[2498] 1 Cor. ix. 12
[2499] 2 Thess. iii. 8, 9
10. And he comes back again, and in all ways, over and over again, enforceth what he hath the right to do, yet doeth not. "Do ye not know," saith he, "that they which work in the temple, eat of the things which are in the temple? they which serve the altar, have their share with the altar? So hath the Lord ordained for them which preach the Gospel, to live of the Gospel. But I have used none of these things." [2500] What more open than this? what more clear? I fear lest haply, while I discourse wishing to expound this, that become obscure which in itself is bright and clear. For they who understand not these words, or feign not to understand, do much less understand mine, or profess to understand: unless perchance they do therefore quickly understand ours, because it is allowed them to deride them being understood; but concerning the Apostle's words this same is not allowed. For this reason, where they cannot interpret them otherwise according to their own sentence, be it ever so clear and manifest, they answer that it is obscure and uncertain because wrong and perverse they dare not call it. Cries the man of God, "The Lord hath ordained for them which preach the Gospel, of this Gospel to live; but I have used none of these things;" and flesh and blood essayeth to make crooked what is straight; what open, to shut; what serene, to cloud over. "It was," saith it, "spiritual work that he was doing, and thereof did he live." If it be so, of the Gospel did he live: why then doth he say, "The Lord hath ordained for them which preach the Gospel, of the Gospel to live; but I have used none of these things?" Or if this very word, "to live" which is here used, they will needs also interpret in respect of spiritual life, then had the Apostle no hope towards God, in that he did not live by the Gospel, because he hath said, "I have used none of these things." Wherefore, that he should have certain hope of life eternal the Apostle did of the Gospel in any wise spiritually live. What therefore he saith, "But I have used none of these things," doth without doubt make to be understood of this life which is in the flesh, that which he hath said of the Lord's ordaining to them which preach the Gospel, that of the Gospel they should live; that is, this life which hath need of food and clothing, they by the Gospel shall sustain; as above he said of his fellow-apostles; of whom the Lord Himself saith, "The workman is worthy of his meat;" and, "The workman is worthy of his hire." This meat, then, and this hire of the sustenance of this life, due to evangelists, this of them to whom he evangelized the Apostle accepted not, saying a true thing, "I have used none of these things."
[2500] 1 Cor. ix. 13-15
11. And he goes on, and adjoins, lest perchance any should imagine that he only therefore received not, because they had not given: "But I have not written these things that they may be so done unto me: good is it for me rather to die than that any make void my glory." [2501] What glory, unless that which he wished to have with God, while in Christ suffering with the weak? As he is presently about to say most openly; "For if I shall have preached the Gospel, there is not to me any glory: for necessity is laid upon me;" [2502] that is, of sustaining this life. "For woe will be to me," he saith, "if I preach not the Gospel:" that is, to my own will shall I forbear to preach the Gospel, because I shall be tormented with hunger, and shall not have whereof to live. For he goes on, and says; "For if willingly I do this, I have a reward." By his doing it willingly, he means, if he do it uncompelled by any necessity of supporting this present life; and for this he hath reward, to wit, with God, of glory everlasting. "But if unwilling," saith he, "a dispensation is entrusted unto me:" [2503] that is, if being unwilling, I am by necessity of passing through this present life, compelled to preach the Gospel, "a dispensation is entrusted unto me;" to wit, that by my dispensation as a steward, because Christ, because the truth, is that which I preach, howsoever because of occasion, howsoever seeking mine own, howsoever by necessity of earthly emolument compelled so to do, other men do profit, but I have not that glorious and everlasting reward with God. "What then," saith he, "shall be my reward?" He saith it as asking a question: therefore the pronunciation must be suspended, until he give the answer. Which the more easily to understand, let, as it were, us put the question to him, "What, then, will be thy reward, O Apostle, when that earthly reward due to good evangelists, not for its sake evangelizing, but yet taking it as the consequence and offered to them by the Lord's appointment, thou acceptest not? What shall be thy reward then?" See what he replies: "That, preaching the Gospel, I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge;" that is, that the Gospel may not be to believers expensive, lest they account that for this end is the Gospel to be preached to them, that its preachers should seem as it were to sell it. And yet he comes back again and again, that he may show what, by warrant of the Lord, he hath a right unto, yet doeth not: "that I abuse not," saith he, "my power in the Gospel." [2504]
[2501] 1 Cor. ix. 15
[2502] 1 Cor. ix. 16. [See R.V.]
