Read Chapter 9:1-6

As Christians, we have
distinct rights and privileges. We're not of this world. We're not
bound by any spirits, principalities or powers. We're free in a sense
that no one outside of Christ who remains outside of Christ will ever
understand. We're made kings by Christ's body broken and blood shed.
Paul is going to define his "apostolic rights." He's
going to lay down what Christ has done for him and tell us all what is
available to him.

What two things, according
to Paul, makes him an apostle of Jesus? Have you experienced these?
Has your apostleship been "sealed"?

Paul is going to show that
he is different from other apostles in no way, so Paul shows that apostles are
deserving of what two things?

Paul has now addressed that
his apostleship is sealed, the same way as "the Lord's brothers and
Cephas". He has exactly the same rights as them. However, Paul
has never used these rights, and thus the Corinthians think less of him.

Why do you think that Paul
has renounced his rights to a believing wife and to support as an apostle?
Can you think of any parallels to this renunciation by any other biblical
characters or other times that renunciation comes up?

Let's examine ourselves.
In my own life, I've grown up very privileged. I'm blessed in ways
that very few others are blessed. Because of my up-bringing, and also
because of my apostleship, I've been blessed with opportunities that others
don't have. Has this created in me any pride? Has it created in me
any entitlement? Yes and yes. Examine your own life and journal as
necessary. Have you taken any of God's blessings on your life for
granted?

Journaling

Read Chapter 9:7-14

What three images or
stations does Paul use in verse 7? What points do you think Paul is
making about apostolic rights?

A soldier doesn't pay his
own way and farmers and shepherds benefit materially from their crops and
flocks. Find some examples of Paul speaking in military, agricultural and
"shepherd" terms.

Is there a clear connection
between being (a soldier in an army/a farmer in a field/a shepherd leading
sheep) to apostleship?

I'd tell you to read
Deuteronomy 25:4 and then try to interpret it for you, or tell you about temple
business and how the temple workers were fed, but Paul does it all himself.
God is, very much, concerned with his people materially benefiting from
their work. After all, he doesn't make laws out of concern for the ox.

Finally, Paul pulls out the
ultimate trump card: Jesus said it. In Luke 10:7 most precisely.
Spiritual work deserves material benefit.

Now we'll get to the
application part. First, do you believe that spiritual work deserves material
benefit? You should. The church bristles when a sermon about money
or tithing is preached. We've made "joy boxes" and "love
gifts" and other stupid names to skirt the issue. Doing God's work
deserves support. Give to your church. Even if it's ten percent,
God is still letting you keep ninety. Fair enough deal.

Second, have you ever, in
your life, gone as far to explain a situation or issue that Paul went to in
these two paragraphs? He's brought forth images and cultural application,
called up scripture, rabbinically explained it, and finally to top it off
quoted Jesus. Do we believe anything that seriously that we'd go to these
lengths in just a few sentences to put forth what we believe is true and good?
Do you ever stop in awe at the interweaving of application, images,
scripture and cultural references? Do you realize that non-Christians
study the Bible as great poetic, romantic, and even *gasp* historic literature?
Or that Paul's letters are often read and diagrammed rhetorically and no
fault is found in his logic? The preacher S.M. Lockridge said it best
about Jesus and it applies to his Word, as well. "He is the loftiest
idea in literature. He is the highest personality in philosophy." I
know I'm guilty of this: I don't give scripture enough credit sometimes.

Journaling

Read Chapter 9:15-18

In these four verses
Paul gets heavy. Here we'll find the reason why he doesn't take advantage
of his apostolic rights.

Before we start talking
about this, let's read Philippians 2: 6-11 for what my man Gorman calls Paul's
"master story."

This passage is Paul's
succinct version of what Christ was, did and meant.

Paul patterns his life
after this passage. His meeting with Christ has left this impression on
him and to strive for anything short of the example that Christ has set in this
passage would be less than life for Paul. It would be an outright denial
of the crucified Lord whom he serves and loves. Let's look how Paul has
patterned the past few paragraphs and compare them to his "master
story" Taken from Gorman, p. 260.

