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 defense 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
plows ought to plow 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 did not use this right, but we bear all
things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel 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 gospel
should live from the gospel. 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 gospel, I have nothing to boast about; for necessity is laid on
me; but woe is to me, if I don't preach the gospel. 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
gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse
my authority in the gospel. 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 toward God, but
under law toward 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 gospel's sake, 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, 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,
as not uncertainly. I fight like that, as 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 rejected.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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