1 Corinthians 9:3-6
This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living?
Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions that have the implied purpose of getting the Corinthians to agree with him on his central premise that he can use his position of authority to claim certain rights or freedoms. He lays these out in these verses. He could ask for support from the Corinthians. He could take a wife with him on his travels. But he has not. Rather, he has worked hard as a tentmaker to support himself so that he would not be a burden or beholden to others.
When we use our positions of authority to pursue our own agendas, we may be tempted to become obligated to those who follow us. In the first century, this was governed by the cultural norm of patron and clients. Paul did not want to be a client to the Corinthians who had goods that he needed (food, shelter, clothing, other support). Rather, Paul wanted to be the patron who had the gospel message to give to the Corinthians, who were the clients. Paul wanted to be free to preach, not under any form of obligation.
I am thinking about this passage in the context of pastoral ministry, which is a similar kind of situation. Pastors can feel a sense of obligation to their churches because the church boards hold the purse strings and support the pastor needs. A bi-vocational pastor has less strings attached and thus more freedom. It does not need to be this way, but most boards that I know or have observed from a distance have a set of expectations for their pastors. Financial support is usually not explicitly connected to performance, but there are subtle pressures that a pastor may feel that try to make this connection. This is a difficult thing to negotiate. It would take a highly spiritually mature board and a pastor willing to minister without a sense of financial obligation. Paul knew some of these things, even in the simple ministry contexts of his missions. Pastors and boards would be wise to think through these matters, to be open, and to see the bigger picture of God’s kingdom and ministry.
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