1 Corinthians 9

1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

2If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3This is my defense to those who would examine me.

4Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

5Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as the other apostles do, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to stop working for a living?

7Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink some of the milk from the flock?

8Am I saying these things only on human authority? Does the law not say the same?

9For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?

10Or is he not surely speaking for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the one who plows ought to plow in hope, and the one who threshes ought to thresh in hope of sharing in the harvest.

11If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

12If others share this right over you, do we not have an even greater claim? Yet we have not made use of this right. Instead we put up with anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

13Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?

14In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel.

15But I have not made use of any of these rights. And I am not writing this so that it will be done for me. I would rather die than let anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.

16For if I proclaim the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for I am under compulsion. Woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!

17For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if not willingly, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.

18What then is my reward? That in proclaiming the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my right in the gospel.

19For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.

20To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, to win those under the law.

21To those outside the law I became like one outside the law, though I am not outside the law of God but under the law of Christ, to win those outside the law.

22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some.

23I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may have a share in it.

24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may win it.

25Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.

26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box like one beating the air.

27No, I treat my body harshly and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.