1 Corinthians 9:18

18 What is the reward then that I have? That in announcing the glad tidings I make the glad tidings costless [to others], so as not to have made use, as belonging to me, of my right in [announcing] the glad tidings.

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 announce the glad tidings, I have nothing to boast of; for a necessity is laid upon me; for it is woe to me if I should not announce the glad tidings.

17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with an administration.

18 What is the reward then that I have? That in announcing the glad tidings I make the glad tidings costless [to others], so as not to have made use, as belonging to me, of my right in [announcing] the glad tidings.

19 For being free from all, I have made myself bondman to all, that I might gain the most [possible].

20 And I became to the Jews as a Jew, in order that I might gain the Jews: to those under law, as under law, not being myself under law, in order that I might gain those under law:

Footnotes

• [a]. The same word as translated in ch. 7.31, 'not disposing of it as their own.' According to common usage it is 'to use as one who has possession of a thing;' using it as he likes, as his own. The apostle, as sent of the Lord to preach, had a right to be supported; but he did not use this right. It would not have been an abuse; but he did not use it for himself, as a thing he possessed. He weighed the effect as to Christ's glory. 'Made use of it' hardly fully expresses the force of it. The sense is given in result in adding 'as belonging to me.'