RKJNT - I Corinthians - 9

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

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

9:3  My defence to those who examine me is this:

9:4  Do we not have the right to eat and to drink?

9:5  Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

9:6  Or is it only Barnabas and I who do not have the right to refrain from working?

9:7  Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? who plants a vineyard, and does not eat of its fruit? or who feeds a flock, and does not drink of the milk of the flock?

9:8  Do I say these things merely on human authority? or does not the law say the same?

9:9  For it is written in the law of Moses, You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the grain. Is God concerned about oxen?

9:10  Or does he say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes it is written: that he who plows should plow in hope; and he who threshes should thresh in hope of a share of the crop.

9:11  If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?

9:12  If others share this rightful claim upon you, do we not have a greater claim? Nevertheless, we have not used this right, but endure all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.

9:13  Do you not know that those who perform the temple services eat the food of the temple? and those who serve at the altar share what is offered at the altar?

9:14  In the same way the Lord ordained that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.

9:15  But I have used none of these things: nor am I writing these things that it should be done for me: for it would be better for me to die, than for any man to make my boast an empty one.

9:16  For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about: for it is a necessity laid upon me; woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

9:17  If I do this willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a commission has been entrusted to me.

9:18  What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, not taking advantage of my rights in the gospel.

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

9:20  To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law;

9:21  To those who are without the law, as without the law, (though I am not without the law of God, but am under the law of Christ,) that I might win those who are without the law.

9:22  To the weak I became weak, that I might win 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 might be a partaker in its blessings.

9:24  Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

9:25  And every man who competes is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown; but we an imperishable.

9:26  Therefore, I do not run aimlessly; and I do not fight as one who beats the air:

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