1 Corinthians 9:10
Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
The command not to muzzle the ox treading out the grain was written altogether and especially for human benefit, for the sake of those who labor in spiritual things. The Old Testament provision for the animal was thus intended from the first to teach concerning people, that those who work should do so with hope of sharing in the fruit of their labor. The verse establishes as a general principle that the one who plows should plow in hope and the one who threshes in hope should share in the benefits, partaking of the fruit of the labor.
Applied to gospel work, those who sow spiritual blessings may rightly claim and expect material support from those they serve. It is the will of God that ministers of the gospel receive such support from those for whom they labor. All who preach the gospel, whether men or women, are entitled to a just reward for their services. Ministers have just as much right to wages as workers employed in publishing houses and other lines of work.
Those who give their time and thought and labor to the service of the Master should receive their due, wages enough to supply their families with food and clothing. To pay some workers meager wages is robbery. The minister who receives a just support in return is still required to pay tithe according to his ability. The apostle could claim support from the Corinthians but chose to forgo that right and work at his trade instead.
Accepting support was set aside when it might hinder usefulness and give opponents grounds for misrepresentation. Suspicion of preaching for money would hinder the gospel, and so labor with the hands was chosen to remove that hindrance. Those who have spent precious time, study, and means to develop a work have the right to receive a reasonable income from it and to reap its fruit.
In health-food work this means that those who labored and invested means to discover processes and provide facilities for special foods should be allowed to control them and reap from them. As the Lord's stewards they may thus have means to advance the work of God. No one else has a right to borrow or steal their work, to learn its secrets, to copy its products, or to sell them for selfish personal profit.
To plow in hope means to break the soil at a venture and to work in faith, refusing to encourage unbelief when means are lacking and everything seems at a standstill. It means not being discouraged by looking at things which are seen and by a present appearance that is not flattering, but talking faith and working in faith because now is the sowing time. It means working intelligently and with earnest endeavor to put in the seed with hope of future returns and expectation of a measure of prosperity ahead. In exactly the way fields are treated with hope of future returns, missionary soil must be sown with the seeds of truth.