1Corinthians:9

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* Am I not free ? Am I not an apostle ? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord ? Are you not my work in the Lord ? * Even if I am not an apostle to others , to you at least I am ; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord . * This is my reply to my critics . * Have I no right to claim food and drink ? * Have I no right to take a believing wife with me on my journey , as the rest of the apostles and the Lords brothers and Peter do ? * Are we the only ones , Barnabas and I , who have no right to give up manual labor ? * What soldier ever serves at his own expense ? What farmer ever plants a vineyard and his flock and does not taste the milk ? * Am I saying this on human authority only , or does not the Law also say the same ? * Yea , in the Law of Moses it is written , Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while he is treading out the grain . * Is it the oxen that God is thinking about , or is it really said for our sakes ? It was written for us ; because the plowman ought to plow in hope , and the thresher in hope of getting a share of the crop . * If I have sown for you the seeds of spiritual good , is it a great thing if I reap from you temporal goods ? * If others share this authority over you , do not I far more ? Yet I have not availed myself of it , but am patiently enduring ; so that I may not in any way hinder the progress of Christs gospel . * You know , do you not , that those who minister in the temple , and those who serve at the altar , get their portion of the sacrifices ? * Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel . * But for my part , I have never availed myself of any of these rights . I do not say this to bring it about in my own case . I would rather die than let any one make void this boast of mine . * Proclaiming the gospel gives me no ground of boasting ; for necessity is laid upon me ; woe is me if I preach not the gospel . * For if I do this of my own accord , I have my pay ; but if unwilling , I have at least discharged my stewardship . * What then is my wage ? This , that I can make the gospel free where I carry it ; and that I can refrain from using my rights as a preacher of the gospel . * Though free from all men , I make myself the slave of all , that I may win the more . * To the Jews I am become like a Jew , that I may win Jews ; to those under the Law , like one under the Law , though I am not under the Law , myself ; * to those outside the Law , as one outside the Law , to win those outside the Law (though I am not outside the law of God , but inside the law of Christ ). * I am become weak to the weak , to win the weak . I am become all these things to all men that , by any and by all means , I may save some . * And I am doing it all for the gospels sake , that I may become a copartner in it . * Do you not know that in a foot-race , though all run , only one receives the prize ? So run that you may win . * Every man who contends in the games continually trains himself by all manner of self-restraint . Now they do it to get a fading garland , but we , one that is unfading . * For my part , then , I run with no wavering to the goal . I box not as one beating the air , * but I bruise my body and keep it in subjection , lest having called others to the contest , I should myself be disqualified .

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