1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you{+} my work in the Lord?

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

3 My defense to those who examine me is this.

4 Do we have no right to eat and to drink?

5 Do we have no right to lead about a wife who is a sister, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?

6 Or only I and Barnabas, do we not have a right to forbear working?

7 What soldier ever serves at his own charges? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock, and does not eat of the milk of the flock?

8 Do I speak these things after the manner of men or doesn't the law also say the same?

9 For it is written in the law of Moses, You will not muzzle the ox when he treads out the corn. Is it for the oxen that God cares,

10 or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written: because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, [to thresh] in hope of partaking.

11 If we sowed to you{+} spiritual things, is it a great matter if we will reap your{+} carnal things?

12 If others partake of [this] right over you{+}, do not we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right; but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the good news of Christ.

13 Don't you{+} know that those who work about sacred things eat [of] the things of the temple, [and] those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?

14 Even so the Lord directed that those who proclaim the good news should live of the good news.

15 But I have used none of these things: and I do not write these things that it may be so done in my case; for [it was] good for me rather to die, than that any man should make my glorifying void.

16 For if I preach the good news, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid on me; for woe is to me, if I do not preach the good news.

17 For if I participate in 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 then is my reward? That, when I preach the good news, I may make the good news without charge, so as not to use to the full my right in the good news.

19 For though I was free from all [men,] I became a slave to all, that I might gain the more.

20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, not being myself under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;

21 to those who are without the law, as without the law, not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those who are without the law.

22 To the weak I became 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 all things for the sake of the good news, that I may be a copartner of it.

24 Don't you{+} know that those running in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Even so run; that you{+} may attain.

25 And 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 I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so I fight, not as beating the air:

27 but I buffet my body, and bring it into slavery: lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disapproved.