1 Corinthians 9:11Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here is a fourth proof that support must be provided for teachers. After saying, "What soldier ever serves at his own expense?" and, "Who plants a vineyard?" and, "Who tends a flock?" and after pointing to the ox that treads out the grain, he brings forward a new and most substantial reason why they have the right to receive. It is that they not only labor, but themselves give the disciples things far greater.

What then does this mean: "If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?" (1 Cor 9:11). Do you see a reason more just and more substantial than the preceding ones? There, he says, the seeds are material and the fruit is material. Here it is not so. The seed is spiritual, but the recompense is material.

Here he proves the justice of the matter. You, he says, repay what is unequal to what you have received. For we have sown spiritual things in you, while you repay us with bodily things. Is this a great thing?

By these words the Apostle Paul emphasizes that his fellow apostles were not allowing themselves anything beyond what was proper by not doing manual labor to provide life’s necessities. Rather, as the Lord appointed, they lived from the Gospel, freely receiving bread from those to whom they freely preached grace.

And if we have sown spiritual things in you, if we have enlightened you and taught you truth and goodness, if we have freed you from sins through Baptism and repentance, and have imparted to you the strength to become good, diligent, and humble, is it a great recompense if you give us something material? Is it a great thing if we reap bodily things from you?

Such payment is, of course, a recompense far lower and smaller than what believers received from the Apostle, and than what those shepherded still receive from shepherds. Therefore Christians of various times, beginning with the Corinthians and continuing to the present, look in vain with envy upon the clergy's supposed abundance of income.

For the clergy, having taken upon themselves the sacred rank, greatly restrict their own rights. They bear the most difficult duties and a terrible responsibility.

And is it some great thing if we reap material things from you, when we ourselves have sown spiritual things for you?

The Apostles' spiritual sowing was the preaching of faith and the rules prescribing withdrawal from sins and the practice of virtue. The fruit of these spiritual seeds was the inheritance of eternal glory and the Kingdom. Their bodily reaping was necessary food, clothing, and service.

These were few and small things, corruptible and temporal. They were received only because they proved the gratitude of those benefited and helped the success of the preaching of the Gospel. For when the Apostles received them from the faithful, they had no care for them and occupied themselves solely with preaching the faith.

You receive from spiritual pastors the treasure of grace and faith. Can you begrudge them bread, clothing, and other earthly things? What you receive is necessary for the spirit, while what is received from you is needed for the body. As much as the spirit is higher and more important than the body, so much more important is what you receive in comparison with what you give.

Fourth, by the excellence of the work of preaching (1 Cor 9:11-12). "If we planted spiritual things in you, Corinthians, is it a great thing if we reap material things from you? If others have authority over you, to live at your expense, do we not have it all the more, who have sown so abundantly?"

Let all successors of the Apostle in shepherding and teaching consider what weighty instruction and warning are contained for them in the apostolic words. For what if they sow few spiritual seeds in their flock, or perhaps even entirely neglect this foremost work of theirs?

The new arguments concerning the right to recompense for the labor of apostolic teaching are based on the high dignity of that labor, on the statute of the Old Testament Law, and finally on the explicit command of the Lord, who said that the worker is worthy of his wages (Mt 10:10; Lk 10:7).

Yet all these arguments end with this: despite so great a multitude of grounds for his right to live at the Corinthians' expense, the Apostle did not use this right. As Chrysostom says, he did this so as "not to cause even the slightest delay or hindrance in the spread of the word."

The Apostle brings forward a new and most substantial reason why they have the right to receive support. It is that they not only labor, but themselves give the disciples things far greater (Chrysostom).

We, he says, sow spiritual things. Is it a great thing if we reap material things? Having given what is much greater, do we do wrong if we receive what is much less? (Theodoret).

Do you see a reason more just and more substantial than the preceding ones? There, he says, the seeds are material and the fruit is material. Here it is not so. The seed is spiritual, but the recompense is material.