1 Corinthians 9:19 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Corinthians 9:19

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The apostle has been speaking about the necessity that he feels, like a great burden upon him, to preach the gospel. He feels a debt to Christ, who saved him from condemnation; he has a strong sense of commission from God, and he must honour that; he has a great burden for the lost, and great joy in preaching the good news. But now he tells us how he prepares for service, the service of the Lord. Paul declares himself free. He repeats what he has said in verse 1 of the chapter: he is free from all. The KJV has inserted the word ‘men’ in italic, to make sense of the passage, but it is best read without it: ‘Though I be free from all.’ He isn’t only thinking about people; he is free, for instance, from the diet rules of the Jewish church of old. He is free to eat whatever he chooses; those laws are finished. In his case, he chooses to abstain from some things so as not to offend the weaker conscience, so that they will listen to him all the more freely. Nevertheless he is free from those kinds of rules. He is free to receive support, from the churches, but also he lays that aside. He is free from obligation to all Jewish rites. The gospel has set him free from that. He has always been free from the worship of Gentile idols. He is not bound to the Gentile culture of polytheism. He is free from Roman slavery; he’s a free man. He is free from any commitment to any particular philosophical school, and people bound themselves strongly to these things. He is free from suspicion about being in it for the money and taking reward because he never does; he works for a living. He says this in order that the contrast should be emphasised here: ‘Though I be free from all, yet have I made myself’ – this is a voluntary act – ‘servant, [slave, literally] unto all, that I might gain the more.’ Then the apostle says something really quite extraordinary. ‘That I might gain the more.’ We need to weigh these words carefully. Doesn’t that produce a theological problem? Isn’t the apostle Paul, one of the grand teachers of the biblical doctrines of predestination and sovereign election? Is it consistent with that to say ‘that I might gain the more’? Do we, or do we not, believe in the predestinating love and power of God, and the sovereign election of souls to life? Yes, we do. That is the clear teaching of the Bible, and yet, in spite of that, here is the apostle advancing this attitude of mind that I might gain the more. You believe in sovereign election. At the same time you work and you witness and you preach as though your message and your proclamation and your persuasion is going to make a difference. Your motivation is: I want to reach as many as possible. The two are wholly consistent. Salvation is in the hand of God, but we are set to make the general call of the gospel, the general offer of the gospel of Christ. We divide the call of God, the offer of the gospel, into the general call, and the effectual call. The effectual call is down to God; the general call is our responsibility. With full hearts we reach as many as possible. That is Paul’s attitude of mind: ‘that I might gain the more.’

Application

Consider, for instance, the question of whether a preacher should comment on political matters. Well, that is not his business. Supposing preachers did intrude into this territory. Supposing it were to be known that a pastor supported this party or that party, or advocated this or that political ideology. The result would be that half the community would be much less inclined to listen to what is much more important: the gospel, the word of God. He would carry a label which some would disapprove of. So if he makes himself the servant of all, he keeps those things to himself. Unless preachers are talking about moral matters which would apply to all political shades of opinion, they don't declare what they support, or how they would vote: that is a private matter. What are the preacher’s qualifications for advising on such things anyway? Everybody must have their own view, and come to their own conclusions. In order to be of servant of all, for the much more important message of Christ and the gospel, they subdue that.

The same with other things, also. The minister and the preacher and the Christian witness should never be haughty, never be in the old sense of the word ‘bookish’. It has taken on rather a good sense now, the term bookish just means you are studious and diligence and interested and have a passion for books. All that is maybe a good thing, but the term used to have a somewhat negative sense years ago. Somebody who is bookish hasn't got any time for the ordinary, for the common sense, for plain speaking. He is up in another world, and uses only five syllable words if he can. Well, that would immediately cut the preacher off from the generality of people. So if we going to be all things to all men, we have to be very scrupulous and careful about that. It goes for all of us in Christian witness.

Occasionally you will hear a preacher – maybe it is in the open air, where the temptation is greater – who is extremely aggressive and shrill with his proclamation, and that puts people off. Some people love it. It kind of stirs the blood if someone shouts at the top of his voice and is very shrill, but for most people it is the language of aggression, and they dislike it. So as soon as you adopt an extreme style, you cannot be a servant to all, and commend your message to all. You also have to consider, yes, the ignorance of people and explain things repeatedly and carefully; you have to bear with the slowness and the resistance to spiritual things which people have, which we all had before we were converted. We think back to our own years in unbelief and the stubbornness and the obstinacy that we displayed when people tried to talk to us. So we remember ourselves, and we have to have almost infinite patience with others, and be inoffensive and courteous, no matter what.

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1 Corinthians 9:19 Commentary and Bible Study