Murdock - I Corinthians - 9

9:1  Am I not a free man? Or, am I not a legate? Or, have I not seen Jesus Messiah our Lord? Or, have ye not been my work in my Lord?

9:2  And if I have not been a legate to others, yet I have been so to you; and ye are the seal of my legateship.

9:3  And my apology to my judgers, is this:

9:4  Have we not authority, to eat and to drink?

9:5  Or have we not authority to carry about with us a sister as a wife; just as the other legates, and the brothers of our Lord, and as Cephas?

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

9:7  Who, that serveth in war, doth so at his own expense? Or who, that planteth a vineyard, eateth not of its fruits? Or who, that tendeth sheep, eateth not of the milk of his flocks?

9:8  Is it as a man, I say these things? Behold, the law also saith them.

9:9  For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that thresheth. Hath God regard for oxen?

9:10  But manifest it is, for whose sake he said it. And indeed, for our sakes it was written: because the plougher ought to plough in hope, and the thresher in hope of fruit.

9:11  If we have sowed among you the things of the Spirit, is it a great matter, if we reap from you the things of the body?

9:12  And if others have this prerogative over you, doth it not belong still more to us? Yet we have not used this prerogative; but we have endured every thing, that we might in nothing impede the announcement of the Messiah.

9:13  Know ye not, that they who serve in a temple, are fed from the temple? And they who serve at the altar, participate with the altar?

9:14  Thus also hath our Lord commanded, that they who proclaim his gospel, should live by his gospel.

9:15  But I have used none of these things: and I write not, that it may be so done to me; for it would be better for me to actually die, than that any one should make void my glorying.

9:16  For while I preach, I have no ground of glorying; because necessity is laid upon me, and woe to me, if I preach not.

9:17  For if I do this voluntarily, there is a reward for me: but if involuntarily, a stewardship is intrusted to me.

9:18  What then is my reward? It is, that when I preach, I make the announcement of the Messiah without cost, and use not the prerogative given me in the gospel.

9:19  Being free from them all, I have made myself servant to every man; that I might gain many:

9:20  and with the Jews, I was as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; and with those under the law, I was as under the law, that I might gain them who are under the law;

9:21  and to those who have not the law, I was as without the law, (although I am not without law to God, but under the law of the Messiah,) that I might gain them that are without the law.

9:22  I was with the weak, as weak, that I might gain the weak: I was all things to all men, that I might vivify every one.

9:23  And this I do, that I may participate in the announcement.

9:24  Know ye not that they who run in the stadium, run all of them; yet it is one who gaineth the victory. Run ye, so as to attain.

9:25  For every one who engageth in the contest, restraineth his desires in every thing. And they run, to obtain a crown that perisheth; but we, one that perisheth not.

9:26  I therefore so run, not as for something unknown; and I so struggle, not as struggling against air;

9:27  but I subdue my body, and reduce it to servitude; lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a reprobate.