Paul carries the farming picture into his own work. He had sown the gospel at Corinth; was it too much to reap some material support? Gill explains, "The preachers of the Gospel are compared to sowers of seed; the seed they sow is the word of God." By "carnal things" Gill means "Temporal ones, what concern the flesh, the body, the outward man, and the support thereof." Barnes weighs the exchange: "We impart blessings of more value than we receive. We receive a supply of our temporal needs." The question asks the Corinthians to compare what they had received with what might be asked, and see how small the second is.

The expected answer is no, it is not a great thing. Paul presses further: "If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather?" (1 Corinthians 9:12). Then he surprises them: "Nevertheless we have not used this power" (1 Corinthians 9:12). He had the right to reap, but chose not to.

The Greek sets two kinds of goods side by side: pneumatika, "spiritual things," and sarkika, things belonging to the flesh or body. Here "carnal" does not mean sinful; it means bodily, material needs. Paul uses the same pairing when he says Gentile believers who shared in the Jerusalem saints' "spiritual things" ought to "minister unto them in carnal things" (Romans 15:27). Earlier in this letter, by contrast, he uses "carnal" in a rebuke of the Corinthians' "envying, and strife, and divisions" (1 Corinthians 3:3). The context decides the meaning.

Paul was the one who first brought the gospel to Corinth: "I have planted" (1 Corinthians 3:6), and "in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel" (1 Corinthians 4:15). The question reminds the Corinthians how much they had received through him. Gill calls this an argument from the greater to the less: if they received the greater gift, the lesser return should not feel like a burden.

The question also shows that spiritual gifts and material needs are not rivals in God's household. God provides for those who teach His word through the people they serve, for "the Lord ordained" it (1 Corinthians 9:14). Paul tells the Galatians the same: "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things" (Galatians 6:6).