Value Fueled Freedom
February 23, 2025
Preached by Ron Smith
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 9:1-27
1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3 This is my defense to those who would examine me. 4 Do we not have the right to eat and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? 10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? 14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Freedom. One thing that is important to us in America is freedom. This is the “land of the free.” We are a free people with lots of rights and privileges that people in other countries don’t have. So, there is a certain responsibility that comes with freedom. We have to ask ourselves, how will we use our freedom?
Will we use it to pursue our personal dreams like our dreams of financial prosperity? Will we use our freedom to make our family safe; to promote the betterment of society; to seek the welfare of the unfortunate; to ensure justice for all; to promote greater environmental awareness.
All of these can be noble ways to use our freedom. But one thing that we need to realize is that the way we use our freedom reveals what we truly value. What you value fuels the way you use your freedom.
Of course, Paul is not interested in American freedom here in 1 Corinthians 9. He is concerned with the freedom we have in Christ. But the same could be said, the way we use our freedom in Christ reveals what we truly value.
The Big Idea that I want us to grasp from this passage is this: when we value the gospel we use our freedom in Christ by laying aside our rights and serving others to win them to Christ, just like an athlete wins the prize by disciplining himself to train properly for the race.
To get us there, I would like to answer two questions: 1) What did Paul value? 2) How did that value shape the way he used his freedom? We will answer the first question pretty quickly with a simple straightforward answer. And then for the second question we have a two-part answer that we will spend a little more time unpacking.
What did Paul value?
Let me say that there are a bunch of ways we could answer that question. Today we are limiting ourselves to 1 Corinthians 9. And here, I think we see that Paul’s value was the gospel.
We see this come through in several verses:
Verse 12: If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Verse 18: What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Verse 19: For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
Verse 23: I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
It was the gospel that motivated Paul. It was the gospel that fueled his missionary endeavors to take the good news of Jesus to those who had never heard. He wanted to win people to Jesus. He wanted to see people saved. Paul valued seeing people come to know the living Jesus through the proclamation of the gospel.
Church, is that our value?
We can at least say that it is one of our goals. One our goals for us a church is that we would have a culture of outreach. We don’t want to just do outreach; we want it to be a part of our DNA. Of course that begs the question, what does a culture of outreach look like? Well, think about the people you want to meet Jesus. What would you do? Pray for them. Look for ways to serve them. Show them the difference that Jesus has made in your life. Tell them and show them how Jesus makes sense of life. Look for ways to share snippets of the gospel, share a Bible verse or even a Bible story. Point people to Jesus with your life and your words.
So, having a culture of outreach at least in part looks like each of us doing just that. Many of you are doing this already! Having a culture of outreach starts with having a value of seeing people come to know the living Jesus through the natural sharing of the gospel. That’s what Paul’s value was and should be ours as well.
That’s the “what” question. Now, “How?” How did that value shape the way he used his freedom?
How did Paul’s value of the gospel shape the way he used his freedom?
There are two things that jump out in this passage about Paul’s use of his freedom that I want to highlight.
1) For the sake of the gospel we are free to lay aside our rights.
Right out of the gate we feel a tension. If we are free, we should be able to lay claim to our rights. To enforce our rights; to demand our rights. But what we find here is that Christian freedom pushes us to lay aside our rights.
Notice in verse 1 Paul asks a question, “am I not free?” It’s really not so much of a question as it is a statement of his freedom. This is coming off the heels of what we saw in chapter 8. The summary of that chapter is that Paul was not going to use his rights if it meant it would cause a brother or sister in the Lord to stumble. Love needs to be our guide, not an arrogant demanding of rights.
So, as we transition into chapter 9, Paul begins to expound on this idea of laying aside rights. In the first 18 verses we find this word “right(s)” 7 times. However, there is a little nuance of difference between chapters 8 and 9. In chapter 8 Paul was not going to use his rights if it caused a fellow Christian to sin. Here in chapter 9 the focus shifts to not using his rights if it would hinder the gospel from being accepted by nonbelievers. Let me show you how that unfolds.
Paul starts off discussing the different rights he has as an apostle. But he focuses in on the right that an apostle has to be paid – to make a living from the gospel. Look with me at verses 6-9.
6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? 8 Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.”
In making his argument, Paul is going back in time if you will, to when he first brought the gospel to Corinth; before they were believers. Instead of preaching the gospel and then being sustained by those who converted to Christianity, he was a tent maker. This was laying aside his right. We see in his illustrations that he would have had every right to earn a living from the Corinthians when he brought them the gospel – a soldier does not serve at his own expense; the one who keeps the vineyard can eat the fruit; the one who tends the flock can get some of the milk. He even appeals to the Law of Moses which said to not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Not muzzling the ox would have allowed the oxen to eat as they were doing their job. You don’t deprive a worker of his wages is the idea.
He comes to the conclusion in verses 11 and 12.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? 12 If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
He had the right to receive support from them, but he laid it aside. He valued seeing people come to know the living Jesus more than money in his pocket. He did not want his right to be paid to be an obstacle to the gospel.
