But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.
15But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. 16Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.
Dig Deeper
Throughout my lifetime, the salaries of professional athletes has gone higher and higher. Currently, there are 30 players in the NBA that make over $12.5 million, while golfer Tiger Woods made over $80 million in one year. It’s very difficult to believe that players making that much money really play for the love of the game, although many would say that they do. In fact, many people enjoy watching small college and high school games, because it is there that you will find players who are not being paid. They truly play because they love to play. Although I’m not arguing that players don’t have the right to earn money, but those who play for no pay make the game seem more pure and decent.
Paul was preaching and spreading the gospel without taking any pay from the churches in which he was ministering. He cherished his ability to do so, and even says that he would rather die than take payment for what he is offering to Lord. Why did Paul feel that strongly? He hints at his reasons in verse 12. He doesn’t want his situation or his past to, in any way, hinder the gospel of Christ. Yet, before he more fully explains his reasons, he will add two more pieces of evidence to bolster his case that those who preach the gospel have every right to earn a living from it. In making his case for why he denies his right to be paid, he wants to make extra sure that no one turns his argument around and accuse as abusers, those who do earn a living from it. They have every right to earn a living and it should not be at all shaded by his refusal to do so.
In verse 13, Paul uses an example from the temple. It is not really clear, though, whether he is referring to pagan temples or the Temple in Jerusalem. His use of the singular, probably indicates that he is referring primarily to the Temple in Jerusalem. If he is, the argument is doubly powerful. Not only does he make the point that those who work in the Temple receive support for doing so, Paul has already made the point that the Church is the Temple of God (3:16). Thus, he makes the extra point that ministers of God’s new Temple have the same right to support that the priests at the Old Covenant Temple have.
His reference, in verse 14, to the Lord’s command appears to be talking about Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:7, where Jesus says that those preaching the gospel deserve their wages. To this point, Paul has made a convincing argument that ministers of the gospel have every right to receive financial support for doing so. Now, he turns to his reasons for not taking advantage of that right.
As he begins his explanation, Paul wants to make it clear that this is not some backdoor hint trying to get them to start paying him. No, this is no indirect argument and, just to make that clear, he says straight out that he would rather die than take money. In fact the sentence is so strong and raw that he actually interrupts his thought, so the actual wording looks more like this: “It would be better for me to die than. . . . Nobody’s going to take away my boast.”
Paul has already made clear the difference between a preacher of the gospel and the sophists who spoke for money (the more personal and deeper the teaching you wanted from the sophists, the more money it would cost). The gospel is available to everyone, not just those who can afford it. Paul doesn’t preach for money. He preaches because he feels absolutely indebted to Jesus the Messiah. When Jesus called him to preach, He also rescued Paul from his bitter and angry life. He wanted to obey because of what Christ had done for him personally. Paul felt that because of his past as a persecutor of the Church, he was different than the rest of the apostles (see 15:7 where he calls himself one who is “abnormally born”). He was the only one that needed to be stopped dead to rights as a persecutor of God’s people and turned the other way. Preaching the gospel was a privilege for Paul that he could never earn. No matter how difficult it would become, it was still far better than his previous life. His reward for preaching the gospel was that he got to do it for free. Paul believes that he gave up his own rights for the unending privilege of being able to give to others the invaluable gospel, and to give his service to God. These were both things that he would not have been able to offer had he not entered into the life of Christ. He has given up his own rights as an offering to God.
Because of this indebtedness that he feels and his spotty past, Paul wants to avoid any charges of impure motives or misuse of funds. Paul feels that because of his special circumstances, if he takes some sort of pay for preaching the gospel that he is actually robbing himself of his reward. Paul did occasionally take gifts from those to whom he wasn’t currently ministering (Philippians 4;10-19), but he never asked for it and he would never take reward from those to whom he was ministering, especially the Corinthians for reasons he will allude to later in his letter. His pay was the reward of serving Christ completely free from all human impositions on his ministry.
Devotional Thought
Paul felt that the ability to share the gospel was his true reward (no doubt the other ministers and apostles did as well, whether they were paid or not). Do you feel that same way? Do you feel such a gratitude towards God that you can’t help but sharing your faith, reaching out to the lost, and telling others about God and what He has done for you? If you don’t feel that way, why don’t you?
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