Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 9:16 (New Living Translation)

Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!

Paul is writing about preaching and being paid and other forms of compensation for preaching. Paul concludes that he is compelled to preach.

My father, a preacher, told the story about how when he was in preacher college a teacher told the class, “don’t preach if you can keep from it.” In other words, “You shouldn’t preach unless you absolutely can’t resist the compulsion to do so.”

This is what Paul is writing here. He must preach. He is compelled to do it; he can’t keep from it.

I suspect that the preacher-college teacher who taught my father new of this fellow Paul.