He didn’t want people to reject Jesus because they thought it would mean they would then have to pay money, like some kind of money-making scheme. He didn’t want people to reject Jesus because they thought Paul was just another one of these eloquent speakers that would parade into Corinth, wow the crowds with their stories, get paid, and then bolt for the next gig. He wanted people to see that it was different. Prosperity gospel.
Paul knew his ministry was different. He wasn’t motivated by money; he was motivated by something different. In verse 16 he says that necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! God had put a fire in bones just like the prophet Jeremiah and he had to let it out. And he did it so that in my preaching, he says, I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Paul’s value of seeing people come to know Jesus pushed him to use his freedom by giving up his rights.
What rights might we be holding onto too tightly? What are things in our own life that we need to lay down for the sake of the gospel? Put up with noisy neighbors; rest…
Well, let’s move on to our second answer to the question how did Paul’s value of the gospel shape the way he used his freedom?
2) For the sake of the gospel we are free to serve others.
Look with me at verse 18.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
I have made myself a servant to all. Quite literarily, the word Paul uses is that he makes himself a slave. He wants people to know Jesus so badly, that he makes himself their servant.
Now, we might do it for selfish gain. “You want that job promotion, what you need to do is butter up your boss. Volunteer to do everything. Go the extra mile.” But serving to get the job promotion = manipulation. Just a wrong motive.
What motivated Paul to serve others? To win more of them. To win them to Christ. He was so motivated by seeing others know true freedom that he became their servant. It was for their benefit. He got nothing out of it.
So, what was his strategy? Here we find some well-known verses. Let’s look at verses 20-23.
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
There is some deep thinking and meditation over these verses that needs to be done in terms of how we witness to the people around us. I say that because there are a lot of misconceptions around these verses. Let me make a three general observations:
There is a need to consider your audience. Who is the person you are talking to? What do they believe? This will inform the way you speak to them about the gospel. To show how the gospel answers their deepest questions of their heart. Paul in Acts – to the Jews he spoke of the Law and the prophets and showed how Jesus is the fulfillment. To the Gentiles he appealed to General Revelation and their own poets. But to both he spoke of the cross and resurrection.
Depending on your audience it may shape what you do to ensure nothing hinders the message of the gospel. For example, when Timothy joined Paul’s missionary team, he had him circumcised because of the Jews who were in the places they were going (Acts 16:3). However, he did not insist on Titus being circumcised (Gal 2:3). Missionaries learning the language, what they wear.
We are in no way to compromise the gospel by sinning. These verses are sometimes used to justify doing things that are wrong all in the name of winning people to Jesus. But Paul clearly says that he is under the law of Christ. An “anything goes” attitude is not a good attitude to have. Our methods do matter.
Clearly, much more could be said about this. There is a tension we should feel. Sometimes there is not a quick easy answer on how we should witness. We will be well served to keep at the forefront of our minds what Paul says here:
I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel
How can you serve others for the sake of the gospel? What’s keeping you from serving others?
Let that desire for people to come and know the living Jesus be your motivation, be the value that pushes you to use your freedom in such a way that it will happen, whether that means laying aside your rights or serving others.
Let’s wrap all this up. Look with me at the closing verses of this chapter.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Taken by itself, this is a good metaphor for the Christian life. We need self-control. Discipline. I have heard this passage taught on in way that emphasizes holiness in the Christian life. There are certainly good things that come out of such a reading. But Paul here seems to be using it as a summary of what he is saying about his freedom. When we value the gospel, we will use our freedom in Christ by laying aside our rights and serving others to win them to Christ, just like an athlete wins the prize by disciplining himself to train properly for the race. Using our rights could hinder the gospel and thus disqualify us. If we look out for ourselves instead of serving others, it would disqualify us. Instead, we use our freedom in Christ with purpose. It might seem to the world that we are running aimlessly or randomly boxing the air, but we are focused. We are focused on that prize that is imperishable, that prize that has greater and eternal significance. That prize that is worth way more than anything this world has to offer. We are focused on Jesus.
We focus on the one in whom freedom is found. Jesus is the freest person to have ever walked the face of the earth. He is God incarnate. Talk about rights. Whatever he desires is his right. He determines what rights are. He is the Creator of all things. And as King of kings he could have demanded that everyone serve him – and it would have been right. Yet, he did not come to be served, but to serve. He took the form of a servant and humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:8). That’s why there is freedom to be found in laying aside our rights; there is freedom found in serving others. That’s following the way of Jesus. Will you follow?
If you are here this morning feeling trapped in the rat race of life you are running, come to Jesus and know true freedom.
Sermon Discussion Questions:
Why is it so important to value the gospel in such a way that it fuels the way we use our freedom?
What does the way you use your freedom reveal about what you value?
Can you think of a time when you have not made use of a right for the sake of the gospel? Or perhaps the opposite – a time when you wouldn’t let go of your right and the gospel was hindered?
What other stories from Paul’s life would demonstrate how he valued the gospel?
How do we see Jesus serving others?
How might the parable of the Good Smartian show us how to give up our rights and serve others for the sake of the gospel?
Verses 19-23 can be problematic to put into practice. Why is it important to become all things to all people? And, what are the guardrails we should have to not go ‘to far’ and actually begin to engage in sinful practice all in the name of winning them to Christ?
How do you think we can develop a culture of outreach at Community?