Kehillah in Corinth I 9:18

18 What then is my sachar (reward)? That in preaching as a maggid of the Besuras HaGeulah, I may make the Besuras HaGeulah free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the Besuras HaGeulah.

Kehillah in Corinth I 9:18 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 9:18

What is my reward then?
&c.] None at all, I have none to expect, hope for, or claim, in a way of debt; I am a servant intrusted by my Lord with the Gospel, and an unprofitable one I am; I do, at most and best, but what is my duty, and for that I can claim no reward: all the reward that remains is only this,

verily, that when I preach the Gospel,
which I am obliged to do,

I may make the Gospel of Christ without charge;
to them that hear it, as he did to the Corinthians, which was his glorying in ( 1 Corinthians 9:15 ) and is the same with his reward here; for this means not any reward from God, but his glorying among men, and against the false teachers; that when he preached the word at Corinth, he was not chargeable to any, nor would he ever be: his reason for it is,

that I abuse not my power in the Gospel;
his right of having a maintenance, whilst he was preaching the Gospel; to have made use of which would have been an abuse of it, since it would have given occasion to the false apostles to reproach and calumniate, and might have been an hinderance to the Gospel of Christ, and a stumbling to some weak minds.

Kehillah in Corinth I 9:18 In-Context

16 For if I preach the Besuras HaGeulah there is nothing for me to boast about, als (since) necessity is laid on me, for Oy Li ("Woe to me!") if I do not preach the Besuras HaGeulah [YIRMEYAH 20:9].

17 For, if I do this willingly, I have a sachar (reward), but if unwillingly, then a ne’emanut (trusteeship), a kehunah for the Besuras HaGeulah [Ro 15:16] has been entrusted to me.

18 What then is my sachar (reward)? That in preaching as a maggid of the Besuras HaGeulah, I may make the Besuras HaGeulah free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the Besuras HaGeulah.

19 For being no indentured servant to any one of the Bnei Adam, I made myself a servant [working for nothing] to kol Bnei Adam, that I might win the more.

20 And I became to the Yehudim as a Yehudi, that I might win Yehudim; to the ones under Torah, I became as under Torah—not being myself under [the epoch of] Torah—that the ones under Torah I might win;