1 Corinthians 9:11

“If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we should reap your carnal things?” When the vine-dresser and the shepherd partake of the fruit of their labour, when the ox eats the corn while treading it out, the part thus allowed to the worker is taken from the very produce of his labour, and consequently his part is of the same nature as that produce. It is not so with the wages of the preacher. What he receives is greatly inferior in value to what he has given. It follows that his right to be supported is still more indisputable than would appear if we held to the preceding examples.

The plural: we have sown, can refer only to the three founders of the Church of Corinth, Paul, Silas, and Timothy (2 Corinthians 1:19).

The dative ὑμῖν, for you, is the dative of favour; they are the soil which has benefited by the seed scattered with so much labour. To this dative corresponds the genitive ὑμῶν, of you, on your part, which indicates the origin of the wages. It seems to us that we must read with the Alex. the subjunctive θερίσωμεν, rather than the indicative θερίσομεν. The Greco-Lats. have substituted the latter for the former because of the εἰ, if, which did not seem to be in keeping with the subjunctive mood. But it is precisely the opposite which is true, for the harvest in question exists only in thought, according to Paul, and he does not in the least ask that it should be realized.

To this first à fortiori the apostle adds a second.