We work hard with our own hands. When we are vilified, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;We toil, working with our own hands. When people curse us, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure.And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:and we toil, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;
3 sermons cite this verse
… are homeless. We toil working with our own hands. He earned his own living by labor, Paul did. When we are reviled, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try to conciliate. We have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things even until now. The dregs are what's left when the wine is poured out and it's stuck to the bottom. The scum is the stuff stuck to the frying pan at the bottom after you've washed it and can't get it off. The world sees us as scum, dregs. We are slandered. We try to conciliate, but they think of us as scum. This is really the mark of apostolic faithfulness. This is what's to be expected. So Paul models for us the necessary faithfulness and humility of a leader in the church. He's content to be a servant, content to be judged by God only, content to be equal to others and content to suffer, to suffer even in labor to sustain himself, and to suffer at the hands of the world who have nothing but disdain for him. …
This is a remarkable passage where Paul frames up the foundational virtue, the necessary characteristic of a faithful pastor, and in a word it is humility. This is a text about being humble. Humility is the necessary dominating virtue in anyone in ministry, if that person is to fulfill the calling that God has placed on his or her life. So this is a passage about humility, the benchmark. Humility is the benchmark of any faithful servant of God. Now, this is not what the culture would tell us. We live in a world system that neither desires nor requires humility. No matter where I look, I don't see humility on display. I don't see it in politics. I don't see it in business. I don't see it in professions. I don't see it in sports. I don't see it in the arts. People who have any public persona, any opportunity to step into the limelight, tend to lift themselves up seeking prominence and more prominence, publicity, fame, prosperity, adulation. …
Fourthly. The apostle Paul did willingly forego those things that were in themselves lawful, for the furtherance of the interests of religion and the good of men. Thus marriage was a thing lawful for the apostle Paul as well as for other men, as he himself asserts; but he did not use the liberty he had in this matter, because he thought he might be under greater advantages to spread the gospel in a single than a married state. So it was lawful for the apostle to take the other course of life, as in eating and drinking, and freely using all kinds of wholesome food. And it was in itself a lawful thing for the apostle to demand a maintenance of those to whom he preached. But he forbore those things, because he supposed that in his circumstances, and in the circumstances of the church of Christ in that day, he could more advance the interests of religion and the good of men without them. For the gospel’s sake, and for the good of men, he was willing to forego all the outward advantages he could derive from them. 1 Cor. viii. 13. “Wherefore if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.” He would not only avoid those things that were useless in themselves, but those also that gave any occasion to sin, or which led or exposed either himself or others to sin. Then it follows in the next chapter., “Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you; for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord. Mine answer to them that do examine me is this, Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?” The apostle did not only forbear some little things, but he put himself to great difficulties by forbearing those things that were in themselves lawful. It cost him a great deal of labour of body to maintain himself. But yet he willingly laboured, working with his own hands; and as he says, though he was free from all men, yet he made himself the servant of all, that he might gain the more. Let this induce such persons to consider themselves, whether they act altogether as become Christians, who look upon it as a sufficient excuse for all the liberties they take, that the things in which they allow themselves, are in themselves lawful, that they are nowhere forbidden, though they cannot deny but that considered in their circumstances, they are of ill tendency, and expose them to temptation, and really tend to wound the credit and interest of religion, and to be a stumbling-block to others, or as the apostle expresses it, tend to cause others to offend. But they uphold themselves with this, that the things which they practise are not absolutely unlawful in themselves, and therefore they will not hearken to any counsels to avoid them. They think with themselves that it is unreasonable they should be tied up so strictly; that they may not take one and another liberty, and must be so stiff and precise above others. But why did not the apostle talk after their manner? Why did not he say within himself, It is unreasonable that I should deny myself lawful meat and drink merely to comply with the consciences of a few weak persons, that are unreasonable in their scruples? Why should I deny myself the comforts of marriage; why should I deny myself that maintenance which Christ himself has ordained for ministers, only to avoid the objection of unreasonable men? But the apostle was of another spirit. What he aimed at was by any means to promote the interest of religion, and the good of the church. And he had rather forego all the common comforts and enjoyments of life, than that religion should suffer. …