Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 9
{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? {9:2} 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. {9:3} My defense to those who examine me
is this. {9:4} Have we no right to eat and to drink? {9:5} 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? {9:6} Or have only
Barnabas and I no right to not work? {9:7} 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? {9:8}
Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn't the
law also say the same thing? {9:9} For it is written in the law of
Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain."[1]
Is it for the oxen that God cares, {9:10} or does he say it assuredly
for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows
ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of
his hope. {9:11} If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great
thing if we reap your fleshly things? {9:12} If others partake of this
right over you, don't we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this
right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the
Good News of Christ. {9:13} 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? {9:14} Even so the Lord
ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the
Good News. {9:15} 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. {9:16} 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. {9:17} 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. {9:18} 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. {9:19} For though I was free from all, I
brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.
{9:20} 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; {9:21} to those who are without law, as without law
(not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that
I might win those who are without law. {9:22} 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. {9:23} Now I do this for the sake
of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it. {9:24} Don't
you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the
prize? Run like that, that you may win. {9:25} 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. {9:26} I
therefore run like that, as not uncertainly. I fight like that, as not
beating the air, {9:27} but I beat my body and bring it into
submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I
myself should be rejected.
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Footnotes:
[1] {9:9} Deuteronomy 25:4
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