1 Corinthians 9

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? [a] 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. [b] 3 My defense to those who examine me is this. [c]

4 Do we not have authority to eat and to drink? 5 Do we not have authority to take along a sister as a wife, as also the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? [d] † 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who do not have authority to stop working? 7 Who ever serves as a soldier at his own pay? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who shepherds a flock and does not eat from the milk of the flock? [e]

8 Am I saying these things in human terms, or does the law not say these things too? 9 For in the law of Moses it is written: “You are not to muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain.” Is God concerned about oxen, [f] 10 or does he say it entirely for our sake? For it was written for our sake, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of having a share. [g]

11 If we sowed the spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things? [h] 12 If others share in the authority over you, do not we all the more? But we did not use this authority; instead we bear everything, so that we may not put any hindrance in the way of the good news of Christ. 13 Do you not know that those who work at the holy things eat the things of the temple, and those who wait at the altar have their share with the altar? [i] 14 So also the Lord directed that those who announce the good news should live from the good news.

15 But I have used none of these things. And I did not write these things so that it might be done so for me; for it is better for me to die than — no one will empty my boast. [j] 16 For if I bring good news, that is no boast for me, since necessity is laid on me; for woe to me if I do not bring good news. 17 For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a household management. [k] 18 What then is my reward? That in bringing good news I may set the good news down free of charge, so as not to use to the full my authority in the good news. [l]

19 For though I am free from all, I enslaved myself to all, so that I might gain the more. [m] 20 And I became to the Jews as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those under law as under law — not being myself under law — so that I might gain those under law; 21 to those without law as without law — not being without God’s law but within Christ’s law — so that I might gain those without law. [n] 22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. To all I have become all things, so that by all means I might save some. 23 And I do all things because of the good news, so that I may become a sharer in it.

24 Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take hold of it. [o] 25 And everyone who competes has self-control in all things — they, then, to receive a crown that perishes, but we one that does not. [p] 26 So then I run in this way, not uncertainly; I box in this way, not beating air; 27 but I strike my body under the eye and lead it as a slave, so that after proclaiming to others I myself do not become unfit. [q]