For in the law of Moses it is written, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that is treading out corn. Is God occupied about the oxen,
Some at Corinth whispered that Paul preached for money. He answers from one line of Moses about an ox at work, then asks whether God's concern in that law was really the animal — a question that touches how the Old Testament speaks to Christians, and how believers should support those who preach.
Paul writes here under attack.
False teachers accused the apostle. They claimed he preached and worked for selfish gain, and that he took the property of Christians by trading on their devotion. So he speaks about his ministry.
Before quoting Moses, Paul points to the soldier, the farmer and the shepherd. The law does not merely echo common sense here; it presses the same point harder.
All live on the return of their work — soldier, farmer, shepherd. By human reckoning no one can question how right this is. Did the law of God speak otherwise? The law is even stronger in the same direction. When He spoke of not muzzling the ox while it treads out grain, He did not have cattle in view but His people, His servants in the word.
The question is not a denial that God cares for animals. It asks what the greater purpose of the command was.
Was it really, after all, for the oxen that God cared so much? He does not, of course, mean to deny that God has care for oxen, but was that the great thing? Was there no higher purpose in such a principle as that? Does he not say it entirely, as the apostle puts it, for the sake of others — the ministers of His grace?
One writer keeps both sides in view.
Here is another strong proof that the Old Testament Scriptures were written especially for our benefit today. This quotation from Deuteronomy 25:4 applies with far more force to the Church than to the case of a literal ox. That does not mean verse 9 denies any literal reference to an ox. Of course God expected the Jews to care properly for the life of their animals. Yet this was only minor compared to the spiritual meaning of it.
Paul takes a rule about farm animals and claims it for himself and his fellow workers.
The words of Moses had to do with oxen, and as far as the lawgiver understood, they likely went no further. But the apostle is bold enough to claim them as a definite provision for himself and his fellow workers in the gospel. What Moses spoke was the word of God. God sees the end from the beginning, and He has sown seed in His earliest testimonies to bear fruit through time and on into eternity.
Writers also read this verse as a statement about Scripture itself.
The law is the law of Moses (1 Cor. 9:9); and this is God's mind, taken for granted as being so. "Is it for oxen that God is concerned?" What Moses taught was what God taught.
This way of reading Scripture carries a danger, and one writer meets it head on.
The next commandment seems to come in very strangely, and only the spiritual sense, as the apostle gives it, explains it. Some object that this opens the door wide to very loose and fanciful explanations. No doubt that is to be feared. But the remedy is not to reject the principle; it is to guard the application strictly.
The New Testament picks up this same line again.
"For the Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,' and, 'The laborer deserves his wages'" (1 Timothy 5:18). These words explain this verse, which would otherwise be rather unclear. The toiling ox is a picture of the servant and his ministry. And this has its rewards.
Commentators are careful about how this right works in practice.
It is not that they should look to those to whom they preach for a certain agreed sum. There is no such idea as this in the New Testament. The workman must look to his Master, and to Him alone, for support.
The responsibility also runs the other way.
Let all who love the Lord be very careful not to neglect any true servant called by Him to His service. If we do so, we shall be flying in the face of His word, and so we ourselves will be the great losers.
- Ox — The command guards a real animal. But its weight lies elsewhere: God's care reaches past the ox to His servants.
- Author — Paul quotes Moses as God speaking. What Moses taught was what God taught, and God sees the end from the beginning.
- Application — The rule reaches past Israel to the Church. The one who labours in the word may live by that labour.
- Restraint — No agreed salary from the hearers. The worker looks to his Master alone for support.
- Warning — To neglect a true servant is to fly in the face of God's word. The loss falls on those who neglect him.
or does he say [it] altogether for our sakes? For for our sakes it has been written, that the plougher should plough in hope, and he that treads out corn, in hope of partaking of [it].
Paul quotes a line from the law of Moses about not muzzling an ox as it treads out grain. He says the words look past the animal to those who work for God, who plough and thresh expecting a share.
So was that old rule about a farm animal really written with us in mind?
Here is another strong confirmation that God wrote the Old Testament Scriptures for our benefit in this present day. This quotation from Deuteronomy 25:4 applies with far more force to the Church than to a literal ox. This does not mean the command had no literal reference to an ox. The Jews of course had to care properly for the life of their animals. But that was minor compared with its spiritual meaning.
No reader of Deuteronomy could have guessed the use Paul would make of it.
The LORD wrote by Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain." Who would have thought this had any bearing on believers now, in supporting those who preach the gospel?
The argument moves through soldier, vine-grower and shepherd before reaching the ox, and the imagery stays consistent all the way into the application.
All live on the return of their work — soldier, farmer, shepherd. By human reckoning no one can dispute that this is right. Did the law of God speak otherwise? It speaks even more strongly in the same direction. When He spoke of not muzzling the ox while it treads out grain, He did not have cattle in view. He had His people in view, His servants in the word. The picture is kept up exactly. The one who ploughs ought to plough in hope, and the one who threshes ought to thresh in hope of sharing. That last phrase fits better, because the time for a share was clearly near.
Some object that reading law this way opens the door to fanciful interpretation. One writer answers that objection directly.
Wordsworth is right to dwell on the use the apostle makes of it. It shows "that the law has a spiritual sense, in which it is still binding upon all". It also gives "us the key by which we may unlock the casket and take out of it its treasures." Gosman objects that this "opens wide the door to a very loose and fanciful exposition." No doubt that is to be feared. But the remedy is not to reject the principle; it is to guard the application strictly.
In Deuteronomy this command stands beside rules about punishing a criminal. The contrast carries the point.
The ox pictures someone who labours for the Lord. He therefore has a right to the consideration of being supported by his work. One guilty of serious crime had to be punished (Deuteronomy 25:1-3), but one who laboured for the Lord had to be rewarded.
What the servant sows and what he receives are different in kind.
In speaking this way God is not thinking only of the oxen. He wrote it for our sakes. The one who ploughs and the one who threshes benefit from their work. In the same way, if the Lord's servants have sown "spiritual things", they have every right to receive "material things" in return.
Hope here is not vague optimism. It expects something real to come out of the work.
It is clear from the New Testament reference to the matter that there is to be a yield from the exercise. "He who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing in the crop" (1 Cor. 9:10).
Because the harvest is still ahead, the working stretch of it is often hard, and that is exactly where hope is needed.
Do not lose heart. If we truly labour we must be in some measure in conflict, trial and sorrow. It is a work of faith, even if it is also a labour of love and a patience of hope. Blessed fruits do come along the way, and we may see them ripening. But the great harvest is the time of joy. A clear view of that harvest, and constant reference to it, gives our work a real, deep, holy character, like His own. It will prove real in that day.
- Written for us — God gave the command about the ox with today's people in view. Its care for animals was real, but minor beside its meaning for those who serve.
- Ploughed in hope — soldier, farmer, shepherd, ox: each lives on what his work returns. God's law leans that way even harder than human fairness does.
- Threshed in hope — the worker threshes with a share of the crop in view. Hope here expects a real yield.
- Shared in hope — those who have sown spiritual things have every right to receive material things back.
- Sustained by hope — the great harvest is still ahead, so work now runs through conflict and sorrow. The coming harvest keeps the worker from losing heart.