1 Corinthians 9

Paul Gives Up His Rights as an Apostle

9Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? ²If to others I am not an apostle, yet indeed I am to you, for you are my seal of apostleship in the Lord. ³My defense to those who examine me is this: ⁴Do we not have the right to eat and drink? ⁵Do we not have the right to take along a sister as wife, like the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? ⁶Or do only I and Barnabas not have the right to refrain from working^a? ⁷Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat the fruit of it? Who^b shepherds a flock and does not drink^c from the milk of the flock? ⁸I am not saying these things according to a human perspective. Or does the law not also say these things? ⁹For in the law of Moses it is written, “You must not muzzle an ox while it^* is threshing.”^d It is not about oxen God is concerned, is it?^{* 10}Or doubtless does he speak for our sake^e? For it is written for our sake^f, because the one who plows ought to plow in hope and the one who threshes ought to do so in hope of a share. ¹¹If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too great a thing if we reap material things from you? ¹²If others share this right over you, do we not do so even more? Yet we have not made use of this right, but we endure all things, in order that we may not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

¹³Do you not know that those performing the holy services eat the things from the temple, and those attending to the altar have a share with the altar? ¹⁴In the same way also the Lord ordered those who proclaim the gospel to live from the gospel. ¹⁵But I have not made use of any of these rights. And I am not writing these things in order that it may be thus with me. For it would be better to me rather to die than for anyone to deprive me of my reason for boasting. ¹⁶For if I proclaim the gospel, it is not to me a reason for boasting, for necessity is imposed on me. For woe is to me if I do not proclaim the gospel. ¹⁷For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward, but if I do so unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. ¹⁸What then is my reward? That when I^* proclaim the gospel, I may offer the gospel free of charge, in order not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

¹⁹For although I^* am free from all people, I have enslaved myself to all, in order that I may gain more. ²⁰I have become like a Jew to the Jews, in order that I may gain the Jews. To those under the law I became as under the law (although I^* myself am not under the law) in order that I may gain those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as outside the law (although I^* am not outside the law of God, but subject to the law of Christ) in order that I may gain those outside the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, in order that I may gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, in order that by all means I may save some. ²³I do all this for the sake of the gospel, in order that I may become a participant with it.

²⁴Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. ²⁵And everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. Thus those do so in order that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. ²⁶Therefore I run in this way, not as running aimlessly; I box in this way, not as beating the air. ²⁷But I discipline my body and subjugate it, lest somehow after^* preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified.