The issue of Paul's right to their material support underlies this whole pericope.
"Philosophers and wandering missionaries in the Greco-Roman world were supported' by four means: fees, patronage, begging, and working. Each of these had both proponents and detractors, who viewed rival forms as not worthy of philosophy."207
Paul did not begin by justifying his renunciation of his apostolic rights but by establishing that he had these rights. He evidently had to begin there because the Corinthians were challenging these rights. They were assuming that Paul had worked with his hands because he lacked apostolic rights, not because he had chosen to forgo them.
9:3 If anyone challenged his practice of forgoing his rights as an apostle, his response follows.
9:4 Paul used the series of rhetorical questions that begins here to force the Corinthians to recognize--they should already have known--that he possessed full apostolic rights. In view of the other rights that follow, Paul's reference to eating and drinking here probably means to eat and drink at the expense of others. It means to accept financial support in his ministry.
9:5 Evidently it was customary for the other apostles and the Lord's physical brothers to take their wives with them when they travelled to minister. The churches they served covered the expenses of these women as well as those of their husbands. Paul may have mentioned Peter in particular because he had a strong following in Corinth (1:12). His references to the Lord's brothers in this verse and to Barnabas in the next do not necessarily mean that these men had visited Corinth. Probably the Corinthians knew about their habits of ministering second-hand.
9:6 The Corinthians had acknowledged the right of the other apostles to refrain from secular employment. Paul and Barnabas chose to work with their hands at times so their financial support would not burden their converts (4:12; 1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:7-9; Acts 20:34). Evidently the practice of Barnabas was well known. Paul had stooped to the demeaning work of making tents while he ministered in Corinth (Acts 18:3). Apparently some of the Corinthian Christians took Paul's action as an indication that he did not think of himself as worthy of support because he was not equal with the other apostles.
9:7 These three illustrations support the fact that Paul as a servant of the Lord had a right to accept support from those to whom he ministered. The Lord's servants are certainly not inferior to field hands, farmers, and animals.
9:8-9 God made special provision in the Mosaic Law for the oxen that served people by threshing their grain (Deut. 25:4). In so doing, Paul said, God was teaching His concern for the maintenance of all who serve others, not just oxen.
9:10 God meant to encourage human laborers with His provision for animals that labored. He wanted human laborers to work with the hope of pay. The people who profited from those services should consider those who served them worthy of support.
9:11 Spiritual things are intrinsically more important than physical things. The former will last forever whereas the latter are only temporary. How much more then should those who benefit from spiritual ministry support physically those who minister to them. "Is it too much"reveals that Paul was contending with the Corinthians, not just exhorting them.
9:12 As the planter of the Corinthian church Paul had a right to the support of the Corinthians more than any of their other ministers did. Yet he did not insist on his right. He chose rather to support himself so his work of establishing the church might not suffer from criticism that he was serving for the material benefits he derived from his converts.
9:13 Paul appealed to the common Jewish practice, that was also prevalent in pagan religions, of allowing those who minister in spiritual matters to gain physical support from those they serve.
9:14 The Lord Jesus taught the same right (Luke 10:7).
"All too often, one fears, the objective of this text is lost in concerns over rights' that reflect bald professionalism rather than a concern for the gospel itself."208
