If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission (1 Cor. 9:16-17, NRSV).

Paul has a fiduciary obligation.

I first learned the word 'fiduciary' when studying contract law to become a Real Estate broker in California. The term comes from the Latin word 'fides,' meaning faith, trust, or loyalty. A fiduciary relationship is one in which a person has a legal and moral responsibility to act on behalf of another person, placing that person's interests above their own. Fides is the Latin word used to translate the Greek word πίστις (pístis), word often translated in English as faith.

Paul reflects this fiduciary concept in 1 Corinthians 9:16-17, where he describes not faith as belief, but as faithfulness to a commission. The Greek word translated as 'commission' is οἰκονομία (oikonomía)—the root of 'economy'—which combines οἶκος (oîkos, 'house') and νόμος (nómos, 'law'). Paul has been charged with administering God's household affairs. He is not a free agent pursuing his own interests but a fiduciary administrator. His duty to proclaim the gospel requires faithful management of what has been assigned to him by God. Paul distinguishes between acting 'of my own will' (which earns personal reward) and acting under commission (which operates under obligation). The former makes him a free agent; the latter, a fiduciary.

One problem I observe in leadership is the ease with which fiduciary responsibility becomes self-serving action. Leaders profess to act for others and may sincerely believe they do, but when decisions matter, their own interests prevail. This is Bad Faith: self-deception about obligation. They operate as beneficiaries, not fiduciaries. When leaders collapse this distinction, those entrusted to their care suffer the consequences. Paul understood this: 'woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel.' His fiduciary model offers a corrective: proclamation of the gospel is not personal opportunity but binding obligation. To betray this trust is to violate the law of the household itself, the οἰκονομία entrusted to him.