If others be partakers of this right over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this right; but endure all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul does not exercise his rights because they might be an obstacle to the gospel. That left him free to argue that he was not one of the false apostles. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? The Apostle proves by six arguments that that he and other ministers of the Word of God and the Church may receive their expenses from their flocks: (a) By the examples of the other Apostles (ver5); (b) by comparisons drawn from the practice of soldiers, shepherds, and agriculturists (ver7); (c) from the law of Moses (ver9); (d) from the example of the priests and Levites of the Old Testament, who lived on the sacrifices offered on the altar that they served (ver13); (e) from the ordinance of God and of Christ (ver14); (f) from the very nature of the case, from the positive command of God, as well as from the law of mature, which declared that, as payment is due to a workman, so is support to a minister of the Word, not as the price of sacred things, which would be dishonouring to them and simoniacal, but as what is necessary for them to fitly discharge their sacred functions for the people"s sake. Hence this support is ...
See also again another argument, and this too from examples though not of the same kind. For it is not Peter whom he mentions here nor the Apostles, but certain other spurious ones, with whom he afterwards enters into combat, and concerning whom he says, 2 Corinthians 11:20 If a man devour you, if he take you captive, if he exalt himself, if he smite you on the face, and already he is sounding the prelude to the fight with them. Wherefore neither did he say, If others take of you, but pointing out their insolence and tyranny and trafficking, he says, if others partake of this right over you, i.e., rule you, exercise authority, use you as servants, not taking you captive only, but with much authority. Wherefore he added do not we yet more? which he would not have said if the discourse were concerning the Apostles. But it is evident that he hints at certain pestilent men, and deceivers of them. So that besides the law of Moses even ye yourselves have made a law in behalf of the duty of c...
