“My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?”

We read these verses in amazement at the intense and detailed disparagement to which the apostle Paul was subject. Being an apostle was no easy task. Persecution from non-believers was very real to Paul, as recorded in the Book of Acts, but Paul does not dwell on those things or give extended defense to unbelievers. Instead, issues within the family of God comprise much of his writing, especially his letters to the Corinthians. His censure of their behavior is not a condemnation, but like a rebuke of a loving father. We best take his comments in our passage today in that light, not that he is “forced” to justify himself or give dignity to personal insults. Rather, as a teacher par excellence and loving spiritual leader, he is not averse to using himself as an example. Further, he is not embarrassed as a leader to openly talk about the struggles of leadership. And probably the most difficult of those struggles was not the persecution from non-believers (which Paul very rarely writes about) but the criticisms from those he had led to Christ.

Look at this list of criticisms: the right to eat and drink certain foods, be married, draw financial support for serving the Lord. Do these things sound familiar? Today’s versions might include drinking alcoholic beverages, marriage and divorce, full-time servants of the Lord taking on a job for extra income. Or the kind of movies one sees, style of clothes, and the list goes on. Paul claims that in all these issues, he has a right and a freedom.

We note two things on which Paul expands. First, it is clear that at least some of the other apostles, including Peter, were married! Those in the Lord’s service, whether called apostles, priests, or missionaries, are not required to be celibate as some teach. Paul himself was single, not because it was required but because it was his considered choice (1 Cor. 7:7–8). Second, as a servant of the Lord, he (along with Barnabas, having presumably patched up their relationship from Acts 15:36–41) had a right to be financially supported by the Corinthians. The rationale is straightforward: a worker is worthy of support as with any other endeavor. However, Paul is not building a case for his own benefit, because as things unfold, we shall see that he did not make use of any of these “rights.”

Lord, help me to hold my “rights” and freedoms in Christ loosely.