16 For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.

17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

18 What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

19 For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

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

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

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

23 Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.

24 Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.

25 Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

26 I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air,

27 but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:16-27, World English Bible. Public domain.
1 Corinthians 8
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