Page 86 - Sarah's Children

the gospel to get their living from the gospel.

In verses 3 - 6 Paul declares his topic. He is speaking of the right of a minister to
receive physical things from the church in return for spiritual labor so that the
minister might be able to refrain from working. It is clear that this is his topic, and
we see that he concludes this passage by restating his topic, “So also the Lord
directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.”

In the verses between his opening and close, Paul uses both scriptural arguments
and natural ones to support what he has spoken. When he speaks of a soldier not
serving at his own expense, or a farmer eating of the fruit he has planted, he is giving
a natural illustration. When he speaks of not muzzling an oxen, and later when he
speaks of Levites eating that which is brought to the temple, he is giving arguments
found elsewhere in scripture. So we see that Paul follows this pattern: declare his
topic; support it with scriptural and natural examples; declare his topic again.

Now let us compare this to the passage in I Corinthians 11 regarding headcovering.

I Corinthians 11:2-16
2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything, and
hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.
3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every
man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of
Christ.
4 Every man who has something on his head while praying or
prophesying, dishonors his head.
5 But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or
prophesying, dishonors her head; for she is one and the same with her
whose head is shaved.
6 For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair
cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her
head shaved, let her cover her head.
7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the
image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;
9 for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman
for the man's sake.
10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her
head, because of the angels.
11 However, in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor
is man independent of woman.
12 For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has
his birth through the woman; and all things originate from God.