RWebster - I Corinthians - 9

9:1  Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? are ye not my work in the Lord?

9:2  If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you: for ye are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

9:3  My answer to them that examine me is this,

9:4  Have we no right to eat and to drink?

9:5  Have we no right to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?

9:6  Or I only and Barnabas, have we no right to forbear working?

9:7  Who goeth to war at any time at his own expense? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of its fruit? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

9:8  Do I say these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?

9:9  For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the grain. Doth God take care for oxen?

9:10  Or saith he this altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

9:11  If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?

9:12  If others are partakers of this right over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this right; but endure all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

9:13  Do ye not know that they who minister about holy things live from the things of the temple? and they who wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

9:14  Even so hath the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.

9:15  But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done to me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.

9:16  For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of: for necessity is laid upon me; and, woe is to me, if I preach not the gospel!

9:17  For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed to me.

9:18  What is my reward then? Verily that, when I preach the gospel, I may make the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my right in the gospel.

9:19  For though I am free from all men, yet I have made myself servant to all, that I might gain the more.

9:20  And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

9:21  To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

9:22  To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak: I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

9:23  And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you .

9:24  Know ye not that they who run in a race all run, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I fight, not as one that beateth the air:

9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.