1 Corinthians 9:18

18 What then is my meed? That I preaching the gospel, put the gospel without others' cost, that I use not my power in the gospel. [+What therefore is my hire, or meed? That I preach the gospel, put the gospel without expense, either taking of sustenance therefore, that I mis-use not my power in the gospel.]

1 Corinthians 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.

1 Corinthians 9:18 In-Context

16 For if I preach the gospel, glory is not to me, for need-like I must do it [+forsooth need lieth to me (forsooth need lieth before me)/forsooth need nigheth to me]; for woe to me, if I preach not the gospel.

17 But if I do this thing willfully, I have meed; but if against my will, dispensing is betaken to me. [Forsooth if I willing do this thing, I have meed; soothly if against my will, dispensation is betaken to me.]

18 What then is my meed? That I preaching the gospel, put the gospel without others' cost, that I use not my power in the gospel. [+What therefore is my hire, or meed? That I preach the gospel, put the gospel without expense, either taking of sustenance therefore, that I mis-use not my power in the gospel.]

19 For why when I was free of all men, I made me servant of all men, to win the more men [that I should win more men].

20 And to Jews I am made as a Jew, to win the Jews [that I should win Jews]; to them that be under the law, as I were under the law, when I was not under the law, to win them that were under the law [that I should win them that were under the law];