Paul’s Rights as an Apostle
1 Corinthians 9Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t y’all my work in the Lord? Even if I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to y’all, for y’all are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
My defense to those who examine me is this: Don’t we have the right to eat and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife, as do the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right to not work? What soldier ever serves at their own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?
Am I saying this according to human judgment? Or doesn’t the law say the same thing? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You must not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.”+Deut 25:4 Is it for the oxen that God cares? Surely he says this for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because whoever plows ought to plow in hope, and whoever threshes in hope should partake of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things among y’all, is it too much if we reap material things from y’all4_14? If others partake of this right over y’all, shouldn’t we even more?
Nevertheless we didn’t use this right. Instead we endure all things, so that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. Don’t y’all know that those who serve in the temple eat from the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their share from the altar? In the same way, the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel.
But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case. In fact, it would be more excellent to die than allow anyone to make my boasting void. For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about, for I am under compulsion. Woe to me if I don’t preach the gospel! For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But unwillingly, I have an economy entrusted to me. What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the gospel.
For though I was free from all, I made myself a slave to all, that I might gain the more. To the Jews I became like a Jew, so that I might gain Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so that I might gain those who are under the law. To those who are without the law, like one without law (though I am not without God’s law, but under the law of Christ), so that I might win those who are without the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I may by all means save some. Now I do this because of the gospel, that I may be a joint partaker of it.
Run Toward the Prize
Don’t y’all know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Y’all should run to win. Everyone who strives in the games exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an incorruptible one. Therefore I do not run aimlessly, or box like one beating the air. Instead I beat my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself should not be disqualified.