Chapter 9
1 Am I not free ? Am I not an apostle? Haven’ t I seen Jesus Christ , our Lord ? Aren’ t you my work in the Lord ?
2 If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you ; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord .
3 My defence to those who examine me is this :
4 Have we no right to eat and to drink ?
5 Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord , and Cephas ?
6 Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work ?
7 What soldier ever serves at his own expense ? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’ t eat of its fruit ? Or who feeds a flock , and doesn’ t drink from the flock ’s milk ?
8 Do I speak these things according to the ways of men ? Or doesn’ t the law also say the same thing ?
9 For it is written in the law of Moses , " You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it for the oxen that God cares ,
10 or does he say it assuredly for our sake ? Yes , it was written for our sake , because he who ploughs ought to plough in hope , and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope .
11 If we sowed to you spiritual things , is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things ?
12 If others partake of this right over you , don’ t we yet more ? Nevertheless we didn’ t use this right , but we bear all things , that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ .
13 Don’ t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple , and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar ?
14 Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News .
15 But I have used none of these things , and I don’ t write these things that it may be done so in my case ; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void .
16 For if I preach the Good News , I have nothing to boast about , for necessity is laid on me ; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News .
17 For if I do this of my own will , I have a reward . But if not of my own will , I have a stewardship entrusted to me .
18 What then is my reward ? That when I preach the Good News , I may present the Good News of Christ without charge , so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News .
19 For though I was free from all , I brought myself under bondage to all , that I might gain the more .
20 To the Jews I became as a Jew , that I might gain Jews ; to those who are under the law , as under the law , that I might gain those who are under the law ;
21 to those who are without law , as without law ( not being without law towards God , but under law towards Christ ), that I might win those who are without law .
22 To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men , that I may by all means save some .
23 Now I do this for the sake of the Good News , that I may be a joint partaker of it .
24 Don’ t you know that those who run in a race all run , but one receives the prize ? Run like that , so that you may win .
25 Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things . Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown , but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore run like that , not aimlessly. I fight like that , not beating the air,
27 but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means , after I have preached to others , I myself should be disqualified.