^9:4Do we not have the right to financial support?²^9:5Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? ^9:6Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not to work? ^9:7Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk? ^9:8Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense,³ or does the law not say this as well? ^9:9For it is written in the law of Moses, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”⁴ God is not concerned here about oxen, is he? ^9:10Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest. ^9:11If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you? ^9:12If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving?

But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ. ^9:13Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple⁵ eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings? ^9:14In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel.

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Footnotes

2 Grk “the right to eat and drink.” In the context this is a figurative reference to financial support.
3 Or “only according to human authority”; Grk “saying these things according to men.”
4 A quotation from Deut 25:4.
5 Grk “working the sacred things.”