1
Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
2
If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless 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 have no right to eat and drink?
5
Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
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Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?
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Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
8
Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also?
9
For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain." Is it oxen God is concerned about?
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Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.
11
If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?
12
If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.
13
Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar?
14
Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
15
But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void.
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For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!