For if I announce the glad tidings, I have nothing to boast of; for a necessity is laid upon me; for it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings.
Paul has just argued that a preacher has every right to be paid by the people he serves. Then he refuses to use that right. This verse explains why: preaching is not something he can take credit for, because it was never his own idea.
Paul wants something he can call his own boast. His work as a preacher does not qualify.
His calling gave him nothing to boast about, and neither did his mission as an apostle. He could not even boast in carrying out his trust faithfully, because the commission he was given was also a necessity laid on him. When God sends a person, refusing to go brings a woe instead of a blessing... Yet he does have a boast, and he guards it jealously. What it is, he tells us in the words that follow.
Paul says a necessity is laid on him. Who laid it there? The answer also settles who a preacher answers to.
It is important to see that preaching is not something to boast about. It is an obligation — a duty to Him who has called a person and given him a gift for this very purpose. So it is a necessity laid on everyone He calls, not a position of honour to claim, nor a right to plead. Christ has the right to send workers into His vineyard, and He does send them. That is what makes it a real necessity for the one who is sent. According to Scripture, the church never sends anyone to preach the gospel... And the One who sends also directs the worker. It is vitally important that this is kept in place, with the worker directly responsible to the Lord.
"Woe" is a heavy word, and Paul turns it on himself.
Notice the word "Woe." I do not find it anywhere else in the New Testament letters, except where the apostle applies it in a very different way to himself: woe to him if he did not make the good news known (1 Cor. 9:16).
Suppose a preacher hates the job. Commentators point to Jonah, the prophet God sent to the city of Nineveh, who did not want to go.
He knew that God had entrusted a "stewardship" (or an "administration") to him, and that woe would come on him if he failed in it. The work might have been unpleasant to him and against his will, just as preaching to Nineveh was against Jonah's will. But necessity rested on him. He would have had to serve through a good deal of woe, as Jonah did. In his case, though, the work was not distasteful. He gloried in it, though in doing it he had nothing to boast about.
Since the duty holds either way, willingness is the wiser response.
Since that is how things stand, a person may as well have a willing heart in the matter, and Paul holds that a willing spirit will reap a reward. If instead he is unwilling, that does not change his responsibility for the gospel entrusted to him. He must still prove faithful in it.
The pressure of human need is real. But it is not the first claim on a worker.
In these last days it seems as if God allows a great deal of pressure on people's spirits to go to everyone. But as a rule there is also the thought of God's claim, not only the claim of souls, and then the worker is guided by Him who has that claim. Where that is present, it is "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" — but we do it guided by Him who has the claim over us.
Necessity sounds cold. Paul's own account of it is not.
His debt was a debt of love... Ceasing to preach the gospel would have caused him grief of heart, which comes through in his words, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!"
So what could he boast in? It was the right he had just given up.
What is his reward? In what does he glory? His answer is: "that in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." In this way nothing hindered the gospel; it became more effective.
- Called — Christ sent Paul; he did not volunteer. The call came first, so the work is owed.
- Constrained — preaching is a duty to the One who called him and gave the gift. It is not an honour to claim.
- Woe — Paul turns this heavy word on himself. Refusing to go brings woe instead of blessing.
- Willing — the trust stands whether the heart is in it or not, as Jonah shows. A willing spirit reaps a reward.
- Free of charge — his boast was not that he preached, but that he preached for free, so nothing would hinder the gospel.
For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with an administration.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.