Possession of status
and rights

Phil. 2:6a (about Jesus)
"Who
in being very nature God"

1 Cor 9: 19a (about
Paul) "Though
I am free and belong to no man"

Decision not to use
status and rights for self-benefit

(Jesus) 6b: "did
not consider equality with God something to be grasped"

(Paul) 12b: "but
we did not use this right"

15a: "but
I have not used any of these rights

Self-enslavement

(Jesus) 7: "but
made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness"

8: "and
being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself"

(Paul) 19b-c: "I
make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible"

12c: "we
put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ"

Paul renounces his
apostolic rights as a means of displaying cruciform sacrifice in his own
life. Paul's dedication to this Jesus is the reason why he can tell
others to "imitate me" with a straight face and with honesty.
Paul's motive in denying himself this, and the motive that he wishes the
Corinthian elite to have in denying themselves eidolothuta is the spreading of
the gospel and the salvation of others.

Nothing is
inconsequential for Paul. Everything is spiritual. Everything he
does has been redefined by his experience with Jesus. The intricate
details of his life have been examined, redefined, repurposed and sanctified in
order that everything about him points to the salvation offered through the
cross so that absolutely nothing he does, is, or says could hinder the message
gospel...no...so that everything he does, is, and says gives glory and credence
to Jesus and his sacrifice.

Journaling

Read Chapter 9:19-23

This is one of my
favorite passages of scripture. As in all scripture, there is a lot going on
here, and Paul is going to give us even more fodder for the cruciformity that
he looks to model in his own life.

Paul's dedication to the
gospel is being paralleled to God's equality with Christ. Both are status
positions. Christ became man and died a traitor’s death. Paul
neglected his rights as an apostle and makes himself a slave by doing manual
labor for which the Corinthians will look down on him. Imagine
that. You, a professing Christian in Corinth, put down Paul for doing
manual labor and Paul's response is, "I'm doing this because that's what
Jesus did" for the salvation of all, motivated by love. The
Corinthian church now has no ground to stand on in their indictment of Paul as
an apostle.

One interesting part to
notice is that Paul has become "like a Jew", "like one under the
law", and "like one without the law." But He didn't become
"like the weak," Paul became "weak." It shows
that Paul's focus really is weakness, really is the renunciation of status.

This pattern is a
pattern of "self-emptying." It's not a "chameleon"
ministry. It's not pandering to the people you're trying to reach and
it's not disingenuous. It's not a middle-aged and balding minister
wearing jeans and a t-shirt and talking like he just watched the worst Pauly Shore
movie you've ever seen (that would be "all of them"). This is
love for people, meeting them where they're at and taking seriously their
cultural perspectives. It means learning the law and being above reproach
toward those under it. It means eating meat in private. It means
sitting at a table at which your group wouldn't sit. It means tax
collectors, prostitutes, the poor, lonely and the sick and it means that a lot
of people are going to look at you and say, "Who does s/he think s/he is,
hanging out with those people?" It means that an entire community
will look down on you like you're the worst that society has to offer after
your conscious decision to become a slave in order to love them. It means
that people you love and would die for...might actually kill you.

It's not a small thing.

Read Chapter 9 24-27

Paul, finished with
explaining his position on his apostolic rights, finished with demolishing the
Corinthian "knowledge/freedom" camp and putting them in their place
in looking down on him, will now make one final application of a well-known
Corinthian image to drive his point home.

Paul's illustration of
running a race would bring to mind the local Isthmian games that were
inaugurated by the legendary king and founder of Corinth, Sisyphus. What similarities
can you seen in the illustration Paul gives and the previous chapter?

Paul's concern is
disqualification from the race. After studying this week, what do you
think would disqualify him?

Do you feel, after
studying this section, that there is something that you have in your life that
you're holding onto, that would disqualify you from the race?

Journal about Paul, is
his example too lofty? Journal about yourself, what changes should you
make to imitate Paul, thus imitating Christ?

Journaling

In this chapter Paul is going to address an issue that may
seem foreign to us, but had immediate implications for the Corinthian Church:
eating food offered to idols (the Greek "eidolothuta”). Jews
were forbidden from eating this food altogether, but there is a group of
Corinthians who professed freedom, so they do whatever they want, essentially
saying "Forget the Jewish cultural norm, we're free."
[sarcasm] This, clearly, will have nothing to do with our world
and the problems we face today [again, sarcasm]. I'm so glad to write
about this. I love saying eidolothuta, and I also love that Paul liked so
much what he wrote to the Corinthians, that he will rewrite it in Romans 14.
So maybe we'll look at some of that, too. This week, we'll focus on
chapter 9 of Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians.