Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Woe to Me
(I Corinthians 9:1-18)
Paul penned the Corinthian epistles in order to help a troubled church get things right. When we read these letters, we marvel at the number and level of problems faced by that ancient congregation: immorality, improper use of spiritual gifts, immaturity—just to name a few. In I Corinthians 9, we find Paul defending his Apostleship from some in the church who even dared to question his authority.
Was Paul falsely claiming authority and glorying in his position as lord over the Corinthian church, as some asserted? The answer, of course, is “no.” Though Paul, a legitimate Apostle, had founded this church, his motive in gospel work was not power, greed, or glory. His motive, though sounding strange to our ears, was necessity (16).
Amazingly, Paul viewed his gospel work as an absolute necessity. It was necessary because God Himself had commissioned Paul to the task (Acts 9:15). It was also necessary because Paul had the only effective message of salvation. In other words, Paul felt obligated to preach the Gospel—obligated to both God and man.
Paul viewed his ministry, then, as a moral imperative. Indeed, Paul understood he would do both God and man a great disservice by failing in his calling. Failure to preach Christ would be a “woe” to him—a shame, a heart break, a personal distress. Do we, the Lord’s church today, feel the same sense of obligation?
