Perkless Faith

03.24.12

1 Corinthians 9.18 18 What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

Paul didn’t seem to believe in perks. His approach to his ministry appeared to be along the lines of: I’ll do it for free if I have to – if I cannot trust God to take care of my needs when I have nothing, then my faith is in vain, and my God is unable.

Paul had the ‘right’ to expect certain things from his ministry; after all, it takes the basic three to do anything on this earth: food, clothing, and shelter. And so I think Paul though knew this he refused to depend on anyone (humanly speaking) for any of it. Paul’s Source was the Lord Alone. And I suspect he felt if he had to go hungry, or exposed, or outside then it was God’s doing and not his. (And if it was God’s doing, it was not to be ignored or taken lightly: God never does anything to His kids apart from divine, unconditional love.)

The Apostle was smart enough to know how the human mind operates. Even I know that if you wave enough green under most folks nose, they are likely to sell out their convictions. The world runs on green energy in the form of cash and the more the cash, the more things get done. That was never the intent of God for His people and it certainly wasn’t His intent for His priests and preachers; the Levites themselves were not given any land – they were to depend on their brothers to take care of them. Paul wasn’t putting down Peter and James over the use of their right: they used their rights! Nothing wrong with that. Paul was just under the conviction that for him, his rights would be left alone and God would provide as necessary. To Paul, using his rights somehow took away from the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel: he saw it as: pay for play.

I deal with thorny political issues in what I do. I ask people to invest in the fight and often they want to know how much I get paid for what I do; their suspicion is I only do it for the money. I do it for the money – I need to get paid. Paul needed to get paid as well but Paul believed that somehow that sack of groceries would show up at just the right moment; and God would be responsible for it. Paul chose to live that way and from what I read people couldn’t believe he really made that choice – that somehow there were some worldly shenanigans afoot. Paul’s faith in God made him somehow unbelievable – or at least suspect.

Do you know anyone who lives like Paul does? I know many who seem to want to but I’m not sure I’ve ever really run across anyone who actually does. It takes a different kind of heart and it takes a different kind of commitment to say to the Lord: whatever You do or don’t do is fine with me – as long as I have You, I’ll be okay.  

Now, whether you or I have that kind of faith is one side of the coin. The other is this: Lord, whatever You choose to do or not is fine with me because You have promised to take care of me in all of these things. May I have the kind of faith that believes in You regardless of scarcity or abundance. I know You know what I need, and I will trust You for what You provide because You are faithful and I can take that to the bank. May I too, walk in perk-less faith.