Paul's Rights, Mission Strategy, and Self‑Discipline
1 Corinthians 9:1-27
1Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?2If I am not an apostle to others, nevertheless I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.3My defense to those who examine me is this.4Do we not have authority to eat and to drink?5Do we not have authority to take around a sister as a wife, as the remaining apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas also do?6Or do only I and Barnabas not have authority to refrain from working?7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense at any time? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Who shepherds a flock and does not eat from the milk of the flock?8Do I speak these things according to a human, or does the law not also say these things?9For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it is threshing." Is God concerned about oxen?10Or does he surely speak for our sake? For it was written for our sake that the one plowing ought to plow in hope and the one threshing in hope of sharing.11If we sowed spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap fleshly things from you?12If others share this authority over you, do we not have it all the more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this authority, but we endure all things so that we may not place any hindrance before the gospel of Christ.13Do you not know that those who perform the sacred duties eat from the sacred things, and those who attend upon the altar share in the altar?14In the same way the Lord directed that those who proclaim the gospel should live from the gospel.15But I have made no use of any of these things, nor have I written these things so that it may be thus with me. For it is good for me rather to die than for anyone to empty my pride.16For if I preach the gospel, it is not a pride to me, for necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.17For if I do this voluntarily, I have a wage, but if unwillingly, I am entrusted with a stewardship.18What then is my wage? That in preaching the gospel I may place the gospel free, so as not to use up my authority in the gospel.19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might gain more.20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to gain Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law—though not being myself under the law—in order to gain those under the law.21To the lawless I became as one lawless—though not being lawless of God but under law of Christ—in order to gain the lawless.22To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all, that I might by all means save some.23I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a sharer of it.24Do you not know that those who run in a stadium all run, but one receives the prize? So run that you may grasp it.25Every one who struggles exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an incorruptible.26Therefore I run in this way, not uncertainly; I box in this way, not beating air.27But I wear out my body and enslave it, lest after preaching to others I myself should become disqualified.