November 15, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Corinthians 9 (NIV)
Paul’s Rights as an Apostle
1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me.……Continue Reading
When I preach the gospel
I cannot boast. For I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel. That sums up who Paul was. As this chapter points out. Paul gift and calling Using his gifts for Gods glory. Was his total desire. Always. Can I / we get motivated to use our gifts !!
1 Corinthians 9
1 Corinthians 9
1 Corinthians 9
With all the conflict and issues Paul needed to address in this church, he also felt the need to address why he had the right to hold them to account. Some Corinthians were questioning Paul on various matters and so Paul addresses them here. It is unfortunate when a leader needs to press their authority rather than it being assumed because of the role God has given. But Paul, like any good leader, doesn’t press their authority for their benefit but really for the benefit of those that they lead. And Paul’s passion in his ministry was preaching the gospel. Doing anything he could that didn’t compromise godly standards to make the message and work of Jesus known. And yet the life that Jesus calls us to is not an easy one. We are to strive and exert self control in order to know God more and die to the desires that come from our flesh. Whether we see ourselves in a battle or a race, both require training and discipline to be victorious. May Paul’s instructions here be a model for our lives as well.
Paul desired one outcome in everythhing he did and that was to bring the gospel to people. He recognized that his message delivery would be different to different people, however, the message itself never changed. He did not water it down or behave in a manner inconsistent with what he knew about God but rather brought it to people where they were and how they would be most open to hear it. We need to be sensitive to the people in our lives and listen for times God opens doors for us to share the gospel but never changing our behavior to fit a situation and therefore comprimising the message.
Live our lives following God’s Word, minister to people where they are, be in service to others, and be open to any opportunity to share the gospel with them. That is how we can run the race to get the prize.
”Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.“
I Corinthians 9:24-25 NKJV
20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;
21 to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God,fn but under law toward Christfn), that I might win those who are without law;
22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.