1 Corinthians 9:1-12 ▼

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

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

3 My defense to those who examine me is this:

4 Do we not have authority to eat and drink?

5 Do we not have authority to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have authority to refrain from working?

7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not consume the fruit of it? Or who shepherds a flock and does not consume the milk of the flock?

8 Am I speaking these things according to human judgment? Or does not the Law also say these things?

9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE IT IS THRESHING.” Is God merely concerned about oxen?

10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

12 If others share this authority over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this authority, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.