1 Corinthians 9:11 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

By spiritual things the apostle meaneth the doctrine and sacraments of the gospel; which are called spiritual things, because they come from heaven, they affect the soul and spirit of a man, they tend to make men spiritual, they prepare the soul for heaven. By carnal things he means things which only serve our bodies, which are our carnal, fleshly part. From the inequality of these things, and the excellency of the former above the latter, the apostle argueth the reasonableness of ministers maintenance from their people, they giving them quid pro quo, a just compensation for such allowance, yea, what was of much more value; for there is a great disproportion between things spiritual and things carnal, the former much excelling the latter: so as the minister of the gospel had the odds of them, giving people things of a much greater and more excellent value, for things of a much less and inferior value.