1 Corinthians Chapter 9

Paul’s Defense of His Apostleship

            ¹ Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord? ² If I’m not an apostle to other people, I am to you. You’re the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.                                                                                                        

³ Here’s my defense to the ones who are criticizing me. ⁴ Don’t I have a right to eat? ⁵ Don’t I have a right to have a wife that’s a sister in the faith like Cephas, the rest of the apostles, and the Lord’s brothers? ⁶ Are Barnabas and I the only ones that don’t have a right not to work? ⁷ What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and doesn’t eat its fruit? Who tends sheep and doesn’t drink their milk? ⁸ I’m not just talking about human custom, am I? Doesn’t the Law of Moses say that too? ⁹ “Don’t put a muzzle on an ox while it’s threshing” [Deut 25:4]. God’s not concerned here about oxen, is he? ¹⁰ Isn’t he speaking for our benefit? He wrote it for our benefit so the one who’s threshing should work in hopes of sharing in the crops. ¹¹ If we sowed spiritual things to you, is it too much to reap material things from you? ¹² If other people share that right, don’t we even more?                                                                                                      

1 Cor 9:1-12a

But we haven’t used that right. We endure things to keep from hindering the good news of Christ in any way. ¹³ Don’t you know that the ones who perform sacred services eat from the Temple, and that the ones who wait on the altar have a share from the altar? ¹⁴ In the same way the Lord has directed that the ones who deliver the good news should have a living from it. ¹⁵ But I haven’t taken advantage of that provision, and I’m not writing this to change what we’ve been doing. I’d rather die than let anyone make my pride hollow. ¹⁶ If I deliver the good news, I don’t have anything to take pride in. I have to do that. Woe to me if I don’t! ¹⁷ If I do it because I want to, I’m entrusted with a stewardship. ¹⁸ Where’s my reward then? That I deliver the good news for free and not make use of my rights in it.

1 Cor 9:12b-18

            ¹⁹ Although I’m free from everybody, I’ve made myself a servant to everybody so I can win more of them. ²⁰ To Jews I’ve become like a Jew to win Jews. To people under law I’ve become like somebody under law—though I’m not really—to win people under law. ²¹ To people not under law I’ve become like somebody not under law—though I am under God’s law, Christ’s ‘law’—to win people not under law. ²² To the weak I’ve become weak to win the weak. By all means I’ve become all things to all people to save some. ²³ I do everything for the sake of the good news so I can partake of it.                                                             

²⁴ As you know, everybody in a race runs, but only one wins the garland. Run so you’ll be the one that wins it. ²⁵ Everybody that competes in the games exercises self-discipline in everything. They do it for a crown that deteriorates; we do it for one that doesn’t. ²⁶ I don’t just run around; I don’t just shadow box. I discipline my body and keep it under control so, after I preach to other people, I don’t disqualify myself.        

1 Cor 9:19-26