Meeting Our Needs (1 Cor. 9:3-7)

My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we not have a right to eat and drink? 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? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? 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?
(1 Corinthians 9:3-7, NASB)

As followers of Christ, we have the “right” to take care of ourselves and our families. We have the “right” to work and to enjoy the fruit of our labor.

We have a few precious “needs” in life. We need water. We need food. We need shelter.

And most of us meet those needs by working. Some people work the land, and they have the right to eat some of what they grow. Some raise animals, and they have the right to enjoy milk or meat. Others work at various jobs to earn a paycheck.

In any case, our ability to work comes from God—our skills, our talents, our energy.

The other need? We really are created for relationships, and for some of us, that means marriage. We’ve already talked a lot about marriage over the last several days, but we have that right, if God has led us there. But even married or not, we need friends. We need people to whom we can to when things are difficult—and with whom we can celebrate during times of joy.

God provides the means for meeting our needs. We merely need to do what He’s called us to do.