If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
Parallel translations
- WEB If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?
- BSB If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you?
- NKJV If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?
- NASB If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
- NLT Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If Paul sowed spiritual blessings among the Corinthians, it is hardly too much to reap material support from them. Spiritual giving fairly warrants material return.
Overview
Paul presses the fairness of the exchange: he has given them the immeasurable riches of the gospel; receiving from them ordinary material provision would be a small and just thing. The contrast between "spiritual" and "fleshly" (material) things highlights how modest the minister's claim really is. This reinforces the legitimacy of the support he nonetheless declines for the gospel's sake.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Rom 15:27It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
- Gal 6:6Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
- 2 Cor 11:15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
- Matt 10:10Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
- 2 Kgs 5:13And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
- Mal 3:8–9Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 9:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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