What Does 1 Corinthians 9:18 Mean?
What then is my wage? That, when I proclaim the good news, I may set down the good news of the Anointed One without cost, so that I do not use up my right in it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
What is my reward then? 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.THE KEY
His reward is to make the good news cost nothing to receive.
THE MEANING
The good news is available without a price of entry. A real right to receive compensation remains real, yet its nonuse becomes the speaker’s stated reward and leaves the message unburdened.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a valid right must be exercised to count: here, its voluntary restraint is the reward.
THE ROOT
μισθός
misthos
GROWS FROM
μισθ-
misth-
The word μισθός (misthos) means wages, pay, or recompense. Its root carries the concrete sense of payment earned or owed.
The sentence gives the wage-word to a surprising outcome: the reward is not money collected, but the message left without a price. The Greek makes the reversal concrete: the compensation is the freedom to announce without charging.
ALSO GROWS
misthoō: To hire or engage for wages.
μισθόω
This wage-related verb keeps reward in the realm of concrete exchange, sharpening the surprise in the verse.
misthios: A hired worker or servant.
μίσθιος
The word describes someone whose work is tied to payment, making the speaker’s no-charge announcement stand out.
ἀδάπανον
adapanon
GROWS FROM
δαπαν-
dapan-
The family carries the sense of spending or expense; ἀδάπανον (adapanon) means without expense or cost. The initial ἀ- (a-, without) negates the cost.
“without cost” in this verse is adapanon. The word names the message as carrying no charge. That makes the hearer’s access free of a price at the point of entry.
ALSO GROWS
dapanē: Expense or cost.
δαπάνη
This noun names the expense that the verse’s word for without charge excludes.
dapanaō: To spend or expend.
δαπανάω
This verb shows the action beneath the idea of expense: something is spent, while the hearer is not charged for the message.
εὐαγγέλιον
euangelion
GROWS FROM
εὐαγγελ-
euangel-
εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion) means good news. It belongs to a word-family that also describes announcing that news.
The message and its announcement belong to the same word-family: the good news is bound to being spoken. Here, that announcement is made without charge.
ALSO GROWS
euangelizō: To announce or proclaim good news.
εὐαγγελίζω
This is the verb behind the verse’s preaching language, joining the act of announcing to the good news itself.
euangelistēs: An announcer of good news.
εὐαγγελιστής
The related noun names the one who carries the message outward, keeping the word-family oriented toward its transmission.
THE PATTERN
A gift reaches without obstruction when it is not made conditional on the receiver’s payment.
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.Heal the weak, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. As a gift you received, as a gift give.Have I missed the mark in lowering myself so that you might be lifted up, because I brought you the good news of God without payment?THE THREAD
If others share this right over you, are we not even more so? Yet we have not used this right, but bear all things, lest we block the good news of the Anointed One.Both verses use ἐξουσία (exousia, authority or right), rendered power in the KJV. The right remains real, while choosing not to use it keeps the good news from becoming a barrier.
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