The ‘rights’ of an apostle

1Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? ¹⁰⁸Are you not my work in the Lord?

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

3My defense to those who are judging me is this:

4Do we have no right to eat and drink?

5Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, just as the rest of the apostles and the Lord's brothers ¹⁰⁹and Cephas?

6Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to forego working?

7Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink ¹¹⁰of its milk?

8I am not saying these things as a mere man, am I? Does not the Law also say the same?

9For it stands written in the Law of Moses: “You shall not muzzle an ox that is threshing.” ¹¹¹Is it really about the oxen that God is concerned, ¹¹²

10or does He surely say it for our sakes? Yes, it was written for us, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.

To live from the Gospel

11Since we planted spiritual things in you, is it a big deal if we reap material things from you?

12If others have a share in this right from you, do not we even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but we put up with everything so as not to cause any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ.

13Do you not know that those who minister the sacred things eat from the temple, and those who serve at the altar have a share in the altar?

14So also the Lord has instructed those who proclaim the Gospel to live from the Gospel. ¹¹³

To forego a right

15Now I have not used any of these rights, nor have I written these things that it should be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void

16—I cannot boast because I preach the Gospel, because I am compelled to do so; indeed, woe is me if I do not preach it!

17(If I do this of my own volition, I have a reward; but if otherwise, I have been entrusted with a commission.)

18So what is my reward? That when I evangelize I may present the Gospel of Christ ¹¹⁴without charge, so as not to use my rights in the Gospel. ¹¹⁵

All things to all men

19Though being free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, in order that I might win the more:

20To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those under law as under law, that I might win those under law;

21to those without law as without law (not being without law toward God but under law toward Christ), that I might win those without law;

22to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

23Now I do this for the sake of the Gospel, so as to become its partner. ¹¹⁶

Even an apostle can be rejected

24Do you not know that in a stadium race all the runners run, but one gets the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.

25All athletic competitors exercise general self-control—they do it in order to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

26So that is how I ‘run’, with a definite goal; that is how I fight, with well-aimed blows.

27Yes, I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself should be rejected. ¹¹⁷