Or says he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that plows should plow in hope; and that he that threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 9:10 Go To 1 Corinthians 9
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written. The argument is here, as so often in S. Paul"s writings, from the mystical, not the literal sense; or rather it is an à fortiori argument from the literal to the mystical sense, thus: If the ox lives of what he treads out, much more may an Apostle live of the Gospel. Cf. Tertullian (contra Marcion, lib. v. c7) and Theodoret (qu. xxi. in Deut.). Observe here that, though the literal sense in the first in time, yet the mystical is the first in importance, and the one chiefly intended by the Holy Spirit.
That he that ploweth should plow in hope. Just as those that plough and thresh do so in hope of being partakers of what is reaped and threshed out, so too the preacher may hope for suppoet because of his preaching. If this hope Ovid speaks (Ep. ex Ponto, lib. i. vi30): "Hope it is that gives courage to the farmer, and intrusts the seeds to the ploughed-up furrows, to be returned with heavy interest by the kindly earth."
From this passage we may argue fortiori that to work is hope of an eternal reward is an act of virtue, and that this act therefore is meritorious. Hence the Sorbonne, as Claudius Guiliandus testifies in his remarks on this passage, has defined as erroneous the proposition the "he that strives for the sake of a reward, and would not strive unless he know that a reward would be given, deprives himself of the reward." The Council of Trent has the same definition (Sess. vi. can31).
