1 Corinthians 9:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

How can this serve as a defense? When it is known that I abstain even from what is permitted, it would be unjust to suspect me of deceiving or of doing anything for money.

Thus what was said before, the teaching given to you, and what is now said are sufficient for my defense before you. Against all who condemn me, I steadily affirm both the preceding words and the following: “Do we not have authority to eat and drink? Do we not have authority to have a sister, a woman, as a companion?”

Yet although I have authority, I abstain. Did he then neither eat nor drink? Indeed, he often neither ate nor drank. “In hunger,” he says, “and thirst, ... in cold and nakedness” we were (2 Cor 11:27).

That is, by taking what is necessary from the disciples. But we do not use this authority, although we have it.

Or do we not have authority to eat and drink for our labors? And to receive food for them from believers? Apparently the enemies condemned Paul even for the necessary partaking of modest, essential food. So the scribes condemned Christ, calling Him a glutton and a winebibber (Mt 11:19). Consider how loathsome and petty devilish malice can be in the human heart. It wants to leave nothing without condemnation.

And if we have been made worthy of the greater apostolic gifts, do we not have authority to eat and drink, like the Apostles who eat and drink?

This means what he has already said: "All things are lawful for me" (1 Cor 6:12).

By "to eat and drink," the Apostle means from the Gospel. He intends to show that, although by the Master’s law he had the right to receive necessary food from the disciples, he continued to work and gain necessary sustenance by his labors, for the disciples’ benefit. As for "to lead about a sister, a wife," some interpreted it thus. Just as faithful women followed the Lord and supplied the disciples with necessary food (Lk 8:3), so women followed certain apostles. These women showed ardent faith, were attached to their teaching, and assisted the divine preaching.

What then? Did Paul neither eat nor drink? Indeed, he truly endured hunger and thirst, as he wrote to the same Corinthians: "To the present hour we both hunger and thirst" (1 Cor 4:11). Yet he is not speaking of this here. He means that he did not receive either food or drink from his Corinthian disciples, although, as an Apostle and teacher, he had the right to require this from them. Instead, he was nourished by working with his own hands, making tents (Acts 18:3).

First, according to the example of the other Apostles: "Or do we not have authority to eat and drink?" That is, to receive ready sustenance for the labors of preaching, according to the Master’s law (Lk 10:8; Theodoret).

The Apostle indicates instructive examples of abstinence in this: he did not use support from those to whom he preached the Gospel. He also did not use those conveniences of missionary travel which some Apostles enjoyed with spouses, such as Peter, Philip, and others, and with pious female companions.

Finally, by manual labor, chiefly by making coverings for tents, he procured everything necessary for his existence.

According to Blessed Theodoret, “as women followed the Lord, so women also followed the Apostles. They showed fervent faith in themselves, were attached to their teaching, and assisted the divine preaching.”

“Do we not have authority to eat and drink?” “Yet although I have authority, I abstain. Did he then not eat or drink? Indeed, he often did not eat or drink. He says, ‘In hunger and thirst ... and in nakedness’ we were (2 Cor 11:27).

But here he does not mean that. What, then? We do not eat and drink at the expense of the disciples, though we have the right to receive from them” (Chrysostom).

“The Apostle means eating and drinking from the Gospel. By this he intends to show that, though he had the right according to the Master’s law to receive necessary food from the disciples, he continued to work and to procure necessary sustenance by his labors, for the disciples’ benefit” (Theodoret).