1 Corinthians 9

1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

2If I am not an apostle to others, yet I certainly am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3This is my defense to those who examine me.

4Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

5Do we not have the right to take along a sister as a wife, as also the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right not to work?

7Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink from the milk of the flock?

8Am I saying these things from a merely human perspective, or does not the Law also say these things?

9For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing.” Is God concerned about oxen?

10Or is he speaking entirely for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because the one who plows ought to plow in hope, and the one who threshes ought to thresh in hope of sharing.

11If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

12If others share in this right over you, do not we even more? But we have not made use of this right; instead, we endure everything so that we may give no hindrance to the gospel of the Messiah.

13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar?

14In the same way, the Lord also commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel.

15But I have made use of none of these things. Yet I did not write these things so that it should be done this way for me, for I would rather die than—no one will nullify my boasting.

16For if I preach the gospel, I have no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me. For woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

17For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

18What then is my reward? That in preaching the good news I may present the good news free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the good news.

19For though I am free from all, I made myself a servant to all, so that I might win more of them.

20And to the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those under the law, as under the law—though I myself am not under the law—so that I might win those under the law.

21To those outside the law, as one outside the law—though not being outside God’s law but under Messiah’s law—so that I might win those outside the law.

22To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some.

23But I do all things for the sake of the good news, so that I may become a fellow participant in it.

24Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, so that you may obtain it.

25Everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. They do so in order to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

26So then, I run in this way: not aimlessly; in this way I box: not beating the air.

27But I discipline my body and make it my servant, lest somehow, after preaching to others, I myself should become disqualified.