reach Heaven's gate. And yet, in a sense, a Christian ought to have the same attitude—the drive and passion that the competitor has. Paul exhorts them: “So run, that ye may obtain.” Jamieson-Faussit-Brown claims this was a slogan used by athletes of Paul's day; an equivalent of the modern “Keep your eyes on the prize.” “In it to win it.” That is what a Christian must do—put in the work, aiming for our goal.

An athlete pursues a goal, but the work of an athlete is not just done in the stadium. Many competitions are won or lost long before the athlete enters the field. The training that prepares them for that day will largely determine their performance. In verse 25, Paul mentions how those who competed had to be temperate. The Greek Philosopher Epictetus wrote about this training:  "Do you wish to gain the prize at the Olympic games? Consider the requisite preparations and the consequences: you must observe a strict regimen; must live on food which you dislike; you must abstain from all delicacies; must exercise yourself at the necessary and prescribed times both in heat and in cold; you must drink nothing cooling; take no wine as formerly.”  To compete as an athlete required self-control; it meant doing difficult and unpleasant things. In simpler language: no pain, no gain.

Athletes then and athletes now are working hard to achieve their goal—to receive the acclaim and glory of victory. But that glory is often a fleeting thing. Paul says that athletes strive for a 'corruptible crown.' That isn't a metaphor or spiritualization. The award for victory in the Greece games was a crown or garland made of a plant—olive, laurel, parsley, or pine (depending on the location). And being made of a plant, it began to wither immediately.

And this is representative of how brief fame is. A. E. Housman refers to athletes who became soon forgotten by the world: “Runner whom renown outran/And the name died before the man.” But even when fame does live on, it is still a temporal, mortal thing. And if people are willing to do so much work, to deny themselves of so much for only a chance to gain a temporary crown, what should a Christian be willing to do for the chance to obtain an eternal reward?

Paul, at least, was putting in every effort. He did not run uncertainly—he was keeping his eyes on his goal and not wandering off the track. He says that he did not fight as one who beats the air. This is a reference to another sport popular in those days, boxing. Beating the air can refer to a boxer's blow missing his opponent—in other words, Paul is making sure that every punch landed. Alternatively, it could refer to a boxer throwing punches at nothing as a warm-up or training exercise, what is now called 'shadow boxing--in other words, Paul was fighting in a real battle and treated it as such. Either interpretation points to the fact that Paul was being careful and intentional in his life; he knew he was fighting for his life.

Who was Paul fighting? In general, he was fighting the Devil and his temptations. But there is a more direct and specific meaning. In verse 27, Paul pictures himself like a fighter, pummeling his opponent and pinning him to the ground, forcing him to admit defeat. And that enemy is Paul himself—his own body. He showed himself who the boss is; he made his own body cry 'uncle.' This is obviously metaphorical, but it points to rigorous self-discipline.

Several Christian writers have compared the relation of the spirit to the body to that of a rider to his horse. And the first and most important rule of horse-riding is this: you ride the horse; the horse does not ride you. Paul was not going to allow his body—his physical desires—to take control of his life.

Paul doesn't give us a direct context for this. But I have to wonder whether this connects to the rest of what Paul says about himself, especially in this chapter. Paul was walking a road that was not easy, especially from a physical standpoint. If Paul had chosen to take support from others instead of working to support himself; if he had chosen to settle down in one place and marry and start a family instead of following his lonely crusade—that would have been much easier. There would be obvious physical drives and desires that would push in that direction. But Paul kept himself well in hand. He was not going to change his course just because there were easier and more pleasant alternatives.

Because there was a very serious reason for all this. Remember what I said before—Paul wanted to save others, but Paul also wanted to save himself. And he was aware of the fact that, despite all he had done, all the others he had helped to convert, all the sermons he had preached, even the miracles he had performed—despite all that, there was still the possibility that he himself would be lost.

Paul says he feared lest he should be a castaway. The word translated 'castaway' literally means: “unapproved, i.e. rejected; by implication, worthless.” (Strong, 96) When Paul came to the end of his race and stood before God for his final inspection, he did not want to fail. And he realized that that was still a possibility. 

So this is the third reason why Paul often chose to do things that weren't necessary or avoid things that weren't sinful—because he was determined and dedicated to making it through. That brings us back to the point we talked about in a previous chapter—there is a difference between what is lawful and what is edifying. And Paul's whole focus was on edifying, both for others and himself. He didn't want to take chances on spiritual things. If there was something that was technically allowable but he thought would hurt his spiritual walk, he was going to reject it.

That brings us to the end of the chapter. What we see here is that Paul himself did not make use of all his rights and privileges. He was willing to make sacrifices and take extra responsibility that were not (in a strict and literal sense) necessary. This was because he didn't want to do the bare minimum necessary to go to Heaven—he wanted to act out of love for God, and he wanted to help others. But also,, he did want to make good and sure he did get to Heaven. And while Paul is talking about himself and much of this is specific to Paul, he is giving this out as an example to other Christians. As Christians, we should never lose sight of right and wrong—but we should care about more than right and wrong.