Below are some preliminary questions to assist in the study of this passage. For a comprehensive study of the passage, download the Study Guide (PDF download).
1. What rhetorical questions does Paul ask in 1 Corinthians 9:1 (printed below?) Why does he ask such questions?
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the fruit of my work in the Lord? (1 Corinthians 9:1)
By means of a series of rhetorical questions, Paul expresses the rights he possessed. “Am I not free?” That is to say, Do not I have Christian liberties and the right to exercise them, just as the Corinthians do? “Am I not an apostle?” Was not Paul commissioned by Christ, and therefore, does he not possess the divinely given rights and privileges of an apostle? (Paul will go on to enumerate those rights in verses 4-5) In the event that someone would question his apostolic credentials, Paul adds the next two rhetorical questions: “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (The fact that the Lord Jesus had personally revealed Himself to Paul and commissioned him to be an apostle was evidence of Paul’s rightful claim that he was an apostle and that he is equal to the original apostles.) “Are you not the fruit of my work in the Lord?” (The Corinthian church was the result of Paul’s apostolic labors, a testimony that Christ had commissioned him and honored his work.)
2. By means of another series of rhetorical questions (see verses 4-6 printed below) Paul presents the rights Christ bestowed upon His apostles. What rights does Paul list?
Do we not have the right to eat and drink? (5) Do we not have the right to take with us a wife who is a sister in the Lord, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? (6) Or do only I and Barnabas not have the right to refrain from working to support ourselves? (1 Corinthians 9:4-6)
By means of another series of rhetorical questions, Paul states the rights of the apostles bestowed upon them by Christ. “Do we not have the right to eat and drink?” (The apostles possessed the same rights to exercise Christian liberty as did the rest of the church.) “Do we not have the right to take with us a wife who is a sister in the Lord?” (Paul and Barnabas had the same right to marry as did the rest of the church and the other apostles.) “Do only I and Barnabas not have the right to refrain from working to support ourselves?” (Like the rest of the apostles, Paul and Barnabas had the right to abstain from secular employment so that they could devote themselves full-time to the work of the ministry.)
3. Did the apostle Paul insist upon his rights and seek to exploit those rights for his own benefit? See 1 Corinthians 9:15 (printed below)
But I have not used any of these rights, and I have not written these things so that this might be done for me; for I would rather die—no one shall deprive me of my grounds for boasting! (1 Corinthians 9:15)
In verse 15 Paul testifies that at no time has he insisted upon his apostolic rights while ministering to the Corinthian church. Furthermore, he insists that he is not now writing in order to demand the exercise of his rights, especially the right to receive financial support. Indeed, he states that he would rather die than alter his policy of relinquishing his rights as he ministers to the Corinthian church. (He is so adamant about refusing to receive financial support from the Corinthians that he breaks off his thought in mid-sentence: “for I would rather die than insist upon my right to receive financial support from you—no one shall deprive me of my grounds for boasting!”)
4. Why did the apostle Paul refrain from insisting on his rights? See 1 Corinthians 9:15b-18 (printed below)
…no one shall deprive me of my grounds for boasting! (16) My preaching of the gospel is not any grounds for boasting, because there has been laid upon me a compulsion to preach the gospel. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. (17) If I preach of my own free will, I have a reward; but if it is not of my own will, then it is a stewardship entrusted to me. (18) What then is my reward? It is this: When I preach the gospel I present it free of charge, so that I do not make use of my right as a preacher of the gospel. (1 Corinthians 9:15b-18)
The apostle is very zealous that no one should deprive him of his “grounds for boasting;” namely, the fact that he was never a burden to the Corinthian Christians and never received financial remuneration for his ministry among them. In verses 16-18 the apostle goes on to explain what he means. Paul’s preaching of the gospel is no source of boasting, or glorying, to him (that is to say, it is no source of personal satisfaction and gratification), because he is compelled to preach the gospel—Paul cannot derive an intrinsic satisfaction from doing what he must do by necessity. If he voluntarily entered upon the gospel ministry he would have a “reward” from his preaching: he would have the satisfaction of doing what he wanted to do and what he freely chose to do. But, as the case is, Paul has been divinely commissioned and compelled to preach the gospel: he does not have a choice in the matter; a divine stewardship has been placed upon him. Paul must preach the gospel, he has no choice. So from where does he derive his boasting/glorying (that is to say, his sense of satisfaction?) Paul’s answer is that he derives his boasting/glorying from the fact that he refrains from the use of his apostolic rights; he gains his sense of satisfaction from ministering to the Corinthians without the benefit of financial remuneration at their expense (verse 18).
5. What is Paul’s personal principle with regard to Christian ministry? See 1 Corinthians 9:19,22b-23 (printed below)
Although I am free from all men, I make myself a slave to all, so that I might win the most I can… I have become all things to all men, in order that I might by all means save some. (23) I do all these things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may have a share in it. (1 Corinthians 9:19, 22b-23)
In verse 19 Paul presents to us his personal principle of Christian ministry and life: “Although I am free from all men, I make myself a slave to all, so that I might win the most I can.” Here is a willingness to relinquish his rights and privileges; here is a willingness to submit to others and accept their terms. Here is a willingness to do all this for the sake of the gospel—for the sake of winning the greatest number of souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul explains, “I do all these things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may have a share in it” (verse 23). It is as though Paul views the gospel as being a divine enterprise (a divine “business venture,”) one in which he desires to be a “stockholder” who shares in the dividends, as opposed to merely being a disinterested “worker.”
