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John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:12

If others are partakers of this power over you ,.... Meaning not any tyrannical power and jurisdiction over them, with respect either to faith or practice; but the right of a maintenance, which either the false apostles, or the true ordinary ministers of the word there, justly claimed, and did enjoy: are not we rather ? he and Barnabas, especially himself, who was more than an ordinary minister, an apostle, and the first preacher of the Gospel to them: nevertheless, we have not used... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:13

Do ye not know, that they which minister about holy things ,.... Not the priests in the temples of the Heathen deities, as the Ethiopic version suggests; but the priests in the temple at Jerusalem, who were employed in slaying the sacrifices, taking off their skins, cutting them into pieces, laying them in order with the wood upon the altar, and burning them, with other services they there performed, which were well known to the Corinthians, many of this church being Jews: live of the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:14

Even so hath the Lord ordained ,.... That is, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 10:10 it is an order and appointment of his that his ministering servants, who labour in preaching his Gospel, should be sufficiently taken care of, as to a comfortable livelihood; he has not indeed fixed it in the same way as the priests and Levites had theirs under the law; but as the one was just and right, that they should be maintained out of the things belonging to the temple and altar, and live on them,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:15

But I have used none of these things ,.... Either none of these arguments or reasons, for a minister's maintenance, taken from the reason of things, the law of Moses, the examples of the priests and Levites, and the order and appointment of Christ, in favour of himself, and that he might be provided for by them accordingly; or none of the things he had a right to do as other apostles, as to eat and drink at the public expense, to lead about with him a sister, a wife, had he any, and to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:16

For though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of ,.... The sense is not, that if he preached the Gospel in order for a livelihood, and to serve his private advantage, he should have no room for glorying; since, if this was the case, he should be obliged to do it, or perish for want: but his meaning is, that though he preached the Gospel ever so well, or ever so freely, and might glory before men, and against the false teachers, who insulted him in his character and office; yet not... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:17

For if I do this thing willingly ,.... That is, not freely and without receiving anything for preaching, without seeking any temporal profits and advantages; nor in pure love to Christ, and the good of souls, without any fear of punishment, or hope of reward; but the apostle supposes a case which was not, and his sense is, that supposing no necessity had been laid upon him, or any injunction or command given him to preach the Gospel, but he had entered on it without any obligation upon him,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:18

What is my reward then ?.... 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:19

For though I be free from all men ,.... As an apostle, being in the highest office in the church, he had none superior to him, that could exercise any power and authority over him, and was also independent of men for his maintenance, which he got by his own hand labour: though it may be observed, that the word "men" is not in the original text, and the word "all" may as well have respect to things as men; and the sense be, that he was free, as from the curse of the moral law, so from the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:20

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew ,.... That is, in religion; or with respect to some religious observances peculiar to the Jews, for he himself was really a Jew by nature; who became as one unto them in this sense, when he for their sakes circumcised Timothy at Derbe, or Lystra, purified himself at Jerusalem, shaved his head at Cenchrea, observed their sabbath, and abstained from some sorts of food forbidden in the law; and his end in so doing was, not to confirm them in such usages, but... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 9:21

To them that are without law, as without law ,.... Meaning the Gentiles, who, though they were not without the law of nature, nor without many good civil laws, by which the more cultivated and civilized nations among them were governed, yet they were without the written law of Moses; a description of the Gentiles, usual with the Jews; see Romans 2:12 . And to these the apostle accommodated himself, as if he was without the law; by conversing with them without any difference; by eating any... read more

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