[2503] 1 Cor. ix. 17
[2504] 1 Cor. ix. 18
12. But now, that as bearing with the infirmity of men he did this, let us hear what follows: "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. To them that are under the law, I became as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law." [2505] Which thing he did, not with craftiness of simulation, but with mercy of compassion with others; that is, not as if to feign himself a Jew, as some have thought, in that he observed at Jerusalem the things prescribed by the old law. [2506] For he did this in accordance with his free and openly declared sentence, in which he says, "Is any called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised." That is, let him not so live, as though he had become uncircumcised, and covered that which he had laid bare: as in another place he saith, "Thy circumcision is become uncircumcision." [2507] It was in accordance then with this his sentence, in which he saith, "Is any called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised;" [2508] that he did those things, in which, by persons not understanding and not enough attending, he has been accounted to have feigned. For he was a Jew, and was called being circumcised; therefore he would not become uncircumcised; that is, would not so live as if he had not been circumcised. For this he now had in his power to do. And "under" the law, indeed, he was not as they who servilely wrought it; but yet "in" the law of God and of Christ. For that law was not one, and the law of God another, as accursed Manicheans are wont to say. Otherwise, if when he did those things he is to be accounted to have feigned, then he feigned himself also a pagan, and sacrificed to idols, because he says that he became to those without law, as without law. By whom, doubtless, he would have us to understand no other than Gentiles whom we call Pagans. It is one thing therefore to be under the law, another in the law, another without law. "Under the law," the carnal Jews; "in the law," spiritual men, both Jews and Christians; (whence the former kept that custom of their fathers, but did not impose unwonted burdens upon the believing Gentiles; and therefore they also were circumcised;) but "without law," are the Gentiles which have not yet believed, to whom yet the Apostle testifieth himself to have become like, through sympathy of a merciful heart, not simulation of a changeable exterior; that is, that he might in that way succor carnal Jew or Pagan, in which way himself, if he were that, would have wished to be succored: bearing, to wit, their infirmity, in likeness of compassion, not deceiving in fiction of lying; as he straightway goes on, and says, "I became to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak." [2509] For it was from this point that he was speaking, in saying all those other things. As then, that he became to the weak as weak, was no lie; so all those other things above rehearsed. For what doth he mean his weakness towards the weak to have been, but that of suffering with them, insomuch that, lest he should appear to be a seller of the Gospel, and by falling into an ill suspicion with ignorant men, should hinder the course of God's word, he would not accept what by warrant of the Lord was his due? Which if he were willing to accept, he would not in any wise lie, because it was truly due to him; and for that he would not, he did not in any wise lie. For he did not say, it was not due; but he showed it to be due, and that being due he had not used it, and professed that he would not at all use it, in that very thing becoming weak; namely, in that he would not use his power; being, to wit, with so merciful affection endued, that he thought in what way he should wish to be dealt withal, if himself also were made so weak, that possibly, if he should see them by whom the Gospel was preached to him, accepting their charges, he might think it a bringing of wares to market, and hold them in suspicion accordingly.
[2505] 1 Cor. ix. 19-21
[2506] S. Jerome in Ep. inter Augustinianas, 75, n. 9-11.
[2507] Rom. ii. 25
[2508] 1 Cor. vii. 18
[2509] 1 Cor. ix. 22
13. Of this weakness of his, he saith in another place, "We made ourselves small among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." [2510] For in that passage the context indicates this: "For neither at any time," saith he, "used we flattering words, as ye know, nor an occasion of covetousness; God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others when we might have been burdensome to you as the Apostles of Christ: but we made ourselves small among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." What therefore he saith to the Corinthians, that he had power of his apostleship, as also the other Apostles, which power he testifieth that he had not used; this also he saith in that place to the Thessalonians, "When we might have been burdensome to you as Christ's Apostles:" according to that the Lord saith, "The workman is worthy of his hire." For that of this he speaks, is indicated by that which he above set down, "Neither for occasion of coveteousness, God is witness." By reason, namely, of this which by right of the Lord's appointment was due to good evangelists, who not for its sake do evangelize but seek the kingdom of God, so that all these things should be added unto them, others were taking advantage thereof, of whom he also saith, "For they that are such serve not God, but their own belly." [2511] From whom the Apostle wished so to cut off this occasion, that even what was justly due to him, he would forego. For this himself doth openly show in the second to the Corinthians, speaking of other Churches supplying his necessities. For he had come, as it appears, to so great indigence, that from distant Churches were sent supplies for his necessities, while yet from them among whom he was, he accepted nothing of that kind. "Have I committed a sin, "saith he, "in humbling myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the Gospel of God freely? Other Churches I despoiled, taking wages of them to minister unto you: and when I was present with you and wanted, to no man was I burdensome. For that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied, and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and will keep myself. It is the truth of Christ in me, that this glory shall not be infringed in me in the regions of Achaia. Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. But what I do, I also mean to do, that I may cut off occasion from them which seek occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found as also we." [2512] Of this occasion, therefore, which he here saith that he cuts off, he would have that understood which he saith in the former place, "Neither for occasion of covetousness, God is witness." And what he here saith, "In humbling myself that ye might be exalted:" this in the first to the same Corinthians, "I became to the weak as weak;" this to the Thessalonians, "I became small among you, as a nurse cherisheth her children." [2513] Now then observe what follows: "So," saith he, "being affectionately desirous of you, we are minded to impart unto you not alone the Gospel of God, but our own souls also; because ye are become most dear to us. For ye remember, brethren, our labor and toil, night and day working, that we might not burden any of you." For this he said above, "When we might be burdensome to you, as Christ's Apostles." Because, then, the weak were in peril, lest, agitated by false suspicions, they should hate an, as it were, venal Gospel, for this cause, trembling for them as with a father's and a mother's bowels of compassion, did he this thing. So too in the Acts of the Apostles he speaks the same thing, when, sending from Miletus to Ephesus, he had called thence the presbyters of the Church, to whom, among much else, "Silver," saith he, "and gold, or apparel of no man have I coveted; yourselves know, that to my necessities and theirs who were with me these hands have ministered. In all things have I shown you that so laboring it behoveth to help the weak, mindful also of the words of the Lord Jesus, for that He said, More blessed is it rather to give than to receive." [2514]