1 Corinthians 9:23

“Now then I do all things for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof also.”

The δέ, then, is progressive; it marks the transition from interest taken in the salvation of our brethren to care for our own. To understand this verse, we need not construe it in the way in which it is usually done, as if the verb I do had two regimens; the first, for the gospel, and the second, that I might..., the latter being regarded as explaining the former. The explanation would not square sufficiently with the term to be explained. There is, it seems to me, only one motive, that which is indicated by the that, the salvation of Paul himself. This will appear if we paraphrase as follows: “If I act thus for the gospel, it is that I myself might be partaker thereof.” Those sacrifices which he makes for the preaching of the gospel (διὰ τὸ εὐαγγ.), he makes that he may himself share in the salvation which he preaches; comp. 1 Corinthians 9:27, which is the key of all that precedes. This life of self-denial, then, is the only condition on which Paul founds the hope that he may one day be welcomed by the Judge and receive the crown from His hand.

If we read τοῦτο, this, with T. R., the reference is to the general principle of conduct expounded above. If, with the Alex. and the Greco-Lats., we read πάντα, all things, the word refers to the various applications of the principle which have been enumerated. The last reading seems preferable. The Greek expression literally means: fellow-partaker of the gospel. The apostle means: partaking with all other believers in the blessings which it confers, and in those which it promises. Paul would not at any price be deprived of the salvation and glory made sure to other preachers by the freedom with which they perform their task. These words should open the eyes of the Corinthians, who will deny themselves nothing, to the danger to which they thus expose themselves. Edwards explains Paul's phrase in the sense: “to be a partaker of the spirit of the gospel.” Certainly Paul does not think that the reward promised to the faithful can be separated from the possession of the evangelical spirit. But 1 Corinthians 9:27 constrains us to think specially of salvation, and of the salvation, present or final, which the gospel promises. 1 Corinthians 9:19 expresses in a positive form the same idea as 1 Corinthians 9:27 does negatively.

To illustrate this terrible thought, the apostle borrows a figure from the most exciting spectacle which Greek life presented. Every two years there were celebrated near Corinth the Isthmian games, which, like the other public games of Greece, such as the Olympic and Nemaean games, included the five exercises of leaping, throwing the discus, racing, boxing, and wrestling. All Greece witnessed these competitions with the warmest interest, and the athlete who was proclaimed the victor received the admiration and homage of the whole nation; see the description given by Beet, p. 157 seq. It is quite probable, as the same author says, that, during the two years Paul had passed at Corinth, he had himself witnessed the Isthmian games, at least once.

Paul makes use here only of the two exercises of racing and boxing.