1 Corintios 9:12

12 Si ustedes sostienen a otros que les predican, ¿no deberíamos tener nosotros aún mayor derecho a que nos sostengan? Pero nunca nos hemos valido de ese derecho. Preferiríamos soportar cualquier cosa antes que ser un obstáculo a la Buena Noticia acerca de Cristo.

1 Corintios 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

1 Corinthians 9:12

If others are partakers of this power over you
Meaning not any tyrannical power and jurisdiction over them, with respect either to faith or practice; but the right of a maintenance, which either the false apostles, or the true ordinary ministers of the word there, justly claimed, and did enjoy:

are not we rather?
he and Barnabas, especially himself, who was more than an ordinary minister, an apostle, and the first preacher of the Gospel to them:

nevertheless, we have not used this power;
though others had, and they had a right to it, but did not choose to insist upon it; and, rather than do so, worked with their own hands; their not making use of this power was not because they stood in no need of it, and enjoyed an affluence of temporal things, for the reverse of this was their case:

but suffer all things:
famine, thirst, nakedness, hard labour, and many other hardships:

lest we should hinder the Gospel of Christ;
some might suggest, that they preached the Gospel only for gain, and not for the good of souls, and glory of Christ; and other mean spirited persons might be backward of embracing and professing the Gospel, lest it should become chargeable to them; wherefore that the Gospel might not be retarded in its course by the calumny of some, and the sordidness of others, the apostle thought fit to drop his claim to a maintenance from them; though at the same time he would have them know it was a just due, and therefore goes on to defend it by other arguments.

1 Corintios 9:12 In-Context

10 ¿No nos hablaba a nosotros en realidad? Claro que sí, se escribió para nosotros, a fin de que tanto el que ara como el que trilla el grano puedan esperar una porción de la cosecha.

11 Ya que hemos plantado la semilla espiritual entre ustedes, ¿no tenemos derecho a cosechar el alimento y la bebida material?

12 Si ustedes sostienen a otros que les predican, ¿no deberíamos tener nosotros aún mayor derecho a que nos sostengan? Pero nunca nos hemos valido de ese derecho. Preferiríamos soportar cualquier cosa antes que ser un obstáculo a la Buena Noticia acerca de Cristo.

13 ¿No se dan cuenta de que los que trabajan en el templo obtienen sus alimentos de las ofrendas que se llevan al templo? Y los que sirven en el altar reciben una porción de lo que se ofrece como sacrificio.

14 Del mismo modo, el Señor ordenó que los que predican la Buena Noticia sean sostenidos por los que reciben el beneficio del mensaje.