1 Corinthians 9: 6- 8 – livelihood out of the work

Who is warring at any time supplying his own rations? Who is planting a vineyard and not eating of its fruit? Or who is tending a flock and not eating of the milk of the flock? Not according to man am I speaking these things. Or is the law not also saying these things?

Paul and his (previous) fellow worker Barnabas never asked for support from the ecclesias. Were they the only  apostles who couldn’t claim that? Of course not. Paul gives three examples from natural life, where it’s logical for everyone that people receive their livelihood out of their work.

Paul doesn’t mention these three professions randomly. For they exactly describe what he did in spiritual sense. Paul was working for the ecclesia like a soldier on the front (2 Corinthians 10: 5). And the ecclesia in Corinth was like a vineyard he might plant (compare 3: 6), and she was also a flock he had herded (Acts 20: 28). Shouldn’t they also supply his livelihood? First Paul wants to prove that he has the full right. Subsequently he makes clear why he waives this right…

Delen: