NOTES for Co1 9:1-14

As if defending himself before accusers unknown to us, Paul says of himself that he too, like the other apostles, has every right to receive all kinds of support, including material support, from the churches in which his ministry takes place (vv. 4-11). The accusations may have been connected with the fact that Paul, while not formally belonging to the number of the apostles, meaning the circle of the twelve closest disciples of Jesus and Matthias, who entered that circle by lot, nevertheless considered his ministry apostolic and considered himself deserving of the same treatment from Christians as the other apostles. He emphasizes that apostleship is not formal membership in a particular historically formed circle of people, but a ministry to which God appoints a person through Jesus Christ. If the Corinthian Christians became not merely witnesses of Paul's ministry but its fruit, then they, at least, have no reason to doubt the apostleship of the one who helped them open the road into the Kingdom (vv. 1-3).

At first glance it may appear that Paul is defending certain rights of his own that others are challenging. But he immediately states that neither he nor his companions have ever used these rights, so that they would not be accused of making excessive demands and so that the ministry entrusted to them by God would not suffer from such accusations (v. 12). The matter, as can be seen, lies elsewhere. In the Corinthian church, and perhaps not only there, there were people who considered apostolic ministry too "high" and "spiritual" a matter for those who carried it out to expect such a "low" thing as material support from those who benefited from its fruits.

For Paul, however, it is obvious that no spiritual life, however intense, and no ministry, however exalted, removes the need to eat and drink. Material support for those who carry out apostolic ministry is therefore no less spiritual a task than the ministry itself (vv. 13-14). And the point is not only that such support is often the only way for ministers to devote themselves entirely to ministry without being distracted by earning their daily bread. The point above all is that material support for ministers from those who benefit from the fruits of their ministry is a response without which relations with the ministers become purely ideal, and therefore very insubstantial. Then normal spiritual life, with its real relationships and real responsibility for one another, gives way to a peculiar kind of "spiritual" parasitism that has nothing to do either with the Kingdom or with genuine spirituality.

The question of compensating those who carry out ministries in the Church has never been simple. It might seem that, if this is truly a calling, one could naturally expect a person not to demand money for something that is an inseparable part of their life. Indeed, genuine Christian ministry is never merely external activity, an occupation, or a job. Some ministries, of course, require careful thought and even planning; inwardly, however, for the person performing it, every ministry—even one that has been carefully considered and planned—derives from their spiritual life and is one of its outward expressions, as natural and free as that life itself. It would seem strange to pay someone simply for living, especially when they live in accordance with their true nature, without forcing themselves to do anything but, on the contrary, unfolding in all their fullness.

And yet Paul says that even such ministry deserves, if not payment, then at least material support. This is understandable: Christianity has never been marked by a spiritualism that denies the world to the point of utterly disregarding it. The Kingdom is not of this world, of course, but it enters this world and transfigures it, and this entry takes very concrete forms in the lives and work of very concrete people. The fact that the Kingdom is not of this world does not mean that it is immaterial or that its inhabitants have no concern for material things. Insofar as the world is material, God cares both about matter and about material needs. Speaking of the Kingdom, Jesus calls His followers to seek first the Kingdom and its righteousness, saying that everything else “will be added.” It is precisely these other things that pagans seek; Christians differ from them not by denying these “other things,” but by the order of priorities that shapes their lives.

The material dimension clearly cannot take first place for a Christian, but it would be strange to expect Christians to reject it completely and deliberately. Some people, of course, consciously choose the path of total poverty, renouncing every possession, even those minimally necessary for life in society. They deliberately withdraw to the margins of life and become outsiders within it. But this is not the only possible choice for a Christian. This world is unlikely to allow Christians to succeed in the conventional worldly sense, and an ordinary Christian generally has no need of that. Christians who remain faithful to themselves and to Christ most often find themselves playing secondary or even tertiary roles in this world. But this does not mean renouncing property completely, and therefore money as well. The apostle understands perfectly well that ministers of the Church need material support and an income just like anyone else. To those around them, their activity is indeed work, and the worker deserves sustenance.