Chapter 9

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

And if to others I am not an apostle, yet to you I am. For you are the seal set upon my apostleship in the Lord.

My defense against those who question me is this:

Have we not a right to eat and to drink?

Have we not a right to take about with us a woman, a sister, as do the other apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have not the right to do this?

What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who feeds the flock, and does not eat of the milk of the flock?

Do I speak these things on human authority? Or does not the Law also say these things?

For it is written in the Law of Moses, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain." Is it for the oxen that God has care?

Or does he say this simply for our sakes? These things were written for us. For he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of partaking of the fruits.

If we have sown for you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap from you carnal things?

If others share in this right over you, why not we rather? But we have not used this right, but we bear all things, lest we offer hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that they who minister in the temple eat what comes from the temple, and that they who serve the altar, have their share with the altar?

So also the Lord directed that those who preach the gospel should have their living from the gospel. Reason for Not Using Rights

But I for my part have used none of these rights. Neither do I write these things that so it should be done in my case. For it were better for me to die than that anyone should make void my boast.

For even if I preach the gospel, I have therein no ground for boasting, since I am under constraint. For woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

If I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if unwillingly, it is a stewardship that has been entrusted to me.

What then is my reward? That preaching the gospel, I deliver the gospel without charge, so as not to abuse my right in the gospel. Paul is All to All

For, free though I was as to all, unto all I have made myself a slave that I might gain the more converts.

And I have become to the Jews a Jew that I might gain the Jews;

to those under the Law, as one under the law (though not myself under the Law), that I might gain those under the Law; to those without the Law, as one without the Law (though I am not without the law of God, but am under the law of Christ), that I might gain those without the Law.

To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may be made partaker thereof. He makes Sure His Reward

Do you not know that those who run in a race, all indeed run, but one receives the prize? So run as to obtain it.

And everyone in a contest abstains from all things---and they indeed to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable.

I, therefore, so run as not without a purpose; I so fight as not beating the air;

but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others I myself should be rejected.