1 Corinthians 9

Rights and Duties of an Apostle

9Am I not a free man? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord? And aren’t you the result of my work for the Lord? ²Even if others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do! Because of your life in union with the Lord you yourselves are proof of the fact that I am an apostle.

³When people criticize me, this is how I defend myself: ⁴Haven’t I the right to be given food and drink for my work? ⁵Haven’t I the right to follow the example of the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter, by taking a Christian wife with me on my travels? ⁶Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who have to work for our living? ⁷What soldier ever has to pay his own expenses in the army? What farmer does not eat the grapes from his own vineyard? What shepherd does not use the milk from his own sheep?

⁸I don’t have to limit myself to these everyday examples, because the Law says the same thing. ^9*We read in the Law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox when you are using it to thresh corn.” Now, is God concerned about oxen? ¹⁰Didn’t he really mean us when he said that? Of course that was written for us. The one who ploughs and the one who reaps should do their work in the hope of getting a share of the crop. ^11*We have sown spiritual seed among you. Is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? ¹²If others have the right to expect this from you, haven’t we an even greater right?

But we haven’t made use of this right. Instead, we have endured everything in order not to put any obstacle in the way of the Good News about Christ. ^13*Surely you know that the men who work in the Temple get their food from the Temple and that those who offer the sacrifices on the altar get a share of the sacrifices. ^14*In the same way, the Lord has ordered that those who preach the gospel should get their living from it.

¹⁵But I haven’t made use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this now in order to claim such rights for myself. I would rather die first! Nobody is going to turn my rightful boast into empty words! ¹⁶I have no right to boast just because I preach the gospel. After all, I am under orders to do so. And how terrible it would be for me if I did not preach the gospel! ¹⁷If I did my work as a matter of free choice, then I could expect to be paid; but I do it as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted me with this task. ¹⁸What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel.

¹⁹I am a free man, nobody’s slave; but I make myself everybody’s slave in order to win as many people as possible. ²⁰While working with the Jews, I live like a Jew in order to win them; and even though I myself am not subject to the Law of Moses, I live as though I were when working with those who are, in order to win them. ²¹In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don’t obey God’s law; I am really under Christ’s law. ²²Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible.

²³All this I do for the gospel’s sake, in order to share in its blessings. ²⁴Surely you know that many runners take part in a race, but only one of them wins the prize. Run, then, in such a way as to win the prize. ²⁵Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last for ever. ²⁶That is why I run straight for the finishing line; that is why I am like a boxer who does not waste his punches. ²⁷I harden my body with blows and bring it under complete control, to keep myself from being disqualified after having called others to the contest.