1 Corinthians 9:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Tell me, what are you saying? If you preach the Gospel, there is no boast for you, but if you teach the Gospel without payment, then there is? Does this mean the latter is greater than the former? By no means. But in another respect the latter has an advantage, namely that the first is a commandment, while the latter is a work of my own choice.

What is done beyond the commandment deserves a great reward. What is done according to the commandment is not like this. In this respect the latter is greater than the former, not in the very essence of the deed.

For what, indeed, can compare with preaching? It makes them like Angels. Yet since preaching is for them an obligation and duty, while unpaid preaching is a work of voluntary zeal, in this respect the latter is greater than the former.

If the work of preaching had not been laid upon me, and I were performing it of myself, I would have a great and abundant reward. But if it has been laid upon me, it is evident that I do not perform it of myself, but do it by the will of the Master. This is what "unwillingly" means.

Therefore this work does not deserve honor, for I am only fulfilling the stewardship entrusted to me. Notice also the following. He did not say, "If I do it unwillingly, I will not have a reward." He wished to show that he will receive a reward even for preaching, although in this case he acts by the will of the Master.

For it would have been inconsistent with righteousness if all the Apostles had received no reward for preaching. Only it is not such a reward as the one who preaches without payment will receive.

Even now I have been restored to this glory only so far that, I confess, I do not know how much I draw nearer to it day by day, nor whether I shall reach it at all. Certainly I, like my countless fellow-servants, am a minister of eternal salvation. For if I do this willingly, I shall have a reward. But to be a minister of this salvation through word and sacrament is not the same as to be a partaker of it.

It is clear that it is better to earn a reward than merely to be a servant. Therefore let us not bind ourselves with the yoke of slavery, but let us serve in the spirit of love.

You cannot say that He did not wish to make you good, you before whom He placed the good and the evil for choice, cf. Gen 2:9, 17. He did this so that your good deed might be not compelled, but voluntary (Phlm 1:14).

There is a great difference between the one who does something unwillingly, out of necessity, and the one who voluntarily chooses what is good. "For if I do this unwillingly, I have only been entrusted with a stewardship; if willingly, I have a reward" (1 Cor 9:17).

Let us therefore remember that we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ, cf. Rom 14:10. If our work is burned, cf. 1 Cor 3:15, we shall have nothing by which to justify ourselves.

The apostle used the words “willingly” and “unwillingly” not with reference to his own free choice, but to show by them that he fulfilled the Master’s law.

In this section the apostle discloses his right or authority (vv. 12 and 18) to require from the Corinthian Christians, and generally from his spiritual children, full provision for his life (v. 14). He has the right “to reap material things” from them (v. 11), to receive food from them (v. 13), and, of course, all else that is necessary. This passage of the Epistle should instruct those who censure the Orthodox clergy for receiving compensation for the performance of rites.

All pastors of the Church ought to regard in this way the great work entrusted to them, the preaching of the word of God. Woe to them if they turn aside from this sacred and great work entrusted to them.

In explaining where and how a hindrance to the spread of preaching could arise if he accepted recompense from the Corinthians, the Apostle points to the possibility of reproaches that could lower his holy apostolic dignity.

This reproach could have appeared simply by placing the Apostle alongside other teachers, who usually taught the Corinthians in order to obtain the means of life for themselves. Sharply rejecting the possibility of such a humiliating view of the preachers of Christianity, which was equivalent to condemning them to death, the Apostle seems to fear the opposite. Namely, he fears that someone might think he is too concerned about reward for himself, and says: "If I preach the Gospel, I have no boast."

"Unwillingly," corresponding to "necessity is laid upon me," means according to duty, because it has been commanded. "Willingly" means beyond duty, by free choice. I add something of my own to the work of preaching beyond what was commanded, namely that those who preach the Gospel should live from the Gospel.

"The Apostle uses the words willingly and unwillingly in the sense of commanded and not commanded" (Chrysostom). Thus, he says, if I do this, that is, preach the Gospel, according to my own will, not because a duty lies upon me but because I myself desired and chose it, then I have a reward. By reward, according to the course of the speech, he means praise. There is something for which to give me a special recompense.