9:4 Do we not have the right to financial support?
9:5 Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord's brothers and Cephas?
9:6 Or do only Barnabas and I lack the right not to work?
9:7 Who ever serves in the army at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not consume its milk?
9:8 Am I saying these things only on the basis of common sense, or does the law not say this as well?
9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, "Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain." God is not concerned here about oxen, is he?
9:10 Or is he not surely speaking for our benefit? It was written for us, because the one plowing and threshing ought to work in hope of enjoying the harvest.
9:11 If we sowed spiritual blessings among you, is it too much to reap material things from you?
9:12 If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving? But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
9:13 Don't you know that those who serve in the temple eat food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar receive a part of the offerings?
9:14 In the same way the Lord commanded those who proclaim the gospel to receive their living by the gospel.
9:15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing these things so that something will be done for me. In fact, it would be better for me to die than--no one will deprive me of my reason for boasting!
9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason for boasting, because I am compelled to do this. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
9:17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward. But if I do it unwillingly, I am entrusted with a responsibility.
9:18 What then is my reward? That when I preach the gospel I may offer the gospel free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights in the gospel.
9:19 For since I am free from all I can make myself a slave to all, in order to gain even more people.
9:20 To the Jews I became like a Jew to gain the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) to gain those under the law.
9:21 To those free from the law I became like one free from the law (though I am not free from God's law but under the law of Christ) to gain those free from the law.
9:22 To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.
9:23 I do all these things because of the gospel, so that I can be a participant in it.
9:24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win.
9:25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.
9:26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air.
9:27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.
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