1 Corinthians Chapter 9, Verse 11
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11: ει ημεις υμιν τα πνευματικα εσπειραμεν μεγα ει ημεις υμων τα σαρκικα θερισομεν
11: If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing
if we shall reap your carnal things?
11: If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if
we reap your carnal things?
If we have sown unto you spiritual things. If we have been the means of imparting to you the gospel, and bestowing upon you its high hopes and privileges. See "Rom 15:27".
The figure of sowing, to denote the preaching of the gospel, is not unfrequently employed in the Scriptures. See Jn 4:37; and the parable of the sower, Mt 13:3, etc.
Is it a great thing, etc. See "Rom 15:27". Is it to be regarded as unequal, unjust, or burdensome? Is it to be supposed that we are receiving that for which we have not rendered a valuable consideration? The sense is, "We impart blessings of more value than we receive. We receive a supply of our temporal wants. We impart to you, under the Divine blessing, the gospel, with all its hopes and consolations. We make you acquainted with God; with the plan of salvation; with the hope of heaven. We instruct your children; we guide you in the path of comfort and peace; we raise you from the degradations of idolatry and of sin; and we open before you the hope of the resurrection of the just, and of all the bliss of heaven: and to do this, we give ourselves to toil and peril by land and by sea. And can it be made a matter of question whether all these high and exalted hopes are of as much value to dying man as the small amount which shall be needful to minister to the wants of those who are the means of imparting these blessings? Paul says this, therefore, from the reasonableness of the case.
Reap your carnal things. Partake of those things which relate to the present life; the support of the body, i.e., food and raiment.
