1 Corinthians 9
Open in the reader1Am I not free? Am I not an emissary? Have I not seen He-Who-Is-Saves our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord?
2Even if I am not an emissary to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3This is my defense to those who scrutinize me:
4Have we no right to food and to drink?
5Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other emissaries and the Lord’s brothers and Stone?
6Or are Son-of-Encouragement and I the only apostles who must work for a living?
7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
8Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Teaching say the same thing?
9For it is written in the Teaching of Drawn-Out: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
10Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest.
11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you?
12If others have this right to your support, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not exercise this right. Instead, we put up with anything rather than hinder the good news of The-Anointed-One.
13Do you not know that those who work in the temple eat of its food, and those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings?
14In the same way, the Lord has prescribed that those who preach the good news should receive their living from the good news.
15But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that something be done for me. Indeed, I would rather die than let anyone nullify my boast.
16Yet when I preach the good news, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the good news!
17If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility.
18What then is my reward? That in preaching the good news I may offer it free of charge, and so not use up my rights in preaching it.
19Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
20To the Praised-Ones I became like a Praised-One, to win the Praised-Ones. To those under the teaching I became like one under the teaching (though I myself am not under the teaching), to win those under the teaching.
21To those without the law I became like one without the law (though I am not outside the law of God but am under the law of The-Anointed-One), to win those without the law.
22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.
23I do all this for the sake of the good news, so that I may share in its blessings.
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.
26Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air.
27No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.