1 Corinthians 9

1 Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be denied that I have seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you yourselves my work in the Lord?

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

2 If to other men I am not an Apostle, yet at any rate I am one to you; for your very existence as a Christian Church is the seal of my Apostleship.

If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

3 That is how I vindicate myself to those who criticize me.

My defense to those who examine me is this:

4 Have we not a right to claim food and drink?

Have we no right to eat and to drink?

5 Have we not a right to take with us on our journeys a Christian sister as our wife, as the rest of the Apostles do--and the Lord's brothers and Peter?

Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

6 Or again, is it only Barnabas and myself who are not at liberty to give up working with our hands?

Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?

7 What soldier ever serves at his own cost? Who plants a vineyard and yet does not eat any of the grapes? Or who tends a herd of cattle and yet does not taste their milk?

What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?

8 Am I making use of merely worldly illustrations? Does not the Law speak in the same tone?

Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?

9 For in the Law of Moses it is written, "Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain."

For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,

10 Is God simply thinking about the oxen? Or is it really in our interest that He speaks? Of course, it was written in our interest, because it is His will that when a plough-man ploughs, and a thresher threshes, it should be in the hope of sharing that which comes as the result.

or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.

11 If it is we who sowed the spiritual grain in you, is it a great thing that we should reap a temporal harvest from you?

If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?

12 If other teachers possess that right over you, do not we possess it much more? Yet we have not availed ourselves of the right, but we patiently endure all things rather than hinder in the least degree the progress of the Good News of the Christ.

If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we didn’t use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.

13 Do you not know that those who perform the sacred rites have their food from the sacred place, and that those who serve at the altar all alike share with the altar?

Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?

14 In the same way the Lord also directed those who proclaim the Good News to maintain themselves by the Good News.

Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.

15 But I, for my part, have not used, and do not use, my full rights in any of these things. Nor do I now write with that object so far as I myself am concerned, for I would rather die than have anybody make this boast of mine an empty one.

But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

16 If I go on preaching the Good News, that is nothing for me to boast of; for the necessity is imposed upon me; and alas for me, if I fail to preach it!

For if I preach the Good News, I have nothing to boast about, for necessity is laid on me; but woe is to me if I don’t preach the Good News.

17 And if I preach willingly, I receive my wages; but if against my will, a stewardship has nevertheless been entrusted to me.

For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward. But if not of my own will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

18 What are my wages then? The very fact that the Good News which I preach will cost my hearers nothing, so that I cannot be charged with abuse of my privileges as a Christian preacher.

What then is my reward? That when I preach the Good News, I may present the Good News of Christ without charge, so as not to abuse my authority in the Good News.

19 Though free from all human control, I have made myself the slave of all in the hope of winning as many converts as possible.

For though I was free from all, I brought myself under bondage to all, that I might gain the more.

20 To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not--in order to win those who are under the Law;

To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;

21 to men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law--in order to win those who are without Law.

to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law.

22 To the weak I have become weak, so as to gain the weak. To all men I have become all things, in the hope that in every one of these ways I may save some.

To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

23 And I do everything for the sake of the Good News, that I may share with my hearers in its benefits.

Now I do this for the sake of the Good News, that I may be a joint partaker of it.

24 Do you not know that in the foot-race the runners all run, but that only one gets the prize? You must run like him, in order to win with certainty.

Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win.

25 But every competitor in an athletic contest practices abstemiousness in all directions. They indeed do this for the sake of securing a perishable wreath, but we for the sake of securing one that will not perish.

Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

26 That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air,

27 but I hit hard and straight at my own body and lead it off into slavery, lest possibly, after I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected.

but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.