1 Corinthians 9
Do Not Muzzle the Ox — and I Have Used None of This
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The Rights of an Apostle
9:1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
9:2If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
9:3This is my defense to those who examine me.
9:4Do we not have authority to eat and drink?
9:5Do we not have authority to take along a wife who is a sister, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
9:6Or do only Barnabas and I lack authority to refrain from working?
9:7Who ever serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who shepherds a flock and does not partake of the flock’s milk?
9:8Am I saying these things merely in a human way, or does not the law also say them?
9:9For in the law of Moses it is written, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it threshes.” Is it oxen that concern God,
9:10or does He surely say it for our sake? For it was written for our sake, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher in hope of sharing.
9:11If we sowed spiritual things among you, is it a great matter if we reap your material things?
9:12If others share in this authority over you, do we not all the more? But we did not use this authority; instead, we bear everything so that we may put no hindrance in the way of the good news of Christ.
9:13Do you not know that those who perform the sacred duties eat what comes from the temple, and those who attend the altar share with the altar?
9:14In the same way, the Lord directed those who proclaim the good news to live from the good news.
Paul Forgoes His Rights
9:15But I have used none of these things. Nor have I written this so that it should happen this way for me, for it would be better for me to die than—no one will empty my boast!
9:16For if I proclaim the good news, I have no boast, because necessity lies upon me. For woe to me if I do not proclaim the good news!
9:17For if I do this willingly, I have wages; but if unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
9:18What, then, are my wages? That when proclaiming the good news I may offer it without charge, so as not to make full use of my authority in the good news.
All Things to All People
9:19For though free from all, I enslaved myself to all, so that I might win more of them.
9:20To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those under law, as under law—though I myself am not under law—so that I might win those under law;
9:21to those without law, as without law—though not without God’s law but within Christ’s law—so that I might win those without law.
9:22To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some.
9:23I do all things for the sake of the good news, so that I may become a fellow participant in it.
Do You Not Know That All the Runners Run?
9:24Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
9:25Everyone who competes exercises self-control in all things. They do so to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.
9:26So I run in this way, not aimlessly; I box in this way, not as one beating the air.
9:27Instead, I pummel my body and bring it into slavery, lest after proclaiming to others I myself should become disqualified.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.