1 Corinthians 9:18

18 What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.

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 Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

17 If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility.

18 What then is my reward? That in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.

19 Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), to win those under the law.