1 Corinthians 9:1-22

3. The example of abnegation given by Paul. 9:1-22.

IT is easy, from what we have just said, to understand the link which connects the following passage with the question treated by the apostle. It is nevertheless true that the subject which he proceeds to handle receives so considerable a development, that it is difficult to resist the idea that he had special reasons for expounding it here with so many details. This supposition is confirmed by the allusions to a secret hostility against his apostleship, which occur in abundance in the first three verses of the chapter, and still more clearly by a passage in the Second Epistle, where the odious accusations of his adversaries, in regard to this disinterested conduct on the part of the apostle, are dragged to the light of day. We see, in fact, from 2 Corinthians 12:11-18, that instead of admiring St. Paul's abnegation, his enemies at Corinth turned it into a weapon against him, alleging that if he did not make his Churches maintain him, it was because he did not feel himself to be the equal of the true apostles, and that, moreover, he found other ways of indemnifying himself for the self-denial which he seemed to exercise. Our First Epistle to the Corinthians already assumes all this; but for prudential reasons Paul as yet lets it barely appear. In 1 Corinthians 9:1-3 he establishes the reality of his apostleship; then he deduces from it, 1 Corinthians 9:4-14, his apostolical right to maintenance. He afterwards explains, 1 Corinthians 9:15-18, the real motive which had led him to decline the exercise of this right; finally, in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, he shows how the principle of abnegation which he has just professed extends to his whole mode of acting in the exercise of his ministry.