1 Corinthians 9:18

18 What is my reward then? [Verily] that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse 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 though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of: for necessity is laid upon me; and woe is to me, if I preach not the gospel!

17 For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation [of the gospel] is committed to me.

18 What is my reward then? [Verily] that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my power in the gospel.

19 For though I am free from all [men], yet I have made myself servant to all, that I might gain the more.

20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;