Montgomery - I Corinthians - 9

9:1  Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

9:2  Even if I am not an apostle to others, to you at least I am; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

9:3  This is my reply to my critics.

9:4  Have I no right to claim food and drink?

9:5  Have I no right to take a believing wife with me on my journey, as the rest of the apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter do?

9:6  Are we the only ones, Barnabas and I, who have no right to give up manual labor?

9:7  What soldier ever serves at his own expense? What farmer ever plants a vineyard and his flock and does not taste the milk?

9:8  Am I saying this on human authority only, or does not the Law also say the same?

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

9:10  Is it the oxen that God is thinking about, or is it really said for our sakes? It was written for us; because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of getting a share of the crop.

9:11  If I have sown for you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great thing if I reap from you temporal goods?

9:12  If others share this authority over you, do not I far more? Yet I have not availed myself of it, but am patiently enduring; so that I may not in any way hinder the progress of Christ’s gospel.

9:13  You know, do you not, that those who minister in the temple, and those who serve at the altar, get their portion of the sacrifices?

9:14  Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

9:15  But for my part, I have never availed myself of any of these rights. I do not say this to bring it about in my own case. I would rather die than let any one make void this boast of mine.

9:16  Proclaiming the gospel gives me no ground of boasting; for necessity is laid upon me; woe is me if I preach not the gospel.

9:17  For if I do this of my own accord, I have my pay; but if unwilling, I have at least discharged my stewardship.

9:18  What then is my wage? This, that I can make the gospel free where I carry it; and that I can refrain from using my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

9:19  Though free from all men, I make myself the slave of all, that I may win the more.

9:20  To the Jews I am become like a Jew, that I may win Jews; to those under the Law, like one under the Law, though I am not under the Law, myself;

9:21  to those outside the Law, as one outside the Law, to win those outside the Law (though I am not outside the law of God, but inside the law of Christ).

9:22  I am become weak to the weak, to win the weak. I am become all these things to all men that, by any and by all means, I may save some.

9:23  And I am doing it all for the gospel’s sake, that I may become a copartner in it.

9:24  Do you not know that in a foot-race, though all run, only one receives the prize? So run that you may win.

9:25  Every man who contends in the games continually trains himself by all manner of self-restraint. Now they do it to get a fading garland, but we, one that is unfading.

9:26  For my part, then, I run with no wavering to the goal. I box not as one beating the air,

9:27  but I bruise my body and keep it in subjection, lest having called others to the contest, I should myself be disqualified.