Preaching was not optional for Paul: "necessity is laid upon me" (1 Corinthians 9:16), and even if he preached "against my will," still "a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me" (1 Corinthians 9:17). So if preaching itself was simply his duty, where was his reward? Paul asks in order to point to what he did freely, beyond what was required. Barnes puts the question this way: "What is there that will demonstrate that my heart is in the work of the ministry; that I am free and voluntary, and that I am not urged by mere necessity?" Gill reads Paul as saying, "All the reward that remains is only this": to preach without charge.

Paul answers at once: "Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:18). His reward is the freedom to give the gospel away. He goes on: "though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more" (1 Corinthians 9:19), and "this I do for the gospel's sake" (1 Corinthians 9:23).

The word for "reward" is misthos, pay or wages for service. "Without charge" is adapanon, without expense. "Abuse" translates katachraomai, to make full use of or to overuse; the ESV renders the phrase "so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." Paul is not saying that receiving support would be sinful, only that pressing his right to the full would not serve the gospel at Corinth. He later reminds the Corinthians, "I have preached to you the gospel of God freely" (2 Corinthians 11:7).

Paul's answer is surprising. The reward he chose was not something he got but something he gave up. Barnes explains: "Paul had a right to a support. This power he might urge. But to urge it in his circumstances would be a hinderance of the gospel." Matthew Henry adds, "It is the glory of a minister to deny himself, that he may serve Christ and save souls."

This echoes the way Jesus sent out His disciples: "freely ye have received, freely give" (Matthew 10:8). Paul gave the gospel away and counted that his reward, so that he might "by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).