1 Corinthians 9King James Version
Paul's apostolic rights, which he refuses to use. I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run, that ye may obtain. I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.
Paul defends his apostolic authority and then uses it to make a surprising argument: he has every right to financial support from the Corinthians but has chosen not to exercise that right, in order to remove any barrier to the gospel. He compares himself to a runner and a boxer, both requiring self-discipline. The whole chapter is a lived example of the principle from chapter 8: restraining a legitimate freedom for the sake of others.
Freedom is most powerful when voluntarily surrendered. Paul's refusal of apostolic pay is not weakness; it is the same gospel logic that brought Christ into the world at all.
"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." (9:22) This verse has been misread as spineless accommodation; Paul means something harder, the willingness to enter another person's world at real cost to your own comfort and status.
Corinthian athletes trained for the Isthmian Games, held near the city every two years, one of the four major Greek athletic festivals. Paul's audience would have seen serious athletes in training and understood immediately what he meant about discipline and the possibility of disqualification. The perishable crown of laurel leaves contrasted pointedly with the imperishable crown Paul was running toward.
Paul is the argument here, using his own conduct as exhibit A for the principle he has been teaching. He references Barnabas briefly as another apostle who similarly worked for his living. He invokes unnamed athletes whose training discipline shames believers who take their spiritual lives for granted. Peter (Cephas) is mentioned as someone who does accept the church's financial support.
The apostle's right to support was a real financial question for early churches. Paul's choice to work as a tentmaker in Corinth (Acts 18) was unusual and may have lowered his social status in a culture where manual labor was associated with servitude. But he argues this was strategic: keeping the gospel free of even the appearance of mercenary motivation. The same freedom that allowed him to eat anything allowed him to decline payment for everything.
There is pride and grief both buried in this chapter. Paul is defending himself against an implied criticism that he lacks apostolic standing. But the defense turns into something more searching: a vision of himself as a servant of every class of person, spending himself without reserve.
1Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are not ye my work in the Lord?
2If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.
3Mine answer to them that do examine me is this,
4Have we not power to eat and to drink?
5Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?
6Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
7Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?
8Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?
9For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
10Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
12If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
13Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?
14Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
15But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
16For 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!
17For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.
18What 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.
19For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20And 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;
21To 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.
22To 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.
23And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.
24Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.