1Cor 9:1-3 - Cutting the Mustard

1-3 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 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. 3 This is my defense to those who would examine me.

This is the "practice what you preach" section. Paul has been making the point that the Corinthians - for example those in the meat-eating party - ought not to exercise their rights just because they have freedom. They are to control what they do outwardly and no longer be driven simply by what they desire - even if what they desire is, in and of itself, good. The question is not simply "is it OK for me?" but is also "will it harm a brother even if it is OK for me?" The guiding principle in the Spirit is the proper use of law in a context of love.

Paul uses himself as an example of the principle of proper self-denial for the sake of the souls of others. Firstly, he establishes his credentials. It seems that these credentials have been questioned by some. He wasn’t a companion of Jesus during His earthly lifetime, but he has seen the Lord with his own eyes. He has seen the resurrected Lord. He has seen the glorified Lord. For all their proximity to the Lord during the incarnation the other Apostles never really got the picture until after the resurrection. Thomas may serve as the example, but he is a typical example. They were all secreted away in fear and confusion until "suddenly" Jesus was among them.

So Paul had seen the risen Christ, and in this regard he was just as privileged and enlightened as the other Apostles. And it was more than a mere sighting - it was a specific, personal, purposeful appearance that was meant to utterly change Paul’s reason for living. And it did. He became the Apostle to the Gentiles. As such, he was demonstrably "free" of all the ceremonial and civil encumbrances of Judaism and free from keeping the moral law as a means of self-justification before God. He was free from keeping the letter of the law and free to keep its spirit, by the grace of God.

And his particular calling, spelled out by the Lord Himself, had been partially fulfilled in the Corinthians - as he points out here. They are what Christ called him to. They are fruit of the ministry that Christ Himself gave to Paul. Indeed, their faith, their salvation and the demonstrations of the power of God among them by the gift of the Holy Spirit, are proofs positive of Paul’s calling and his authority as coming from the highest source. They need look no further than the reality of their own redeemed lives if they would see by what authority Paul acted.

[I want to be careful here because a similar argument is used today by all manner of false preachers and prophets, namely - "the end justifies the means" or "it’s right because it works" - it brings ’results’. Paul is not pointing to results in order to justify himself before them. They are, in fact, for the most part, a miserable example of Christian living. They are schismatic, proud, boastful, factious and even vain. In many ways they are the poster boy for what a Christian community ought not to look like. But they could not deny that the power of God had come to them in the preaching of Paul, for their lives, no matter how weak and confused now, had been turned from great immorality and wickedness to newness of life in Christ Jesus. Sure "it worked" and sure Paul is using that truth here - but it is based not upon their experiences alone, but upon the Word of God when He commissioned Paul. Where there is a discrepancy between the word of God and our personal subjective experience, even our experience must bow to the Word.]