“Muzzled”
“Muzzled”
Blessings folk!
Following up on giving to support those from whom you receive, especially teaching of the Word, etc.
Paul was defending himself before the Body at Corinth.
Some folk had said some things.
Imagine!?
Give close heed to what the Spirit leads Paul to write…
1 Co 9:19
Am I not free?
Am I not an apostle?
Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?
Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle,
at least I am to you,
for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defense to those who would examine me.
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife,
as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense?
Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit?
Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Do I say these things on human authority?
Does not the Law say the same?
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Paul was firing off a series of questions to get them to consider some things.
Here is the bottom line.
Paul was an apostle.
They were his “workmanship” - they had believed because He brought the gospel to them.
They were the “seal of his apostleship”.
There were those who were questioning Paul and his “credentials”.
This is how he responded.
He and his entourage had the right to eat/drink.
They had the right to take a believing wife with them…as others did. (Tells us some things!)
They had the right to “refrain from working for a living”…in other words to be supported by those who received from them.
Paul gives some examples…
- A soldier does not serve at his own expense
- One who plants a vineyard shares in the fruit thereof
- A shepherd gets some of the milk from the flock
Paul says he is not “making this up”.
Paul states that the Law says the same…”do not muzzle an ox”.
God is not concerned about the ox.
God is concerned about those who propagate/teach the gospel.
There are too many who have grown fat with gluttony and abuse of the Body, living off the sheep while not shepherding.
There are too many that continue to muzzle the ox.
What is happening where you are?
Are you muzzling the ox by not sharing?