1Cor 9:15-18 - Would You Do it For Free?

15-18 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

So Paul has rights. He has them from God Almighty in the Scriptures and from the Lord Himself - but he does not claim those rights. He does not see an entitlement that he should personally enforce upon others. And he is not giving the old "false modesty" or the sort of "self-denial" that simply awaits the insistence of others as an excuse to change his mind - like a "hard-to-get" strategy. That would be duplicitous, deceitful, hypocritical and manipulative. But, though we can all display these characteristics from time to time, what you see in Paul is what you get. He means what he says and he says what he means. He’s not role playing. He’s not game playing.

Paul has a deadly serious calling to which he is fully committed, up to an including the embracing of bodily death for Christ’s sake. Paul want’s to boast, but it is not like unregenerate human boasting. He has no concept of self-aggrandizement; no braggadocio. In fact, Paul has no real sense of self-consciousness. He does not even judge himself. He lives out the belief that he has died with Christ. He dies daily to the flesh. His whole being is given over to the idea that his life is no longer his own. He lives - nevertheless not he, but Christ lives in him. He believes this stuff. He lives this stuff. It is what the normal Christian life is supposed to be, Watchman Nee notwithstanding.

Paul doesn’t preach for a living. Paul’s life is preaching. He’s not doing it for the money, but because he has a commission from the Lord. This is a necessity. He can do nothing else. Whether he faces life or death, plenty or want, acceptance or persecution, health or sickness, respect or ridicule - whatever he encounters he must be true to the Lord and to the gospel in which the Lord is found.


When Paul speaks of not preaching on account of his own will he doesn’t mean that he is unwilling - or that he is doing it contrary to his desire. He means that he has been made willing by God through the revelation of Christ and through the calling that has been laid on his heart. God willed that Paul be saved and that he be the Apostle to the Gentiles. God intervened in history and in Paul’s own life. As a result of this intervention in his own once lost and dead life, Paul preaches to the dead and encourages the living. So the whole thing is much, much bigger than a job or a living. It is the very breath of life to him - and he would preach for free, with no expectation of support from his hearers, until his very last breath if need be. Sort of reminds me of Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn :-)

Just as Paul desires to boast, but not in himself, so he seeks a reward, but not for himself. His reward is to do the will of God, which is that all whom the Father gives to the Son come to Him, and be kept by Him through the power of the gospel.

This is not teaching that ministers ought not to be paid. It is not teaching that they ought not to expect to be paid. It is teaching that their underlying motivation in all things is always, first and foremost, the glory of God through the preaching of the kingdom. Circumstances may vary; results may vary; acceptance may vary; support may vary; but the true minister of God sets his face like flint upon the prize of the upward calling of himself and his flock.