Willingly or Unwillingly

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

WILLINGLY OR UNWILLINGLY

1 Cor 9:15-18

15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me. I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of this boast. 16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it.

NIV

Paul is still talking about himself and his rights to get paid, but that he would rather die than be deprived of being able to boast that he does not and rather refuses to accept support for his preaching the gospel. That really sounds boastful rather than a humble servant of the Lord. We just don’t get it at all. The one thing that he does say which strikes a chord, is that preaching the gospel voluntarily has a reward, but also if he does it without being voluntarily, but under the command of God, then he is simply discharging that which was trusted to him. But then he goes back to the idea that if he is doing it because he is compelled to by God, then his reward is offering free of charge. How do we deal with this? All throughout this chapter, it seems to be about the same idea of Paul defending his apostleship and rights as a preacher of the gospel to support, but that he does not use that right. Still, he defends the rights of others to support and to have their wives travel with them, helping in the ministry. The only thing we can glean from all this is that it is right for a pastor to make his living from the gospel and it is also alright to preach the gospel as a non-paid minister of the Lord. In both cases, the importance of preaching the gospel is that it is a compulsion to do so because of the call of God on that person’s life. It would seem that preaching the gospel willingly rather than unwillingly, which is really a more accurate translation of the Greek, is a reward in itself. But should we not all do that which we do willingly? Perhaps we would rather do something else other than what we are doing. Why do we preach at all? It would be far easier to do nothing, to keep to ourselves, especially because we are an introvert. Hiding in our own little world seems far safer than preaching the gospel, which means being in front of others, or at least engaging with others. But we have been compelled, we have been called, and so maybe we are preaching unwillingly because we have no choice in the matter. So whether we are paid or not is not the issue, but rather that we are discharging the trust committed to us.