Paul continues answering the church’s question: “Is it OK to eat meat sacrificed to idols?” which they asked him in a letter (see 7:1 and 8:1).

In chapter 7 he said “Sure, you have the right to eat the meat since you know idols are nothing. But if your eating it will bother trouble someone else’s conscience, it’s better to give up your right for a higher good than to exercise your freedom and cause someone else to stumble.”

Here’s the principle: Be pliable enough to give up your “rights” to effect a greater good.

Paul later spelled it out in this way: “Always consider others better than yourselves” (Eph 2:3).

I’m going to call this the Otherness Principle. In chapter 8 he highlights a context in which he applied it to himself.

» 9:1-2 (PAUL’S APOSTLESHIP)
1 COR 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? 2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Paul’s apostleship was under criticism and scrutiny. He didn’t always blend well with other apostles. For instance, he and Barnabas parted company because they didn’t see eye-to-eye, and Barnabas took his cousin Mark with him (Acts 15:36ff). Mark himself was a disciple of Peter (1 Peter 5:13; Acts 12:12ff), and Paul and Peter had a strained relationship (Galatians 2:11).
Of course they were brothers and loved each other, but their temperaments collided, at least early on.

» 9:3-11 (HIS RIGHTS AS AN APOSTLE)
3 My defense to those who examine me is this: 4 Do we not have a right to eat and drink? 5 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? 6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? 7 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? 8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things? 9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.” God is not concerned about oxen, is He? 10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops. 11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

Regardless of what others thought, these Corinthians couldn’t question Paul’s apostleship. They had experienced his ministry and had seen God work through him. In fact, they were proof of Paul’s apostolic ministry.

» 9:12-19 (GIVING UP THOSE RIGHTS FOR A GREATER REWARD)
12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? 14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel. 15 But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one. 16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. 17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me. 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. 19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

Though His apostleship was equal to others’ (here’s the Otherness Principle) he voluntarily gave up some of his apostolic rights for a higher good.

Apostles had the right to earn food and drink, take believing wives with them, and get paid for their ministerial work. Most of the apostles utilized those rights.

But Paul chose celibacy and tentmaking over his rights to marriage and salary (Acts 18:2-3, 1Cor 4:12; 1Cor 7:7).

Why? “So that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ” (v.12).

Again, be pliable enough to give up your rights to effect a greater good. Whether it is refraining from certain practices in order to not offend a weaker brother’s conscience, remaining single and refusing a salary so you can minister to more people, or something else. The Otherness Principle.

» 9:20-23 (VOLUNTARILY BECOMING A SLAVE TO EVERYONE)
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. 23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

To conclude his thoughts, Paul brings it back to practical guidance for these Corinthian Christian: Become weak to those who are weak. Give up your rights like a slave does for his master. Become a slave to others for the sake of the gospel.

I’ll close by simply highlighting another passage that shows Paul’s attitude was consistent in this. Col 1:23, 25:
"... the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.... I WAS MADE A MINISTER according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me FOR YOUR BENEFIT, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God."