NOTES for Co1 9:17-18

It is very important for the apostle Paul to emphasize that he is doing only what he must. How pleasant it would be to say that we do more than is required, that we overfulfill the spiritual plan, so to speak... The problem is that this never happens. Proclaiming the Gospel seems to us, if not heroic, then at least an act worthy of every respect. But Paul says no. It is simply a duty—and if I have fulfilled my duty, then everything is in order, and nothing more. This can be applied not only to proclaiming the Gospel but to any ministry. It then follows that we can never overfulfill the plan and earn a reward from God... We cannot. And this is His great mercy. Everything He gives, He gives out of love. And from us He expects only acts of love in return—selfless love, like His love.

“I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.” This is probably one of the apostle Paul's best-known sayings. Because it is so familiar, it does not jar the ear and is quite calmly allowed to pass us by. But if we stop and think, what does it mean to become all things to all people? What is Paul talking about? Is this a kind of chameleon-like mimicry? Is it an attempt to adapt oneself to a person in order to manipulate him? Or is it something else after all? There is probably no aim to manipulate. There is, however, an aim: to understand. To enter inwardly into another person's situation, to speak with him in his own language not in order to win his favor, but because that person's language matters to you. It is then that Paul becomes all things to all people—when he tries to understand each person and to feel as the other feels. Then he can speak “from heart to heart.” For we can hope to be understood only if we ourselves understand the person with whom we are speaking.

Continuing the discussion of his apostolic ministry, Paul once again draws his readers' attention to the fact that he never intended to use the opportunities for support from the churches where his ministry took place, even though in his own opinion he had every right to them (v. 15). He did this not because he considered himself worse than others, but because he did not want to lose what the apostle calls his "boast" (the corresponding Greek word could also be translated as "glory" or "glorifying," v. 16). This thought of Paul's is close to the Savior's call to the apostles to consider themselves unworthy servants even when they have, as it were, done everything required of them and done it well. The point, of course, is not that the labor of witnesses to the Kingdom is worth nothing, but rather how such a witness relates to his ministry.

One can relate to it merely as work, necessary and even joyful work, but still only work, fulfilling the duties God has laid on the minister. Or one can serve God in such a way that ministry becomes an inseparable part of the minister's life; then the question of payment no longer arises, though a reward is possible (vv. 16-17).

The difference is that payment is always proportional to the work done, while a reward is not always so. Paul understands perfectly that in the Kingdom there is no payment for work, but there is reward for servants. In order to receive it, one must from the very beginning forget every calculation, giving oneself to ministry completely and without reserve, becoming, in the apostle's words, "all things to all people, that by all means I might save some" (vv. 18-23). The apostle speaks of just such ministry, comparing it with athletic contests in which one can win only by investing one's whole self in the victory, without reserve (vv. 24-27). In the Kingdom, one can live only a full life. It is entirely permeated by the breath of God, and every citizen of the Kingdom can receive that breath in all its fullness. But only on one condition: that he not calculate how much each movement and each breath costs.