This brings up a lot of points that I have thought of before.
There is the first point that I thought of: I never understood what it meant when the verse said "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." If you take it literally, it seems so out of place, it's against animal cruelty. And yet how can you take is symbolically? Anyways, I find it interesting that Paul uses it to compare to us, that we have the "right" to partake of the harvest of the work we're putting in.
That brings up something else: "rights" We have the right to have this and that but Paul says that he doesn't take any of these rights, rather he would rather not have any of them as long as he is serving the Lord. the bar has been put quite high for us.
Lastly, when he talks about becoming like a certain person to share the gospel to that person, it makes me really think. You can take it on the surface and saying that Paul is not staying true to himself and it's all bad being easily influenced by everyone, but I think the total opposite. What Paul is doing is not changing who he is and what he believes in (as the parts that say contrary to the persons view) but rather is living their life to experience what they experience and be able to share the gospel with those people. He is learning their problems, their concerns, their happiness to be able to share the gospel and share the things they need while others may not. It's an amazing thing. I find the more I experience things, the more this becomes true for me. I have learned how to love, now I understand what others feel when they go through it (well, to a point). I have learned what school is like, so I understand the difficulties of homework and teachers and stuff...
Amazing what God gives us isn't it?
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