For the Sake of the Gospel: A Meditation on 1st Corinthians 9

For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: 

for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!

For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, 

a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel,

 I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, 

that I abuse not my power in the gospel.

For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, 

that I might gain the more.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews;

 to them that are under the law, as under the law, 

that I might gain them that are under the law;

To them that are without law, as without law, 

(being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) 

that I might gain them that are without law.

To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: 

I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

In St. Paul’s 9th chapter of his first epistle to the church at Corinth, he addresses a controversy which appears to have arisen regarding the exercise of the pastoral office.  The chapter begins by asking if only he and Barnabas should be forbidden from being married and having their living provided through the ministry they devoted their lives to, unlike St. Peter and other Apostles who apparently had both.  Paul notes from Moses and Jesus that a minister of the Word of God is worthy to receive his living from his pastoral work, and the gifts of the people he serves are what provide for him to bring the gifts of the God’s Word to all who will hear, believe, and live in it by grace through faith and repentance.  The eternal benefits of the Word of God, which He established through its preaching as the Holy Spirit creates saving faith and gives a new birth from above unto eternal life, are incomparable to the temporal material things which the people in return can provide to their preachers so that they may not live destitute in this world.  The ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ face the scorn and persecution of a dark world, of politicians, of bureaucrats, of evil people and wicked demons in high and low places, as they bear the Cross of Jesus so that others might live.  In this system which God Himself established, the ministers of His Word are called forth from among His people to serve His people, and the people reciprocate by supporting the ministers whom God has called and ordained among them.  It is a sacred bond between God, His people, and the servants of His Word.

Paul, however, found it necessary in his time to set aside his prerogatives in the ministry to which he was called and ordained, for the sake of the people he was sent to serve.  His missionary work carried him into pagan lands where there were few or no believers to support him, into places where even the people of God turned on him and tried to kill him, often driving him out of their synagogues.  When he moved from one town to another, the persecutors would follow him, harry him, churn up mobs to beat him, imprison him, and eventually promote his martyrdom at the hands of pagan rulers.  The people to whom Paul was sent often scorned him, rejected him, abandoned him, and left him alone in his chains.  And even among those who heard the Gospel and believed, where the first missionary churches were established through his preaching, there apparently was some subset of the people who accused him of selfishness or wrongdoing should he choose to be married or receive a meager living from the household of faith.  In such a context, Paul decided to eat and live from the work of his own hands, using the trade God had given him as a tent maker, so that his ministry would be unencumbered and the Gospel not blasphemed by those inside and outside the Church.

While today there are many pastors who live in the God-ordained partnership between them and the congregations they serve, an increasing number of pastors are finding it necessary to revisit the model of St. Paul’s tent making ministry.  These pastors have found that the rising tide of secularism in the ever more pagan culture is hostile to the Word of God, and missionary work in such a culture requires resources to sustain them.  They have also found an increasing rise of persecution within their own church fellowships, where bureaucrats angle for money and power at the expense of the Gospel, and too many parishioners prefer to hear seductive lies rather than necessary truths.  Pastors have been lured into enormous educational debt by their church fellowship’s seminaries, only to be turned over to congregations which treat them as hired mercenaries rather than stewards of the mysteries of God.  Others found themselves having to choose between feeding and housing their families, and being faithful to the Word of God— where their church bodies or congregations threaten to take their meager living from them should they rock the institutional boat.  More and more of these ministers of God are returning to the model Paul lived out in his time and place, often to the ridicule of other pastors, and the human institutions they refuse to be slaves under, all that the Gospel might be freely proclaimed and unimpeded by evil men.

The good news, of course, is that the light of the Gospel continues to shine in every age, regardless of its relative darkness.  That Word of God is still the means by which the Holy Spirit calls, enlightens, and enlivens every soul through faith in Jesus and reconciliation with the Father.  It is still the source of new and enduring life for all who will hear, repent, believe, and live within it.  It continues to create and sustain the church as the people of God, to call and ordain ministers of the Word, to send laborers into the world, and to reconcile the world to its Creator.  Regardless of the evil which men and demons bring to bear in the culture at large or within the visible structures of the Church, the Word of God continues unabated in its declaration of Jesus as the life, hope, mercy, grace, and salvation of all who will trust in Him.  Just as the Word of God was made flesh and burst upon a darkened world which could neither comprehend nor overthrow it during Jesus’ Incarnation, so does it enter and remain in our time, even to the chagrin of those who would avoid or repress it.  

And so, the Word of the Lord comes to you this day, through the preaching of faithful pastors of various types and kinds.  Some abide in the love and fellowship of local congregations who live into the divinely established economy which both Moses and Jesus testified to.  Others like St. Paul strive in ministries, chaplaincies, missions, and works of mercy which are supported by their own labors, so that the Gospel may be freely proclaimed where others would not support it.  But however the Word of the Lord comes to you, it still bears the power of Almighty God to declare to you the forgiveness of your sins and eternal life for Jesus’ sake, and make present in you the grace, faith, and repentance which rescues you from the darkness of a fallen world.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you in an eternal Law and Gospel which no malevolent force in all creation can restrain, and which stops at nothing to bring the light of God’s love and mercy to you.  Hear His free and unchained Word call you to life, love, and joy in this world and the next.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.