1 Corinthians 9

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you. For you are the proof of my apostleship in the Lord. \*

My defense to the ones examining me is this:

Do we certainly not have a right to eat and to drink?

Do we certainly not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right not to work? \*

Who serves as a soldier at any time at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?

Am I not saying these things according to men, or does not the law also say these things? \*

For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox treading out grain.” God does not care about the oxen, does he?

Or is he speaking entirely for our sake? For it was written for our sake that the one plowing ought to plow in hope, and the one threshing, in hope of sharing the harvest.

If we sowed spiritual things among you, {is it} too much if we will reap material things from you? \*

If others shared the right over you, {do} we not even more? But we did not take advantage of this right. Instead we endured everything in order that we might not give any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that the ones working in the temple eat from the things of the temple; the ones serving at the altar partake from the altar?

In the same way also, the Lord commanded the ones proclaiming the gospel to live from the gospel. \*

But I have not taken advantage of {any} of these things. Now I do not write these things so that thus it might be done for me, for {it would be} better for me to die rather than {anyone} will make my boast empty.

For if I proclaim the gospel, there is nothing for me to boast, because compulsion is placed upon me. For woe be to me if I would not preach the gospel! \*

For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

What then is my reward? That proclaiming the gospel without charge, I might offer the gospel so as not to take advantage of my right in the gospel. \*

For being free from all, I enslaved myself to all in order that I might gain the more {people}.

And to the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To the ones under law, as under law, not being under law myself in order to gain the ones under law. \*

To the ones without law, {I became} as without law (not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ) so that I might gain the ones without law.

To the weak I became weak so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to everyone so that I might by all means save some.

But I do all things for the sake of the gospel so that I might become a partaker of it. \*

Do you not know that the ones running in a stadium all run, but {only} one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you might obtain {it}.

But everyone competing in the games exercises self-control in all things. They therefore {do it} in order that they might receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable one.

Therefore, I run thus, not as without purpose; I fight thus, not as boxing the air.

But I subdue my body and enslave it, lest having preached to others, I myself might be disqualified. \*