The Right to Exercise our Freedom in Christ from the Testimony of the Bible...

This week, we are looking at the tension of balancing the individual freedoms that we have as a result of our relationship with Christ and the responsibility that we have in community with other followers of Jesus. When can I exercise my freedom in Christ on issues such as drinking, dancing, music styles, tattoos, and the like which are debated amongst Christians, and when can’t I exercise those freedoms?

We see Paul move from the testimony of human day to day experience to a second witness to defend his right to exercise his freedom as a result of his relationship with Christ, which involved around the freedom to receive financial support. We see this second witness in 1 Corinthians 9:8-12:

I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? For it is written in the Law of Moses, "YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING." God is not concerned about oxen, is He? Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Paul brings the members of the church back to the Law, which are the first five books in our Bibles that Moses received from God on Mount Sinai. Paul’s point here is that from the very beginning, the Bible teaches the principle and practice of church leaders receiving financial support. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4, where God command the Jewish people to not muzzle an ox while it was working so that the ox would be unable to eat and share by receiving any product of the labor. Paul then asks a rhetorical question to expose God’s heart behind this command-“God is not concerned about oxen, is He?” Paul then answers his question by explaining that this Old Testament command was a principle that applied to all of His creation. In farming communities, a plowman and a thresher had different roles and responsibilities when it came to harvesting crops. Yet while the plowman and thresher had different roles in the harvest, both hoped and expected to receive a share of the harvest.

Paul then applies this farming scenario that those in Corinth would be very familiar with to his situation at the church by asking the church “If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” In other words, if we invested, the message of the gospel in you, is it too much that we receive the benefit of material and financial support from you?

Paul then presses the church further by asking, if others exercise the freedom and right to receive financial support from the church, should not Paul, in light of his role as the church planting pastor be able to exercise this freedom as well? Paul then makes a sudden shift by explaining that instead of insisting on exercising his freedom to receive financial support from the church, he instead bears up against the difficulties of not receiving financial support from the church. He states that the reason behind not exercising the freedoms that were his was so that there would be nothing that could hinder, or hold back the progress of the gospel of Christ and the kingdom mission in Corinth.

Paul then provides a third witness to defend his right to exercise his freedom as a result of his relationship with Christ in 1 Corinthians 9:13-14:

Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.

Paul returns to his defense as to why he should be able to exercise his freedom to receive financial support by exposing the reality that even those who serve in the ministry of idols receive financial support. Paul introduces a well known and generally accepted fact in the form of a rhetorical question that the members of the church at Corinth are well aware of, which is that those who worked at the temples where food was being sacrificed to idols were provided food from the altar of the temple for financial support.

Paul’s point is that just as false religious systems provide financial support to their leaders, Jesus Christ Himself clearly instructed in the gospels that those who are leaders in the church who are given solely to the public proclaim the gospel and leading the church are to be financially supported by the church. In the context of the local church, these leaders are called pastors. The timeless principle for us today is that pastors who are involved in a full-time commitment to serving in a local church should be financially supported by the church.

Unfortunately many pastors stop their sermons there. This is unfortunate because while Paul provides us with this timeless principle, this principle is not the main point that Paul is attempting to make to the church at Corinth and to us today. Now you might be wondering "Then what is Paul's main point?" We will look at his main point and a timeless truth that can occur when Christians act unchristian tomorrow.