Living as Apostles of Christ

Chapter 9 is just a chunk of meat and after reading it through I found two main points, one talking about working and receiving, and the other about advancing the gospel. God continues to use Paul to speak through analogies that I always find interesting and fascinating.

The first chunk comes from verses 1 to 18. Paul shares his experience as an apostle and goes on about their right to receive material support from the churches. That sounds reasonable right? He gives other examples where that makes perfect sense,

⁷ Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk?

- 1 Corinthians 9:7

When we do something, we expect something out of it. Whether if its a job, we expect to be paid, we expect money. I know many of the times, when you get a job, one thing that's on one's mind is "what are the benefits that come with this?" From the health benefits, or the employee sale discounts, we are always looking to get something out of whatever we invest our time in.

But Paul gives an interesting response. He says that he is not expecting any support from the churches (v.7). Instead, he believes he is entrusted with a stewardship from God (v. 17), and he chooses to be faithful to God whether he receives support or not. In the same way, i think we should learn to not expect anything in return, but instead trust in the Lord knowing he will provide and watch over us.

Paul then switches gears to another part of his life as an apostle. His main job is to share and further the kingdom of God with the gospel. From verses 19-23, he tells us that he becomes those he wants to share to. He becomes the weak to share with the weak, he becomes like a Jew to share with the Jews, and similarly, Christ came down as a human to share and save us human beings. When we want to share the good news, we must also fill the shoes of those who we want to share with. It will help us better understand them.

Sharing the gospel is no easy task, there are hardships, we will experience rejection, but Paul uses the analogy of running a race to show that no matter how hard it is, athletes discipline themselves and demonstrate self control to get endure it all, and likewise, we are the stay strong through it all in hopes to advance the gospel (v.24-27).

verse of the day: 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.