<p>9:14 <i>Even so the Lord ordained that they that proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel- </i>Paul&rsquo;s almost rabbinic respect for every word of his Lord indicates how deeply he had them in his heart as the law of his life. He speaks of how &ldquo;The Lord Jesus <i>commanded</i> that those who preach the Gospel should get their living by the Gospel&rdquo; (1 Cor. 9:14 RSV). The Lord Jesus didn&rsquo;t command this in so many words- but it&rsquo;s the implication of His teaching in Lk. 9:1-5; 10:1-12, especially of Lk. 10:4 &ldquo;The workman deserves his food / keep&rdquo; (Gk.). But those words of the Lord to the disciples were understood by Paul as a <i>command</i>- so clearly did he appreciate that those men following Jesus around Galilee are really <i>us</i>, and every word of the Lord to them is in some form a command to us. Another example would be the way Paul states that the Lord &lsquo;commanded&rsquo; that the wife is not to separate from her husband (1 Cor. 7:10). The Lord didn&rsquo;t actually state that in so many words- but He implied it quite clearly. And so that for Paul was a command. He didn&rsquo;t reduce the teachings of Jesus to a set of yes / no statements; rather he saw, as we should, even every <i>implication</i> of the words of Jesus as a command to us. You will notice that in both these examples from 1 Corinthians, Paul doesn&rsquo;t explicitly quote the Lord Jesus in the format in which we expect a citation- e.g. &lsquo;I&rsquo;m saying this, because it is known and written that Jesus said, XYZ&rsquo;. I submit that this wasn&rsquo;t simply because the Gospels weren&rsquo;t in wide circulation when Paul was writing. Rather I think that the indirectness of Paul&rsquo;s allusions and quotations from the words of Jesus reflect how his mind was <i>so</i> full of the Lord&rsquo;s words that he doesn&rsquo;t quote from them in a formal sense, as one usually would quote from literature or the known words of a respected person. Rather did Jesus so <i>live</i> within Paul&rsquo;s consciousness, His words were so widely and deeply within the texture of his thinking, that the allusions and quotations are made less self-consciously. 9:16,17- see on Acts 18:4,5.</p><p>Yet despite this provision, Paul chose to disobey what he calls a &lsquo;command&rsquo; from the Lord- because he figured that the purposes of the Gospel would be served better long term if he in his case didn&rsquo;t obey that command. Paul was no legalist- for legalism would reason that a command is there to be obeyed; but Paul perceived a higher principle than legalistic obedience. Not only does all this give an insight into the nature of a man&rsquo;s relationship with his Lord when he knows Christ well enough; but it indicates the huge priority placed by Paul upon the spreading of the Gospel. He would even relegate a &lsquo;command&rsquo; from the Lord Jesus beneath the overall aim of spreading the Gospel. This is a line of reasoning which is of course dangerous for <i>us</i> to adopt; but it indicates the priority given to preaching. Actually one sees other examples of this in Paul- he observed Torah amongst the Jews, but broke it amongst the Gentiles; he thus relativized obedience to Divine law for the sake of the spreading of the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:22). In fact all Paul&rsquo;s decisions in controversial matters seem to have been made based around the ultimate question: &lsquo;What would be best for spreading the Gospel?&rsquo;. Perhaps the Lord was making the same point when He told His preachers to stay in their converts&rsquo; homes and eat whatever was out before them (Lk. 10:8), i.e. without insisting on eating kosher food. For the Pharisees insisted that an observant Jew could <i>not</i> do what the Lord said- i.e. eat &lsquo;whatever&rsquo; was set before them. But the Lord waived that commandment- for the sake of spreading the Gospel. And we do well to get into his spirit as we face the many calls we do in church life.</p>