Freedom and the Gospel – 1 Corinthians 9:1-14

According to Salary.com, the “average Pastor salary in the United States is $99,337 as of May 27, 2021, but the range typically falls between $81,639 and $112,580.”  But according to ZipRecruiter.com, which did a salary for pastors by state, the normal salary for pastors ranges from $30-40,000.  The discrepancy is most likely due to a strict averaging of salaries that is skewed by that of megachurch pastors, which often are over $100,000.  But the vast majority of pastors are not megachurch pastors and get paid relatively little.  What should the apostle Paul have been paid?  By the Corinthians, he wasn’t paid anything, and that was his choice.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.  (1 Corinthians 9:1-14 ESV)

Paul is still dealing with the issue the Corinthians raised about our freedoms in Christ and now particularly addresses their negative view of him because he did not take their money when he came preaching the gospel.  They had begun to think less of him because anyone worth their salt would get remuneration for his services.

Paul agrees with them that as their apostle, the one who introduced them to Jesus in the gospel, he certainly had the right to receive their gifts, just as the other apostles did from those they ministered to.  He and Barnabas had the right to bring their wives, if they had them, with them, and refrain from working and could live off donations.  The Old Testament affirms this indirectly when it says the ox should not be muzzled but allowed to eat what it is treading out.  Those who serve in the temple, the priests and Levites, ate and lived from the offerings made there.

But Paul refused to use what was his right so that none would think he brought the gospel only for the money.  The Corinthians used their rights without concern for how their weaker conscience brothers and sisters would be affected but Paul willingly surrendered his rights so that he could love the Corinthians better and put no stumbling block in their way.  He is our example to follow.  Knowledge puffs up and demands its rights but love builds up and willingly sacrifices its rights for the sake of others.